History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 117

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 117

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His business at Cordaville was very profitable, and during the ten years preceding the civil war the bulk of his large wealth was accumulated.

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

As a business man, Mr. Sanford possessed those qualities that compel success. Coupled with a sagacity that discovered, as by intuition, the right thing to do, and the right method of doing it, was an energy and determination that obstacles only intensi- fied. In practical common sense, self-reliance, and will-power he was always conspicuous.

When he built his mill at Southborough he changed the location of the dam, against the protests of many advisers, but the result, in the increase of the head and fall of water, fully justified his action.

After the destruction of this mill by fire, two or three years later, he pushed the work of rebuilding with such energy that in one hundred and twenty-one working days the second mill was weaving cloth.

On the election of Mr. Lincoln as President, the defiant attitude of the South convinced Mr. Sanford that war was inevitable, and in spite of the incred- ulity of his contemporaries, he protected himself by turning the paper of his Southern customers, of which he held a large amount, into cotton. He thus escaped heavy losses, and was enabled to continue running his mill long after similar factories had suspended.

Subsequently his mill lay idle for two years, during which period, with characteristic generosity, he sup- ported the families of his operatives. He then changed his machinery, and commenced the manufac- ture of blankets for the United States army.

At the close of the war Mr. Sanford sold out his mill property, and, having an independent fortune, decided to gratify a taste that he always had for blooded horses. It was his ambition to produce an American horse that would compete, in endurance and speed, with foreign blooded racers. He accord- ingly purchased a tract of land near Paterson, N. J., and established there the Preakness stud, which has become famous for its breeding record.

To secure a soil and climate better adapted to his purposes, he disposed of his property in Paterson and purchased a valuable tract of land in Lexington, Ky., where he established the North Elkhorn stud, now Elmendorf. Mr. Sanford won many important races on the American turf, and bred some horses that have made a creditable record.

In 1881 he sold out his stock-farm, owing to in- creasing infirmity, and limited his business cares to the management of his large property.

Mr. Sanford was twice married; in 1836 to Miss Anna T. Davenport, daughter of Benjamin Daven- port, of Mendon, Mass., by whom he had one child,- a daughter. In 1838 mother and child both died within a few days of each other, the latter being less than a year old, a bereavement whose shadow lingered

long over Mr. Sanford's heart. In 1846 he married Miss Cordelia Riddle, of Boston, who still (1884) sur- vives him.

The welfare of his native village was always a matter of interest to him, and he has given many substantial evidences of his loyalty. As a young man, he was active in the formation of the parish associated with the Third Evangelical Congregational Church, and in the erection of its house of worship. This church and parish, over which his uncle, the Rev. David Sanford (2d), was for thirty-five years pastor, received frequent tokens of his continued in- terest. Its organ was his gift. He was the largest contributor to the expense of remodeling its house of worship in 1874. Six years later he paid the entire cost of inclosing its grounds with a granite curb, sur- mounted by a substantial wrought-iron fence.

By his generous aid the capacious, building that bears the family name (Sanford Hall), was erected in 1872.

Water-pipes, connecting with pumps at the mills, were laid at his expense through the most exposed portion of the village street, as a protection from fire, and for the irrigation of the church grounds. He also paid for inclosing the lawn fronting the Catholic Church with a substantial granite curbing.

Two years previous to his death he responded to a memorial from leading citizens, who were desirous of increasing the business of the town, by subscribing forty thousand dollars for the incorporation of a stock company for the manufacture of cassimeres, a project which he had the pleasure of seeing realized in a sub- stantial and thoroughly equipped brick mill, in suc- cessful operation. Thus he has set up his memorial, not only in the adornment of his native village, but in its increased business activity and well-being.

It was not by reason of his eminent business ca- pacity and energy, his skill and success in conducting the various enterprises he originated, or his large wealth that Mr. Sanford impressed his personality with most emphasis and permanence upon his kindred and friends, but rather by the nobility of his nature, the quick response of his sympathies, the hearty liber- ality of his ministrations, the steadfast loyalty of his friendships. These are the characteristics most con- spicuous to the thought of those who knew him best. To his family he was the ideal of chivalric kindness, always the safe and interested adviser, the able and generous helper.

His liberality was not confined within the limits of his friendships, but reached and blessed the needs of the comparative stranger. Those for whom he has smoothed the rough ways of life are a multitude, and

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embrace beneficiaries of numerous and diverse needs. Among them are the aged servants of God, whose years of waiting were blessed with many comforts through his thoughtfulness; the homeless unfortu- nate, for whom he provided a home ; the widow and the fatherless, to whom he was as a defense; the earnest student, anxious and troubled by the question how his school expenses are to be met, for whom he solved the problem by a signature,-his helpful aid all the more grateful for the modesty and secrecy with which it was tendered.

Even on his dying bed this " law of kindness that was in his heart" laid on him still its sweet constraint, so that to strangers, who were fellow-sufferers on beds of pain, he sent delicacies that he had enjoyed, in token of his sympathy and desire to help.

The poet's declaration seems to have furnished his life its motto and inspiration,-

""Tis worth a wise man's best of life, 'Tis worth a thousand years of strife, If thou canst lessen but by one The countless ills beneath the sun."

During the last years of his life he suffered from physical infirmities, which increased until they con- quered even his resolute will, and after weeks of much pain and weakness he quietly passed away, in his summer home at Newport, R. I., Aug. 3, 1883. His body was brought to his boyhood home, and after a simple service in the village church, was laid to rest in the family burial lot, beneath the shadow of the stately monument which he had erected in honor of his ancestors, whose dust shares the same resting-place.

MILTON M. FISHER.

Cornelius, Jr., born February, 1660; thence to Ben- jamin, born March 6, 1701 ; thence to Joseph, born Oct. 6, 1741, and to Willis, born July 20, 1783.

His grandfather, Joseph, married Susa Fisher, daughter of Hon. Jabez Fisher, who traced his lineage to Thomas Fisher, who immigrated from Winston, in England, a town near Syleham, with his wife and three children, and settled first in Cambridge in 1634, but removed to Dedham on the arrival of Anthony and others, in 1637, and died in 1638, having con- tracted to build the first meeting-house in Dedham. This line comes next to Samuel, born in England, who was one of the original colony at Wrentham, and deacon of the first church, and a member of the General Court; thence to his son Ebenezer, born Dec. 20, 1670 ; thence to Hon. Jabez, born Nov. 19, 1717, who settled on territory now Franklin ; thence to Susa, who married Joseph, thus uniting the line of Thomas to that of Anthony,-coming to Willis, father of Milton. On the side of his mother, Caroline Fair- banks, his descent is traced from Jonathan Fairbanks, of Somerby, West Riding, Yorkshire, England, who with his wife and six children came to America and settled in Dedham previous to 1664 ; thence the line is through John, first, second, and third, to Asa first, and second, to Caroline, who married Willis Fisher, and inherited and lived upon a part of the large landed estate acquired by the third John, and now comprising several farms in South Franklin. The ancestors of Mr. Fisher both in this country and in England have for centuries held a good position in the great middle class of society.

The Fisher coat of arms used in this country by Joshua Fisher, Sr., of Medfield, and Capt. Ebenezer Fisher, of Dedham, is the same as described in the history of Norfolk County in England, with notices of Richard and Edward Fisher, "Gentlemen ;" Rich-

Milton M. Fisher, son of Willis and Caroline (Fairbanks) Fisher, was born in Franklin, Mass., Jan. 30, 1811. He is descended on his father's side ! ard Fisher, chaplain, 1442; John Fyshere, 1449, from two old English families probably having a com- | burgess of Thetford ; Rev. William Fisher, "a. Pub- mon ancestor. His grandfather, Joseph Fisher, of lic Benefactor;" and of Mrs. Maiy Fisher, " who died a common shield bearing upon its face a fish (in Eng- lish, a dolphin ; in French, dauphin " embossed") with the crest of an eagle, and without any known motto. A " crown" rested on the face of the shield over and above the dolphin, and an eagle on top of the shield as the " crest." These arms are known to be identi- Franklin, traced his lineage to Anthony Fisher, of | and went to Heaven in a hurricane." The arms are Syleham, Suffolk County, near the borders of Norfolk, England. The line descends from him to his son Anthony, born 1591, who, with his wife and five children, came to America in the Great Puritan Im- migration, and settled in Dedham in 1637; and, re- moving just over the line, was known as Anthony Fisher, Sr., of Dorchester. His second son, Cor- | cal with those of the Dauphine of France, heir ap- nelius, born in England, is next in line of de- scent,. who, with Samuel Fisher and eight others, projected a colony in Wollomonopouge, now Wren-

parent to the throne. These arms originally were those of the Count of Dauphiny, a French province, who bestowed his title and estates upon the heir ap- tham, previous to 1661, and removed from Dedham | parent. They probably came to England previously hither in 1662; thence comes the line to his son

through one Osborne la Pêcheur, in English Os-

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

borne Fisher, one of the Norman French generals of William the Conqueror in 1066, who, after the con- quest, received from William, for distinguished ser- vices, lands in Bedfordshire, where is now a hamlet called "Fisher," visited some years since by Col. Horace N. Fisher, of Brookline.

It is evident that the Fisher arms are of French origin. The name being derived from a common occupation and found in several languages, may have been a family name in England before the Norman conquest.

Among the many bearing the name in Norfolk County, descendants of the original seventeen and honored by their fellow-citizens, none attained a greater distinction or more justly than the Hon. Jabez Fisher, of Franklin, who, between 1766 and 1799, was in public life, was member of the General Court seven years, senator five, councilor eleven, and one of a committee to exercise executive power in place of the Tory Governor Gage; member of the Provincial Congress during its whole existence, and elected to the Committee of Safety with Gen. Joseph Warren and others for colonial defense in 1775. He was also a delegate to convention to adopt the Con- stitution of the United States. (See Emmons' Ser- mons, vol. ii., and Judge Theron Metcalf's article in the Boston Monthly Magazine, June, 1826.)

The subject of this notice was educated at a classi- cal school in Medway, taught by Rev. Abijah Baker, D.D., and at Day's Academy, Wrentham, Isaac Per- kins preceptor. He entered Amherst College in 1832, in class with Governor Bullock and the Hon. and Rev. Edmund Down, but health failing, he left the next year, devoting some time to travel in the States and Canada. He commenced teaching school at the age of sixteen years, and, teaching a classical school in Randolph in 1832, he prepared in part twenty youths for college, some of whom have been and still are prominent in public life. He began business as a trader upon a small borrowed capital in Franklin in 1835, removed to Westboro' next year, and married Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Hon. Luther Metcalf, of Medway, Aug. 22, 1836. In 1838 he was ap- pointed postmaster in that town, after much opposi- tion, because he was an " Abolitionist." Being in- dorsed by the local Democratic Committee and others as "honest and capable," and not a fanatic, Amos Kendall, the postmaster-general, for once disappointed the pro-slavery party.

and readjust the revenue tax with Governor Boutwell upon straw goods.

Retiring from this business in 1863, he established the Medway Insurance Agency, representing a large insurance capital in some thirty companies, his son, Frederick L., being associated with him since 1878.

In 1840 he was elected a deacon of the village church in Medway, giving him a title by which he - has been more familiarly known to the public ever since. Being an original pupil in the Franklin Sab- bath-school, in 1819, he has been either pupil, teacher, or superintendent in some Sunday-school to the present time. Upon his motion in the Massa- chusetts Senate in 1859, the first State aid of three thousand dollars was given to the Washingtonian Home in Boston, of which institution he has been a director for many years, and is officially connected with several State and national benevolent organiza- tions.

He has held various municipal offices and public trusts by judicial and executive appointments, such as justice of the peace, quorum and for all the counties notary public, commissioner in railroad matters, and for the division of towns of Danvers and Peabody.

In 1848 was delegate from Norfolk County with Hon. Charles Francis Adams to the Free-Soil Na- tional Convention, and in 1850 candidate with him and Judge Wilkinson for senator of the county.

After a protracted and expensive illness of four years he was elected senator (Republican) for Nor- folk, West District, in 1859 and 1860, with two ses- sions in each year. In both terms he resisted suc- cessfully by vote and voice the annexation of Roxbury to Boston, and the measure was delayed eight years, much to the benefit of the treasury of Norfolk County. In 1863, perhaps as some recognition for services rendered, he was elected county commis- sioner, and served till 1872, and for three years as chairman of the board. Two of his returns upon important highways were sharply contested in the Supreme Court, and although a layman they were sustained as legal in every point, and notably in the case from Brookline, in which the returns provided a reservation to Norfolk County of ten thousand dollars, if Brookline were annexed to the county of Suffolk before the highway improvement was com- pleted. A " wise provision," said Judge Gray. He was contemporary with the earliest modern efforts in the temperance and anti-slavery cause, and met with much opposition. While in college, in 1833, he was the first to break silence in the chapel upon the tabooed question of slavery. Reproved by the pro-

In 1840, removing to Medway, he established there the manufacture of straw goods, and continued the business in partnership with others till 1863. He was deputed by the trade to go to Washington , fessor, he was sustained by the faculty, and the dis-

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cussion went on until freedom of speech and the views of his essay were fully sustained.

Though failing to graduate from ill health, the trustees in due time conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. He was a delegate to the first anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery So- ciety in 1833; was chairman of committee which perfected the organization of the old Liberty party in the county, visiting all the towns till the ballot-box in all spoke for the party. He addressed many meetings, and wrote many articles for the press upon temper- ance, slavery, and other topics, and has continued so to do till the present time.

In 1845 he prepared a petition, quite numerously signed, to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in the matter of slavery in the churches under the patronage of the board among the Choctaw Indians. Upon this petition Rev. Dr. Wood made a characteristic report, unsatisfactory to anti-slavery Christians, which led, soon after, to the formation of the American Missionary Association, now doing a great work among the freedmen. About this time he assumed and paid a liberal share of the debt of the Massachusetts Abolition Society, and in the late war paid more than enough to procure a sub- stitute. As to local enterprises, in 1846, he settled a difficulty, and so obtained land for a church park, and inclosed it ; introduced the question of a high school, consummated in 1851 ; was first chief engineer of fire department in 1854; one of a committee to appear before the Legislature for railroad, secured after a great struggle and delay, and opened in 1862; ob- tained charter for the Dean Library in 1860, and is now president of the association. He laid out the | Oakland Cemetery, of which he is sole proprietor.

In 1871 he projected the Medway Savings Bank, and has always been its president, and in the same year co-operated in the erection of Sanford Hall building. In 1881 he initiated, at his own cost, measures which secured the successful co-operation and liberal aid of Mr. M. H. Sanford and others in building the Sanford Mills. In the same year he suggested and obtained an appropriation from the town for the publication of a town history, to which he has contributed much material, and is chairman of the committee of publication.

Safford, J. White Belcher, Sheriff Thomas, Charles Endicott, Dr. Mortimer Blake, and others. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. Spaulding, E. O. Jameson, R. K. Harlow, and others, all complimentary to the personal character and services of the guest of the occasion.

Mr. Safford says, " My acquaintance with him dates back to more than half these 'threescore years and ten,' and during a protracted term of official ser- vice I have witnessed his unswerving devotion to the conscientious discharge of his duty as a citizen, his earnest and vigorous thought, his firm yet cautious mind, and as one whose intelligence, fidelity, activities, and examples assuredly merit this public apprecia- tion." Mr. Belcher, one of his old pupils, says, " Some of his pupils now living can recall his faith- ful teachings and wise counsels which helped to qualify them to fill honorable positions in life. I have long known him as one of the faithful guardians in many departments of the interests of Norfolk County." Rev. Mr. Harlow said, " He has made his mark upon more useful enterprises in this com- munity than any other man among us," and Rev. Dr. Spaulding said, " To know him well he must be known in his home-life, as it has been his privilege to know him."

The last lines of the poem for the occasion by Deacon Anson Daniels, entitled " The Garden Beyond the Iron Gate," voiced the common feeling :

" May he who yesterday stepped through the gate Find the joys that abound in this Garden of fate, And be cheered by the music that floats from the Shore, Beyond the dark waters, where life is evermore."

Mr. Fisher has had nine children, four of whom are living. His eldest son, Dr. Theodore W. Fisher, born May 29, 1837, was educated at Andover, East Hampton, and Harvard Medical College ; was surgeon of the Forty-fourth Regiment Massachusetts Volun- teers ; has officially served the city of Boston for nearly twenty years as physician, and is now superintendent of the Lunatic Hospital. He first married Miss Maria C. Brown, of Medway, who died early, and next married Miss Ella G. Richardson, of Boston. They have two sons, Willis and Edward.

His eldest daughter, Mary Eleanor, born Dec. 5, 1844, educated at Wheaton Seminary and Gannet's Institute, is a teacher of French and German. His next son, Frederick Luther, born Jan. 12, 1853, is a graduate of the Institute of Technology, Boston ; began of Boston ; has a daughter, Hattie Lyons, and now manages an insurance agency in Boston and Medway.

His seventieth anniversary was observed by his fellow-citizens Jan. 31, 1881, in Sanford Hall, and conducted by a committee consisting of William H. Cary, Clark Partridge, A. S. Harding, O. A. Mason, | business as a trader ; married Miss Caroline P. Lyons, and Rev. R. K. Harlow. The tables were beautifully furnished, and letters received from personal friends, including Governor Claflin, Hon. F. W. Bird, N. F. | His youngest daughter, Helen Frances, born May

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

12, 1854, is a graduate of Framingham Normal

ties of extreme old age prevented him. His last School, became a teacher, married Walter V. years were quietly passed in the society of those who Hawkes, late of Amherst, now of Saugus. They have two children, Milton and Louisa. T. W. F. were fitted, by age and kindred tastes, to be his com- panions, his needs most considerately and untiringly ministered to by his devoted and beloved daughter.

JAMES HOVEY SARGENT.

James Hovey Sargent, the son of Nathaniel and Abial H. Sargent, was born in York, Me., in June, 1782. His early life was spent in his native village, where he availed himself of such opportunities for education as the schools of the town afforded.

In his nineteenth year he entered Phillips' Acad- emy, Exeter, N. H., and at the conclusion of his academic course commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Gilman, a practicing physician in that town.

On the 19th of June, 1806, he was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson, surgeon's mate in the United States army, to take rank from the 6th day of the previous March. He was enrolled on the medical staff of Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, in April, 1806, where he remained for the succeeding ten years. Dr. Sargent was married, in 1812, to Miss Fanny Ruggles, of Roxbury, Mass., who died Sept. 13, 1854. They had one child, a daughter,-Frances J. R.,-who married Mr. Anson Bullard, of Medway, and who survives both parents (1884). Dr. Sar- gent was subsequently stationed at Fort Pickering, Salem, Mass. ; Fort Constitution, Portsmouth, N. H. ; Fort Preble, Portland, Me. ; Fort Trumbull, New London, Conn .; Fort Niagara, Niagara, N. Y. (at which place he resigned his commission in 1846, having completed a term of forty years' continuous service).

He subsequently resided with his daughter at Watertown, Mass., accompanying her when she re- moved to Medway, Mass., in which place he died in August, 1869, probably the last survivor of those who held commissions in the army when he entered. He was buried in Mount Auburn, the resting-place of the dust of his devoted wife.

Dr. Sargent was a gentleman of the old school, of fine presence, and courtly manners. He was very fond of reading, but confined himself to the best authors. In his old age his mind remained uncom- monly active, and his memory continued clear and retentive.

Ilis neighbors and acquaintances in Medway re- member his venerable and dignified aspect as he appeared upon their streets and in the village church, of which he was a constant attendant till the infirmi- . his work.

In recognition of his public career, and out of re- | spect to his memory, a post of the Grand Army, formed in Medway in 1882, took his name as its designation,-viz., James H. Sargent Post, G. A. R.

CHAPTER XLV.

WEYMOUTH.1

BY GILBERT NASH.

Geography-Geology-General History-Weston's Colony- Gorges' Settlement-Hull's Company-Ecclesiastical Trou- bles-Pequod War-Emigration-Town Government.

Geography .- Weymouth is the most ancient town in the county, and, next to Plymouth, in the com- monwealth, and its original boundaries have been preserved without material change until the present time, therefore its lines are the same for any date in its history of two hundred and sixty years. The town borders upon the shore of Boston Harbor, with its centre about thirteen miles southeasterly from Boston and about double that distance northwesterly from Plymouth.

It is above nine miles in extreme length from the Abington line on the south to the shore of the bay on the north, with an average of about seven miles. It lies between Braintree and Holbrook on the west and Hingham on the east, with a width nearly uniform of about two and a half miles. It has a water front on Fore and Back Rivers of eight or nine miles, and its whole area contains between sixteen and seventeen square miles. Of this area a considerable portion is covered by ponds. Great Pond, in the southerly part, is about a mile and one-third in length

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 117

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