History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 153

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

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The second son of Nathaniel (3) and Sarah (Waite) Stone, was Ebenezer Stone (4). He was born at Framingham, Mass., April 16, 1688 ; married May 10, 1721, Prudence Pratt, daughter of Joseph Pratt, of Framingham, and died at Framingham in 1739.

Silas Stone (5), the fourth son of Ebenezer (4) and Prudence (Pratt) Stone, was born at Framingham, April 29, 1728. He married, Jan. 25, 1750, Eliza- beth Russell, daughter of Deacon Jonathan Russell, of Sherborn, Mass. About 1763 he removed to Dublin, N. H., being one of the first settlers of that town, and he died there in 1777.

Silas Stone (6), the fourth son of Silas (5) and Elizabeth (Russell) Stone, was born at Natick, Mass., April 5, 1755. He accompanied his father to Dublin, N. H., but after his father's death he returned to Massachusetts and settled in Sherborn, where, Jan. 9, 1781, he married Jeanette Twitchell, daughter of Deacon Jonathan Twitchell, of Sherborn. He died at Sherborn, July 12, 1820.

Dr. Ebenezer Stone (7), the subject of this sketch, was the sixth son of Silas and Jeanette (Twitchell) Stone. Hle inherited from his father an unusual love for books, and he early decided to complete his educa- tion by a collegiate course and to follow a professional

career. Having pursued his preparatory studies under Rev. Joseph Wheaton, of Holliston, and Charles Train, of Framingham, he entered Brown University, and was graduated A. B. in 1820, and two years later "took the second degree of A.M. After graduating from college he began the study of medicine with Dr. John Kitridge, of Framingham. He completed his medical studies at the Harvard Medical School, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1824. Soon after he settled at Walpole, Mass., where the remainder of his life was passed and where he pursued the practice of his profession nearly up to the time of his death. He married at Walpole, Nov. 23, 1831, Elizabeth Holbrook Hawes, daughter of John Holbrook and Achsah (Barber) Hawes. She was born at Roxbury, Mass., May 10, 1809, and died at Walpole, Aug. 18, 1860. Of this marriage were born six children, four sons and two daughters, all of whom, except one daughter, survived their father. Dr. Stone died Aug. 13, 1869, in the seventy-second year of his age. During the later years of his life he was assisted in his practice by his son, Dr. S. E. Stone, who had also followed the profession of medicine and who succeeded to his father's practice. The son still fills at Walpole the place so long held by his father.

The life of a country physician offers few events to add interest to a sketch of the nature of this one. The record of Dr. Stone's life is simply one of ardu- ous duties well and faithfully performed. Outside his professional labors, his chief interest was in the cause of education, and he gave much time and atten- tion to the schools of the town, where his sound learn- ing and scholarly tastes made his advice and assist- ance of great value. His character is well described in the following extract from a notice of him pub- lished at the time of his death :

" He was remarkable for calm, deliberate considera- tion of questions of importance, and the value of his judgment upon contingencies of serious result. In consequence of certain peculiarities of habit and man- ner he did not escape without wounds, but he never failed to win respect for fidelity to his own convic- tions. Contemplating the inevitable changes of nature and aware of his own diseased physical con- dition, he looked forward to the approaching close of life with utmost serenity,-as a journey onward to another home, and a reunion with the kindred and friends who were gone before. He continued the faithful service of his life ' without haste and without rest,' until, after a few days of physical suffering, and in the confidence of Christian faith and hope, he laid down his work on earth and entered on the work and the joys of immortality."

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729

WALPOLE.

FRANCIS WILLIAM BIRD.

Oct. 22, 1809. He was son of George and Martha (Newell) Bird, and is the last survivor of eight children. His father was engaged in paper-making as early as 1807, at Mill Village, Dedham, and fol- lowed that calling till 1835. His death occurred in 1854. When Francis was nine years of age his father removed to East Walpole. Francis in his early years attended school about six months of the year, and spent the rest of the time at work in his father's mill. He was then sent to Day's Academy, at Wrentham, and in 1827 entered Brown University, graduating in 1831. By reason of ill health for about one year he was compelled to desist from all mental labor. Then, with health partially restored, he decided to enter business. On April 1, 1833, he commenced business in a mill hired of and formerly run by his brother, Josiah N. Bird, at East Wal- pole. This mill he bought in 1834. In 1838 he bought the mill of the Neponset Paper Company, next above him on the same stream, and soon after formed a copartnership with his father and brother- in-law under the firm-name of George Bird & Sons. In 1842, George Bird & Sons failed, and Mr. Bird passed through bankruptcy. After F. W. Bird had been cleared of his legal liabilities he again went to work at the same place and in the same business, and in a few years was able to pay all the old debts in full. He is now at the head of the firm of F. W. Bird & Son, his partner being his son, Charles Sum- ner Bird.

Mr. Bird has been long and prominently connected with Massachusetts politics. He was first elected as member of the Legislature of 1847. He has since been a member of that body, in 1848, 1867, 1869, 1877, and 1878. He was a member of the Execu- tive Council in 1852, 1863-65 ; a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1853, a State senator in 1871, and the Democratic candidate for the Governor- ship in 1872.

Mr. Bird married, in 1834, Rebecca Hill Cooke, | daughter of Benoni Cooke, of Providence. Of this union one daughter was born. Mrs. Bird died in 1835, and the child in 1836. In 1843 he married Abby Frances Newell, daughter of Joseph R. Newell, of Boston. Six children have been born to them, all of whom survive except the oldest son, who died in 1874.

One who has known Mr. Bird well in different re- lations for more than thirty years adds the following remarks upon his character and life :

tics of Massachusetts from 1846 to the present time

Francis William Bird was born at Dedham, Mass., | (1884). In 1846-48 he was active in the anti- slavery section of the Whig party, sometimes called " Conscience Whigs," then led by Charles F. Adams, Charles Sumner, Stephen C. Phillips, Henry Wilson, John G. Palfrey, and Charles Allen, and, though much younger than most of these gentlemen, was called into their conferences and enjoyed their confi- dence. He joined the Free-Soil movement in 1848. From that time until the abolition of slavery in the United States and the reconstruction of the South on the basis of equal rights, he was one of the most efficient organizers of the political movement against slavery known as Free-Soil and later Republican, and exercised a marked influence on its policy and nomi- nations. He uniformly attended its conventions, par- ticularly the State Conventions ; and his open rooms during the previous evening, where he met delegates in a friendly way and conferred as to pending ques- tions and candidacies, were for a long period a centre of great interest. Altogether no man in his day has done so much to bring together in a social way those who were united by the idem sentire de republica. As Governor Andrew said of him, he 'deserved gratitude for what he had done to promote good-fel- lowship.' Though a doctrinaire in his theories, Mr. Bird has in his political course kept practical re- sults in view, and he efficiently promoted, in 1850, the union between the Free-Soilers and Democrats which made Mr. Sumner senator and Mr. Boutwell Governor. He has, however, always opposed ambigu- ous and timid courses, even in seasons when popular currents were running strongly against direct and courageous action. He stood firmly in 1853-56 against the Know-Nothing, or Native American party, when his anti-slavery associates in large numbers | joined in or dallied with it; and in periods of près- sure, when many were wavering and disposed to make concessions, he always supported a radical and uncom- promising policy against slavery. In all the conflicts of Massachusetts politics for twenty-five years, in all the efforts to place the State on the highest plane of moral and political antagonism to slavery, no man's counsels and co-operation were more valued. At critical periods involving public interests or their own political careers, two public men may be named who turned to him with a confidence which they gave to few others,-Charles Sumner and John A. Andrew. He refused in 1872 to support President Grant for a re-election, disapproving certain features of his admin- istration, and condemning particularly his unjust treatment of Mr. Sumner. He has since acted gen-

" He has been a very prominent figure in the poli- | erally with the Democrats, though refusing to sustain

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

their nominations when deeming them unworthy of support.

" Mr. Bird has taken a constant interest in the affairs of his State. He has guarded with vigilance the public treasury, and has been assiduous in pro- moting what he deemed the best plans for utilizing the public property. He has often started, organized, and led the opposition to schemes for wasting the funds of the State in ruinous investments in rail- roads, notably in the Hoosac Tunnel, and, after the first two loans, in the Boston, Hartford, and Erie.

" As a controversialist, both in politics and in mat- ters relating to public property and interests, he has hardly had a peer in the history of the State. His writings and reports in pamphlets and newspapers have been marked by a faithful study of the facts, a clear and forcible treatment of the subject, and when it seemed necessary, a trenchant discussion of individual action and conduct.

" It is very rare that any man has had so wide a circle of friends, varying, indeed, opposite in their tastes and opinions. On three different occasions they have borne testimony to his worth and services, -on his fiftieth birthday, at the Revere House, in Boston, when Mr. Andrew, in behalf of himself and other intimate friends, presented him with a memorial of affection ; on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his mar- riage, when, from the neighborhood and distant places, early and later friends went to East Walpole to give their congratulations ; and on the commemoration of his seventieth birthday, when he was met at the Revere House by about two hundred friends, from all walks in life, divided in pursuits and associations, and was congratulated at the dinner in speeches from gentle- men well known in the public life of the State.

" Without large means, Mr. Bird has observed great simplicity in his ways of life. He has suffered from ill health for a long period, but his vital force has enabled him largely to counteract physical disability. He will be remembered for his originality, freshness, and sincerity, his tender sympathies in bereavement, his loyalty in friendship, and his generous help to the unfortunate. Those whose knowledge of men has been various, find his strong personality vividly stamped on their minds, not as one of a familiar type, but separate and distinct by itself, adding a new experience of human character."

CHAPTER LXII.1

MILTON.

Pioneer History-The First Settlements-Stoughton, Glover, and Hutchinson-Grant of the Territory to Dorchester-Re- lease of Indian Title-Cutshamoquin-Location of First Set- tlements -- King Philip's War-Prominent Early Settlers- Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens -- Robert Vose, Robert Tucker, Benjamin Wadsworth, Joseph Belcher, Oxen- bridge Thatcher, John Swift, Peter Thatcher, Dr. Miller, Samuel Miller, Governor Belcher, William Foye, Col. Gooch, Governor Hutchinson, James Smith, Oxenbridge Thatcher, Jr., Samuel Swift, Nathaniel Tucker, Seth Adams, William Foye, Jr., Joseph Gooch, Benjamin Pratt, Col. Joseph Vose, Job Sumner, John Miller, Benj. Wadsworth, W. S. Hutchin- son, Josiah Badcock, Samuel Henshaw, Edward H. Robbins, Rufus Badcock, Thomas Thatcher, Jesse Tucker, J. S. Boies, Nathaniel J. Robbins, John M. Forbes, Solomon Vose, Roger Vose, Charles P. Sumner, etc.

FOR six years after the arrival in Massachusetts Bay of Governor Winthrop, with the charter, in 1630, and the great accompanying emigration connected with this movement, all the territory comprised within the present borders of Milton remained a part of the undivided lands of the colony, and during this period three gentlemen, who were doubtless members or stockholders of the company before they left England, -Israel Stoughton, John Glover, and William Hutch- inson,-selected a part of the land dividends to which they were entitled within our limits. They were probably attracted by certain natural advantages which belonged to the locality,-the water-falls in the river, the convenience for ship-building offered by the tide- waters, an abundant supply of ship-timber, and, above all, the fertility of much of the land. Stoughton and Glover were prominent men in the Dorchester plantation, and the pioneers of civilization upon this soil.

Mr. Stoughton selected one hundred and sixty acres of land connected with the lower falls, including nearly the whole of Milton Hill, and the front on the river to the bend, where the ship-yard of Mr. Briggs was located. Nearly all this property con- tinued in him and his heirs for more than twenty years, when it was sold to John Gill, in 1656. He was an active, public-spirited man, of the true Crom- wellian type, engaged in every movement for the benefit of the colony, resisting the conspiracies of the Indians, founding the college, and during the twelve years of his residence in Dorchester, the whole time occupying an important place as deputy or councilor

1 The following chapter was contributed by Mr. James M. Robbins, being an address delivered by him June 11, 1862. The original address is here presented in a condensed form, to adapt it to our work .-- EDITOR.

731

MILTON.

in the government. or commanding the forces in the Indian wars in Connecticut and Rhode Island. In 1644 he left his family and embarked for England, where he died the following year, the colonel of a Parliamentary regiment engaged in the great revolu- tion of that day.

Mr. Glover selected a lot directly south of Milton Hill, of one hundred and eighty acres, on the flat fronting on the northwest by the brook, and south- east on the centre line of the town, where he laid out a farm, and after the annexation of this territory to Dorchester, built a house near where the brook reaches the road by Mr. Davis'. This farm was oc- cupied many years by his agent or tenant, Nicholas Wood, until it was sold in 1654 by the heirs to Rob- ert Vose. Mr. Glover, besides employing himself much in commerce, was often representative for Dorchester, and many years assistant or councilor. Capt. Johnson describes him as a plain, sincere, godly man, strong for the truth, and of good abilities. His name is frequently mentioned as attending the meet- ings of the company in London before the emigration. He left several sons, and his posterity is numerous in New England now.

Mr. William Hutchinson belonged to the Lincoln- shire company, who came with Rev. Mr. Cotton and settled at Boston. Mount Wollaston, or Braintree, was early ceded to the town of Boston, with a view of supplying the inhabitants of the peninsula with such lands as they might desire. Mr. Hutchinson laid out a large tract, doubtless supposing it to be within the Braintree line, but when a survey was made in laying out the towns of Braintree and Dor- chester, a large part of Hutchinson's lot was found to fall within the line of the latter town ; in fact, in- cluded the whole east corner of the town of Milton, besides a large tract within the Braintree line. The title, however, was confirmed to him, including all the land east of Gulliver's brook to the present Quincy line, and was sold in 1656 by his son, Capt. Edward Hutchinson, to Anthony Gulliver, Stephen Kinsley, and Henry Crane.

Mr. Hutchinson's career in Massachusetts was very soon terminated through the proceedings instituted by the colony and clergy against his wife, Ann Hutch- inson, upon the charge of heresy, of which she and some of her adherents were convicted, by a synod held at Cambridge, and banished from the colony.

Edward, the son of William Hutchinson, soon re- turned to Boston, and spent a long life as a most active and useful citizen in Massachusetts, and was finally killed in the service of the colony at Brook- field, in Philip's war, 1676, in command of a cavalry

corps. His posterity made a figure for four genera- tions, in almost every post, civil and military, in the colony. Governor Hutchinson, his great-grandson, was long connected with the town.

In 1636 the town of Dorchester obtained a grant of nearly the whole territory now comprising the town of Milton, which was the first of a liberal series of grants made by the colony to that important town. This movement was the signal for the commence- ment of the actual occupation and settlement of Mil- ton, and the twenty-five years which passed, during the connection with Dorchester until the independent establishment of the town, sufficed to collect about thirty families, with which the town's separate career began. It was usual, in occupying new territory at that time, to obtain a release of the Indian title from their chiefs; and accordingly, in October, 1636, the Neponset Sagamore Cutshamoquin, for twenty-eight fathoms of wampum conveys, for the use of the Dor- chester plantation, all the land south of Neponset to the Blue Hills, to Richard Collicot (town corpora- tions not then created), reserving certain lands which he had heretofore given to Callicot for himself. Mr. Collicot's name appears among the early inhabitants of Dorchester, and he is mentioned as a licensed fur- dealer, which occupation seems to have brought him early into intimate relations with the native Indians. He obtained a lot of one hundred and twenty acres at Unquety (doubtless the Pratt farm), and built there a house, perhaps the first dwelling in the town. He seems to have been a most active and useful man, -selectman and deputy for the town of Dorchester, officer of the artillery company, member of the Synod at Cambridge; at one time trading with the settlements in Maine, now aiding Governor Endicott in the Narragansett war, then assisting the apostle Eliot in collecting the Indians for religious service at the falls,-an energetic, ubiquitous man, whose permanent residence it is difficult to fix, but his con- nection with our settlement is traced during fifty years. He was trustee of our meeting-house fund in 1664. He died at Boston, 1686.

John Holman procured a grant of one hundred and ten acres adjoining Collicot (the Rowe farm), and settled there very early, and the property re- mained in his family nearly a century. The Stough- ton and Hutchinson lots occupied all the northeast front of the town, excepting the space between Gul- liver's Brook and a line crossing the road near the Swift house, which space was divided into three lots, fronting on the marshes,-the first or north lot, of one hundred and twenty acres, occupied by Wil- liam Daniels, who built his house near the Foye

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

mansion ; 1 the second, of sixty acres, laid out by Ne- hemiah Bourne, a London ship-carpenter living at Boston, who never occupied it, but returned to Eng- land with Stoughton, and became a major in his regi- ment ; the third lot, of fourteen acres, fronting on Gulliver's Creek, laid out for Bray Wilkins, a Dor- chester man, who was licensed in 1638 to keep a ferry across Neponset, to facilitate the intercourse be- tween Boston and Mount Wollaston before the roads were made.

The Massachusetts colony was at this time much favored by Cromwell, for their early sympathy and co-operation in the revolution, while all the other colonies, adhering to the Stuarts, were punished with restrictions and embarrassments. An exemption from duties, and free trade with all the world, was permit- ted to Massachusetts, and this stimulated the business of ship-building. Several persons of this calling took up their residence here, in the east part of the town, such as William Salisbury, Anthony Newton, Walter Morey, and others. It is probable they were occupied in building small vessels (of thirty or forty tons) called shallops, much used about the bay in fishing and coast- ing trade, and they undoubtedly used the head of the tide on Gulliver's Creek, where the town still owns the landing, as such craft could easily be floated out at spring tides, and that location was more convenient to get the timber than the banks of the river. The residence of these persons was mainly in that vicinity.

At this period the principal occupants of the place were located in the eastern section of the town, and the latter part of the time they were exempted from contributing to the support of the Dorchester Church, by reason of having provided themselves with religious instruction in conjunction with some persons from Braintree. No record exists of their place of worship or who taught them. It is probable that Stephen Kinsley -- who was ordained with much formality as a ruling elder at Braintree in 1653, and had moved on to the Hutchinson purchase-first officiated in that place, which was the only public service held in the town until the erection of the first meeting-house, in 1671, built on the land set apart and appropriated to that purpose by Robert Vose on a part of his farm (near Mr. Barnard's). Mr. Kinsley had been an

1 On Sept. 24, 1653, at a meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, holden at Boston, recorded,-" Having learned that the wife of William Daniels hath, for three years past, be- stowed much of her time in teaching several Indians to read, think fit to allow her £12 for the time past; and to encourage her to continue the same course, that more of the Indians may be taught by her, think fit to allow her £3 more beforehand, towards another year."

inhabitant and representative of Braintree several years before he moved here, and he was the first rep- resentative of Milton. The petition for incorporation was drawn by him, and is among the archives of the State, signed by himself, Robert Vose, and John Gill, as a committee of the inhabitants. The principal argument used was the necessity of providing legally for public worship.

" The elders continued to be consulted in every affair of importance as long as the charter continued. The share they had in temporal affairs added to the weight they had acquired from their spiritual employ- ments, and they were in high esteem." 2

There were a few scattered farms in other parts of the town. Samuel Wadsworth, a young man, son of a Plymouth pilgrim, moved here from Duxbury, and selected a large lot running from the centre of the town, to the southeast line, a mile or more from any other inhabitant. John Fenno, of Dorchester, occu- pied a lot near the burying-ground. Robert Badcock occupied a large lot between the river and the brook, next to Mr. Vose. All the west portion of the town was run out into lots, about sixteen hundred and fifty, and divided among the inhabitants of Dorchester, magistrates and ministers receiving large lots, and persons of less note small strips a mile long and hardly wide enough to build a corn-barn upon. Of these, the Brush Hill lots were first occupied, but there is no sufficient evidence of the presence of inhabitants there before the incorporation.

The main landing-place on the river was originally designed by Mr. Stoughton to have been fixed where Mr. Brigg's ship-yard was located, but was changed to its present site, near the falls, on petition of John Gill, in 1658. Four hundred acres of land in the centre of the town was laid out for the benefit of the Dorchester Church, in 1659 ; afterwards divided with the Milton Church.

The Neponset tribe of Indians were removed from their proximity to our settlement in 1656, and placed on a large tract of land at Punkapog, granted to them by the town of Dorchester, at the urgent solicitation of Mr. Eliot, who regarded the movement as essential to their welfare.

" I will now advert," says Mr. Robbins, " to another subject which seems to belong to this period, and which by some may be considered too uncertain to merit a place in our history. A certain locality within our present borders has long been known, without any data as to the origin of the name, as Scotch Woods. The explanation I am about to offer

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 153

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