History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 104

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 104

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After the death of Mr. Rantoul, Mr. White formed a connection with Hon. Asa French, subsequently the district attorney for Norfolk and Plymouth Counties, and now one of the judges of the Court of Commis- sioners of Alabama Claims. This partnership con- tinued until 1858.

Mr. White took an active interest in the schools of Quincy, serving on the school committee for several years ; and also in the Unitarian Society of that town, acting on its parochial committees, and serving many years as teacher and superintendent of its Sunday- school.

In 1851, with Gideon F. Thayer, founder of the Chauncey Hall School, he purchased and edited the Quincy Patriot. Mr. Thayer retired in less than a year, and Mr. White remained sole proprietor and editor until April, 1853. The grateful thanks of a gifted authoress for a favorable editorial on her works, and the hearty commendation of the chief justice of our highest court of an editorial on Gen. Jackson's famous saying, " the constitution as I understand it," constitute the only pleasant memorials in the mind of Mr. White of this brief digression from his profes- sional pursuits.

In 1853, Mr. White was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention from Quincy, with William S. Morton, Esq., as his associate. In this body he was author of the article in the proposed new consti- The court-house in which the trial took place had been converted into a prison for the custody of Simms, the State refusing the use of its jails for the confine- | ment of fugitive slaves. A hundred police officers guarded it as if it were a Bastile ; and Faneuil Hall tution relating to the House of Representatives. This article with all the others proposed were rejected by the people at the election which passed upon the work of the Convention, yet, in its principle, a few years afterwards, it became a part of the Constitu- was occupied for barracks by the police and soldiers, tion of the State. The opponents of the new Con- as was the old South Church by British soldiers in stitution dwelt largely upon that part which changed the tenure of the judiciary from a life tenure to a the Revolution. The judges and officers of the law, and the persons having business in the courts, were period of ten years. Mr. White voted against this obliged to enter the temple of justice on lowly-bend- ing knees beneath the chains which encompassed it.

change, his opinion being that the judges should be elected by the people, but the tenure of their office should be during good behavior.

Mr. White was elected president of the Young Men's Convention held at Worcester in 1857, which nominated Nathaniel P. Banks for Governor. Mr. Banks had been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, at Washington, the year before, which was the first civic triumph on a national arena of the anti-slavery party in this country. Mr. Banks was elected Governor by a large majority. The organization which nominated and elected him drew into its ranks the anti-slavery men of this State of all shades of political opinion, and became in subsequent years an integral part of that imperial party which

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

From Mr. White's opening address at the Conven- tion we make this extract :

" The ties of party, the recollection of defeats and triumphs, of common joys and common disappoint- ments, in the service of party, have not bound young men together as with links of iron, nor have the gen- erous sentiments of their youth and those dreams of liberty which their youthful studies cherished, died out of their hearts. This is a meeting of those who believe 'success is a duty,' of those who mean to achieve it, of those who believe what they have read is true, that our Constitution was ordained to protect and preserve the liberty of the people, and not to ex- tinguish it ; and that, as in ancient times, under Au- gustus, the spirit of absolute despotism became enthroned in the form of a Republic, so it may hap- pen with us, if the men of this generation are unfaith- ful to their consciences and their high ideals of liberty.

" Mr. Banks has been tried on a national arena, and has gained one of the great honors of a national struggle. How well he discharged his duties we all know. He taught the country this useful lesson, that an ardent love of liberty is not incompatible with a full and faithful discharge of duty in national affairs, and how easy and safe will be the transition at a day, we trust, not very remote, when the administration of the national government shall pass into the hands of statesmen, whose sentiments and convictions shall be in consonance with those of the founders of the Con- stitution, and therefore fundamentally the reverse of | those who now administer it."

In July, 1858, Mr. White was appointed judge of Probate and Insolvency for Norfolk County, which office he now holds. To become a judge of that court is, in many of its aspects, to become civiliter mortuus, to become a sort of father confessor, having to hear of broken fortunes and broken lives, of sorrow and distress, with a large authority to help the unfortu- nate. This, however, is not the chief of his func- tions. In the legislation of the last half-century there has been an ever-increasing tendency to extend the power of the Probate Court, so that now it has a larger jurisdiction than any like court in this country or in Great Britain, the object kept in view seeming to be to give that court exclusive original jurisdiction of all subjects of which it has cognizance, with right of appeal to the Supreme Court.

Aside from his judicial duties, the chief employ- ment of Judge White is in the management of trust estates.

In politics, Judge White has followed, with unequal steps, his early friend, Robert Rantoul, Jr. Mr. Ran-

toul was taunted in his day with being a doctrinaire, which his friends construed as being a man in advance of his contemporaries on social and political questions. He was a strict constructionist. He had no respect for that mode of interpreting the Constitution which found in the incident a wider and more prolific author- ity than was given in the original grant of power.

He did not think the Constitution was a sacred ark for the preservation of slavery, nor did he agree with those who thought it a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.

He held that trade and commerce should be free as the winds and waves, and that a protective tariff was a hindrance to such freedom. That it was a sys- tem of monopolies, like in character to feudalism or slavery, kept up for the enrichment of the few at the sacrifice of interests of the many.

Judge White married Frances Mary Edwena Noyes, only child of Edward Noyes, druggist, of Boston, junior member of the firm of Maynard & Noyes, and one of the founders of the Central Congregational Church in that city. Mrs. White was a great-great-grand- daughter of Rev. Oliver Peabody, a graduate from Harvard College in 1721, and the first settled min- ister in Natick, and successor to the Apostle Eliot, as preacher to the Indians. Mrs. White was a great- granddaughter of Dr. William Deming, of Wellesley. Her grandfather was Rev. Thomas Noyes, who was born at Acton, and was graduated from Harvard Col- lege in 1795. He was pastor, for thirty-four years, of the West Needham (now Wellesley) Congrega- tional Church. His father was with the Acton men in the Concord fight, on the 19th of April, 1775. All his grandsons living at the breaking out of the Rebellion joined the Union army,-Frank, Charles, George, and Thomas,-all brave from a religious sense of duty. Every one was wounded in battle. George was permanently disabled by the hardships of war, Charles returned to his home to die from his wounds, Francis Henry was killed at Antietam, 1862, and lies there in an unknown grave.

The mother of Mrs. White was Clarissa, the youngest of seven children of Benjamin and Sarah (Kingsbury) Slack. The ancestors of Mr. Slack came from Yorkshire, England, and settled in Bos- ton in 1660. On the 19th of April, 1775, when twelve years of age, Benjamin Slack was taken, with the other junior members of his father's family, amid the flying bullets of the British, to Needham (now Wellesley Falls), where his descendants have to this day continued to live. He was a gentleman of the old school, given to hospitality, active in town and church affairs, faithful to the many trusts committed

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to his care, a Unitarian in religion, and a Federalist in his politics.

His only grandson, Charles Benjamin Slack, son of Thomas W. Slack, served in the Union army in the civil war, was first lieutenant in the Thirteenth Mas- sachusetts Battery, Capt. Nims, was at the siege of Port Hudson, under Gen. Banks, and was wounded at Shreveport, in the Red River campaign.

The children of Judge White are George Rantoul White (Harvard College, 1886), Mary Hawthorne White, Edward Noyes White.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

NORWOOD.

BY FRANCIS TINKER.

THE town of Norwood was originally the South or Second Precinct of Dedham. The Neponset River forms its eastern boundary, and from its broad mead- ows the land gently rises towards the west and north- west, forming a warm and sunny slope, which is dec- orated with tasteful and pleasant homes ; with church spires, and turrets from the more stately mansions, rising above the leafy canopy, presents to the eye of the beholder a panorama of quiet peace and beauty ; while the mind naturally turns back and asks who first smoothed these pleasant fields, and caused the " wilderness to blossom as the rose ?" and the feeling springs up that the unrecorded history of one's town is like the unmarked graves of parents, evidences both the want of a proper respect and filial gratitude towards those who have gone before, and who may have sowed in tears where we reap in joy ; and if I can but succeed in recalling the names of those who acted so well their part, who aided, however humbly, in laying the foundation of our civil and religious institutions, or rescue from oblivion the memory of even one who gave his life for his country, I shall feel amply rewarded. Whose axe first broke the still- ness of the forests, or from whose humble cabin the smoke first rose and curled, it may be impossible to tell; and if I should attempt to enter this field of inquiry, I might trespass upon what perhaps right- fully belongs to another,1 and will pass directly to the first attempts made to secure the organization of a precinct, in order to erect a meeting-house for the public worship of God. The first petitions to the

" Great and General Court" were presented by John Everett and others, of Stoughton, and Joseph Smith and others, of Dedham, Dec. 23, 1726, and referred to a committee. The same bounds were described in these petitions as were subsequently granted. Orders of notice were served upon the towns mentioned ; but remonstrance was made, and these petitions were dis- missed. The next is a petition of Joseph Ellis and others, stating the great difficulties under which they labor in being so far from church, and that they have applied to the town for their consent to be set off as a distinct precinct, or that the meeting-house be moved nearer to the centre of the town, which they have refused to grant ; and praying that a committee might be appointed by the court to consider their circum- stances. This petition was referred to the next Gen- eral Court, and Messrs. Peabody and Brown, with such as the honorable board shall appoint, were con- stituted a committee at the charge of the petitioners, to repair to the northerly part of the town of Dedham and view the same, and report to this court on Tues- day the fifth day of December next. On this petition, entered July 4, 1727, they report,-

"That the Committee appointed by the Great and General Court, to take into consideration the circumstances of the Town of Dedham, and the petition of the southerly part of the said Town, having attended the said service, report as follows : That viewing the situation, and considering the circumstances, are of opinion that it will be inconvenient to grant the prayer of the petition at present; but for as much as it appears to the Committee that the major part of the petitioners labor under great difficulties in the winter season, in attending the Public Worship of God, by reason of their distance from the Meeting- House, the Committee propose that the Public Worship of God be performed by a Minister, to be provided by the petitioners, in some private house, as near the center as may be, for five months in the year, viz., November, December, January, Feb- ruary, and March, and that there be allowed thirty shillings per Sabbath for the said service, the charge to be borne by the whole Town, and to continue until the further order of the Court, all of which is humbly submitted by order of the Committee. In Council accepted, in the House concurred in, and consented to by the Governor."

From the records of the General Court it appears that sundry other petitions were received from John Everett, of Stoughton, Joseph Smith, John Guild, Samuel Everett, Samuel Bullard, James Fales, and Ebenezer Healy, of Dedham, and a committee ap- pointed to report at the next session of the court, on what they think proper for the court to do in this whole affair. Nov. 19, 1729, the committee made the following report through their chairman, the Hon. William Dudley :

" The Committee appointed by this Court to take under con- sideration the several petitions (before referred to), and having been at ye Town of Dedham and Stoughton, and heard what . ye several Parties had to say, as well as view the circumstances

1 Mr. Worthington, who writes the history of Dedham.

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of ye inhabitants, and their situation, Humbly report on ye whole their opinion as follows, viz. : that all that part of Stoughton lying on ye westward of Neponset River, and to the Northward of Traphole Brook, to Walpole line, be added to, and incorporated into the Town of Dedham, with all ye inhab- itants, which with the Southern part of Dedham, we humbly are of opinion, be made into a distinct Township, the boundaries of ye whole to be as follows : beginning at a place called Pur- gatory, on Neponset River, where it may most conveniently take ye house and home lot of Josiah Fisher, Jr .; from thence to a place called the Cross ways, taking in ye house and home lot of John Hause; from thence so as to take in ye house and home lot of Lusher Gay ; from thence so as to take in ye house and home lot of John Baker; from thence to the line for the Precinct, at Springfield (now Dover), so as to take in the house and home lot of Amos Fisher; thence by ye said line to Bub- bling Brook ; and from thence to Walpole line; and by ye said line to Traphole Brook; and by ye said Brook to Neponset River; and by ye same to ye first mentioned station, and that ye petitioners have leave to bring in a bill accordingly. And whereas there has been, and still remains an unhappy difference among the inhabitants about placing a Meeting-House for the Public Worship of God, it is therefore humbly proposed that the said House may be ordered in such place and time as a Com- mittee of this court shall appoint, so as to accommodate the in- habitants of Dedham, or of all the inhabitants of this proposed Town, and the Committee propose that the Western part of Ded- ham be set off by that Town for a Precinct, to be confirmed ac- cordingly, and that the inhabitants thereof be allowed to con- gregate, as now they do, till the further order of this court, Provided, they do their proportion of the charge of supporting a minister where they leave."

This report was accepted, and ordered that Edmund Quincy, Esq., and such of the House of Representa- tives shall appoint, be a committee for placing the meeting-house of the proposed town.

"In Council October 3, 1730, Read and ordered that the Prayer of this petition be so far granted, as that the South -. westerly part of the Town of Dedham, together with the westerly part of ye Town of Stoughton, according to the Bounds expressed in the Report of a Committee of this Court, in December last, be erected into a township, and that the Pe- titioners bring in a bill. Sent down for concurrence.

" J. WILLARD, Secretary.

" In the House of Representatives, October 8, 1730.

" Read and concurred with the amendment, striking out Town, and inserting Precinct. Sent up for concurrence.

" J. QUINCY, Speaker.

" In council, October 8, 1730.

" Read and Concurred.

"Oct. 8, 1730, consented to.

" J. WILLARD, Sec. " J. BELCHER."

By an additional act John Everett, " a principal inhabitant," was authorized to call the first " meeting of ye Precinct," and he served his warrant on each person qualified to vote, requiring them in his Ma- jesty's name, to assemble at the house of John Ellis, Oct. 22, 1730, to choose precinct officers. At that meeting John Everett was chosen moderator ; James Fales, Jr., clerk ; John Everett, James Fales, Jr., Ebenezer Healy, assessors, and instructed to call the ' house stands.

meetings of the precinct. Nov. 9, 1730, fifty pounds were raised and appropriated to secure a preacher for six months,-three months to be at the house of John Ellis,1 and three months at the house of Na- thaniel Guild, if it can be obtained ; if not, the entire time at the house of John Ellis. Joseph Ellis 'and John Dean were chosen a committee, and instructed to procure an "orthodox minister to preach the gospel." Ebenezer Dean was chosen treasurer, and Samuel Holmes, collector. At this second meeting it was " voted to build a Meeting-House for ye Public Worship of God in this Precinct ; to be forty feet in length and thirty-six in width, and erected at the centre of the Precinct; and Ebenezer Dean, Joseph Ellis, William Everett, Nathaniel Guild, and Ebenezer Healy were constituted a building committee, and instructed to procure a frame fit to set up, or raise," and one hundred pounds were granted for that pur- pose. Jan. 20, 1731, chose Joseph Ellis 2 and Sam- uel Bullard a committee to procure a sworn surveyor to find the centre of the precinct. Ebenezer Dean was selected to hold the box on Sabbath days, so that any one might have a chance to contribute something for the support of the gospel, and if one chose, he could write on a slip of paper the amount he would give, with his name, and pay the same some other time, and have it "allowed on his Precinct rate." The time for holding their annual meeting for the choice of officers was fixed for the secoud Monday in March, and has been continued to the present time. May 31, 1731, " the Precinct being regularly assembled at the house of John Ellis," John Everett was chosen moderator, and then "it was put to vote to see if it be ye mind of ye Precinct to have a loving and friendly conference together ; passed in the affirma- tive period June ye 7th." It was voted to leave the placing of a meeting-house for this precinct to a com- mittee of the General Court, and instructed William Bullard and John Everett " to address the General Court, and Petition for a Committee to place ye Meeting-House for this Precinct." In answer to the petition presented by the gentlemen named, a com- mittee from the General Court visited the precinct, and reported through their chairman, the Hon. Joseph Wadsworth, of the council :

"The committee that was appointed at this session of the General Court, on the 11th day of this June, to repair to the precinct set off some time the last year from Dedham and Stoughton, to view and consider the situation and circumstances

1 John Ellis is said to have lived near or on the place where Newton and David Ellis now live.

2 Joseph Ellis lived near or on the spot where James Ellis'

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thereof, and report what may be proper to be done, do report as follows, viz. : That we have viewed the precinct, considered the circumstances of the land, and heard the pleas and allega- tions of the people, and find them very unsatisfied among them- selves as to a place for the meeting-house to stand on. Then nominated four places several, or separate each from the other, on which, as to ourselves, we would report on any of them. But to make them unite if possible, desired that they would fix on that particular spot of the four, they liked best, on which they called a Precinct meeting, and on the 21st of this June, 1731, voted that it was the mind of the Precinct to fix the meeting-house on the south end of the common land lying between John Cobb's and Dr. Richards ; and we considering the circumstances of the whole, as to highways, Judge the Southermost part of said Common Land, that is, that part of it as may be convenient for the Building and accommodation for the Meeting-House itself, is the best place to set it on ; all of which is humbly submitted.

" JOSEPH WADSWORTH,1 in name of the Committee.

" In Council read and ordered, That this report be accepted, and that the Meeting-House in the New Precinct in Dedham and Stoughton be placed accordingly, and the amount of the Committee's time and expense, amounting to the sum of four pounds four shillings be allowed; and be paid by the said Pre- cinct to the Committee.

" In the House of Representatives read and concurred.

" Consented to J. BELCHER, Governor."

Representative this year from Dedham, Joseph Ellis; Representative this year from Stoughton, Moses Gill.

From the records of the meeting held June 21st, to which reference is made by the Committee of the General Court, it appears the places they selected were Onion's Knoll, Onion's Bars,2 the rye field so called, and the south end of the common land, near the house of Dr. Richards. This spot they selected as the least objectionable of the four, either of which would take the majority of the inhabitants of the precinct nearly half a mile beyond the unfinished house which was erected at a vote passed at the sec- ond meeting of the precint, ordering it to be placed at the centre of the precint, as ascertained by a sworn surveyor, and for which one hundred pounds were granted July 14th, twenty-one days later, they vote they will not grant money to build a meeting-house near the land of Dr. Richards, " and it was put to vote; if it be the mind of the Precinct to grant a sum of money to defray the charge of ye Committee lately with us from the General Court, and it passed in the negative ;" at this meeting they again refused to grant any money to build a meeting-house on the place ordered by the General Court, and confirmed the same again September 3d. During this year the

precinct was convened twelve times, and a house for the public worship of God was the burden of their thoughts. A meeting, March 10, 1732, opened with a proposition " to support preaching by contribution till the Precinct were better agreed," which was rejected, and December 5th, one hundred and twenty pounds were granted "to support preaching six months in a house erected near Joseph Ellis,3 and no longer, and then six months at the house near . Benjamin Fairbanks. This was called the centre meeting-house, and was erected upon the spot ordered at the second meeting of the precinct, in 1730. Feb. 26, 1733, William Bullard, William Everett, Ebene- zer Dean, Ebenezer Healy, and James Fales, Jr., were chosen a committee, and instructed to petition the General Court to reverse their former order for building a meeting-house on the common land near the house of John Cobb, and to establish ye place ac- cording to the vote of the precinct, and to order the three hundred pounds already granted, to be laid out on the said centre meeting-house. This called forth the following order from the General Court, on the petition of Joseph Ellis and others from the northerly part of the precinct, presented April 13, 1734:

" Ordered," on the said Petition, "That the prayer of the Petition be so far granted, as that the Inhabitants of the Pre- cinct within-mentioned, do within the space of twelve months from the date hereof, erect and finish a Meeting-House at the place stated by a committee of this Court, the 24th day of June, 1731, the Petitioners with their Estates be hereby, and are set off from said Precinct, and again laid to the first Precinct, in the Town of Dedham, whereunto they originally belonged ; in the House of Representatives Read and concurred. Con- sented to, J. Belcher, Gov." Three other Petitions were presented to the General Court by Joseph Ellis and his Friends, enumerating their grievances, and the determination of the In- habitants not to depart from the place first marked out by the surveyor as the Centre of the Precinct; and the controversy was only closed by the Precinct Petitioning the General Court for a " Committee to come and view the situation, and circum- stances of the Precinct, and more especially of the Northerly Petitioners, and to set off to the old Precinct in Dedham, as many of said northerly Petitioners as upon their view they shall judge most for ye peace and advantage of both Precincts, and the Honorable support of ye gospel in them ; and to State a place for a Meeting-House for the remaining Precinct; and Ebenezer Dean, William Everett, William Bullard, and James Fales were appointed a Committee to manage the affairs, and to answer the Petitions of the Clapboard-tree People. In an- swer to the Northerly Petitioners the Court Say That Joseph Ellis and others, with the two Fishers, and Aaron Ellis with their Estates, be laid back to the Old Precinct; the others to re- main in the South Precinct." In response to the Committee from the Precinct the Committee from the General Court Re- port, "Having naturally considered the same, as well as that

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 104

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