USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > North Brookfield > History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Preceded by an account of old Quabaug, Indian and English occupation, 1647-1676; Brookfield records, 1686-1783 > Part 41
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threatening complete prostration, he took a prominent part in a great variety of political, social and intellectual efforts.
In 1829, he helped to organize the Boston Lyceum and was its first secretary. This was the earliest institution of the kind in Massachusetts, and it required great efforts to rouse public interest and secure the active co-operation of those on whom the success depended. In the same year, he entered actively into the movement against Masonry, which cul- minated in the nomination of William Wirt for the presidency, in 1832. In the latter year he became president of the Boston Lyceum and a director of the Franklin Bank. In 1833, he delivered the Fourth of July oration before the Young Men's Society of Boston ; this address was published. In 1834, June 23rd, he married Miss Hannah Ambrose of Concord, New Hampshire, by whom he had three children, all of whom survived him. In this year he wrote a series of articles in the Daily Advertiser, calling attention to the necessity of a railroad to con- nect Boston with Albany and the West beyond. These articles were signed South Market Street, and gave rise to a public meeting which resulted in securing the stock of the Western Railroad. In 1833, he was appointed one of the directors of the Western Railroad, serving in that capacity four years, either on behalf of the stockholders or of the state.
From the beginning of the anti-slavery movement, inaugurated by Mr. Garrison, Mr. Walker had joined actively in that effort, speaking and writing freely ; he never, however, acceded to the opinions of that great agitator and his eloquent associates adverse to the union of the states. Mr. Walker insisted upon the constitutional methods, within the Union, and subject to the laws of the land.
In 1839, he became president of the Boston Temperance Society, the first total abstinence association in that city. Mr. Walker's published writings on the subject of total abstinence extend back to 1826.
In 1840, owing to increasing bodily infirmities which seemed likely to cause speedy dissolution, Mr. Walker retired permanently from business. The scale of his mercantile transactions had been very extensive, and he had done more to open the trade of Boston with the South and Southwest than any other merchant of his generation; but the large profits of his business had been, of course, greatly impaired by the almost total wreck of trade and industry in 1837 and 1839, so that Mr. Walker retired with only a moderate competence, sufficient, however, for all his needs. Not even ill health could diminish his interest in public affairs, and he took an exceedingly active part in the Harrison Campaign, strenuously advocating the establishment of the Sub-Treasury system as it at present exists. For this he was subjected to a degree of obloquy which it would be difficult to conceive ; but the results of forty years' financial experience have completely demonstrated the sagacity and
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soundness of his views. The winter of 1840 to 1841, Mr. Walker spent in Florida on account of his health. In 1842, he went to Oberlin, Ohio, on account of his great interest in the organization of a college in that town, to which he had contributed of his means, and remained there ten months, giving lectures in political economy, a subject to which his mind had been increasingly drawn by the financial experiences of 1837 and 1839. In May 1843, he finally took up his residence at North Brook- field, on his father's estate, but went almost immediately to England as a delegate to the First International Peace Congress, of which he became one of the vice-presidents. Mr. Walker's active interest in efforts to promote the cause of international peace, through the creation of a pub- lic opinion which should constrain statesmen and diplomatists to use all efforts peacefully to adjust their difficulties, and, in the failure of direct negotiation between the parties concerned, through international con- gresses having power to arbitrate and settle disputes, had begun in 1832.
In 1844, Mr. Walker resided mainly in North Brookfield but delivered a course of lectures at Oberlin College and attended peace conventions · in various parts of the country, visiting the West in company with his wife. In 1846, he built large additions to his father's house, which had been erected in 1810. In this year he delivered the annual address before the Normal Institute at Bridgewater. During 1847, his attention was largely given to the peace cause.
In 1848, his long cherished anti-slavery convictions led to his taking an active part in the formation of the Free Soil party. He was a mem- ber of the National Convention at Buffalo, which placed Van Buren in nomination for the presidency. In the fall of that year he was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and resigned his professorship at Oberlin. He took his seat, January, 1849, and became the Free Soil and Democratic candidate for Speaker of the House. In the summer of this year he attended the International Peace Con- gress in Paris, becoming one of its vice-presidents. In the fall of the same year he was elected to the State Senate of Massachusetts. Taking his seat in January, 1850, he brought forward his plan for a sealed ballot law, which was enacted the following year ; and carried a bill providing that Webster's Dictionary should be introduced into the common schools of the state.
In 1851, he was elected Secretary of State, for Massachusetts, by the united Free Soil and Democratic vote. During the year he delivered several public addresses. In 1852, he was re-elected Secretary of State, and became, ex officio, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agri- culture. In this year he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Middlebury College. In 1853, Mr. Walker was elected a member of the Convention for revising the Constitution of Massachusetts, and
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became the chairman of the committee on suffrage. He was also in this year appointed one of the examiners of political economy in Har- vard University, which office he held for seven years.
In 1854, he took a prominent part in the organization of the North Brookfield Savings Bank, of which he was the first president. He was this year appointed lecturer on political economy in Amherst College, where he delivered an extended course of lectures. In 1856, he was president of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of North Brook- field.
The year 1857 was one of great import to the life of Mr. Walker. Early in that year he began the publication, in Hunt's Merchants' Mag- azine, of a series of articles on political economy. The series had already progressed so far as to give Mr. Walker's views on money, which were very decidedly of the so-called Hard-Money order, when the financial panic of 1857 commenced. Almost by chance Mr. Walker attended, early in October, a large meeting of the merchants of Boston, intended to fortify the banks of that city in their determination to main- tain specie payments. At this meeting Mr. Walker took the ground strongly that the banks could not possibly maintain specie payments for more than two weeks, and that it was desirable that they should at once suspend, instead of causing the failure of the best merchants of the city, as they must inevitably do by refusing discounts in a vain attempt to save their own so-called honor. This speech created a great sen- sation at the time, and gave rise to a heated discussion in the public press ; but the suspension, within twelve days, of every bank in Boston, after causing the failure of great numbers of the best mercantile houses, some of them worth millions of dollars, gave so striking a confirmation to Mr. Walker's views as to bring him into prominence as an authority on finance, and to cause him to be invited to write and lecture far beyond the limits of his time and strength. This episode may properly be considered the turning point in Mr. Walker's intellectual career. From this time until the day of his death the subject of the Currency remained the most absorbing of all which had previously engrossed his mind, and his interest increased with the passage of time.
Late in 1857, Mr. Walker published a pamphlet on the nature and uses of money, to which he added a " History of the Wickaboag Bank," a work which had a large circulation. In July of 1859, Mr. Walker visited Europe in company with Dr. Warren Tyler of North Brookfield ; and in the fall of that year he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where, in conjunction with Honorable Samuel Hooper, of the Senate, he took an important part in the revision of the laws re- lating to banking and the issue of paper money. At the presidential election of 1860 Mr. Walker was chosen a member of the Electoral
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College of Massachusetts, of which he became secretary, casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln.
The outbreak, 1859-60, of the disease among neat-cattle known as Pleuro-Pneumonia, led to an enactment by the Legislature of Massa- chusetts, at a special session, of a law for its extirpation, and a com- mission was appointed by the governor for this purpose, of which Mr. Walker was made chairman. The commission performed its work so vigorously and thoroughly as to secure the complete extirpation of this pest.
Beginning in 1859, Mr. Walker continued for several years to deliver an annual course of lectures on political economy in Amherst College. In the fall of 1862, he was elected a Representative in Congress, for the unexpired term of Dr. Bailey. During the session, 1862-3, Mr. Walker made several speeches on finance, and moved the issue of Compound Interest Notes, in a bill which became a law. In 1866, Mr. Walker published his main work in economics, entitled The Science of Wealth. This work passed, in the following years, through not less than eight American editions, was translated into Italian by Professor Cognetti, of Turin, and received the highest attention and the warmest commendation from the economists of America and Europe. Subsequently, a student's edition of this work was issued and extensively used. In 1867, Mr. Walker received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from Amherst College. During that, and the years following, until his death, he continued to write extensively in the magazines, especially in Lippincott's Magazine of Philadelphia, and in the weekly and daily papers. His leisure gave him frequent opportunities for travel, and he spent not a little of each year in visits to Boston, New Haven or Washington, or in trips to Florida or California.
Always a singularly cheerful and sanguine man, in spite of great deli- cacy of health and frequent attacks of pain and sickness, the last years of his life were his happiest years. He continued his physical and in- tellectual activity unimpaired up to the very instant when, on the 29th of October, 1875, without a word or a sigh, and without the slightest premonition of approaching dissolution, he ceased to breathe. Had the end been foreseen it would have been most welcome, for he had in July lost his wife, his companion through more than forty years. His father, Walter Walker, had, in like manner closely followed his mother to the grave. Mr. Walker was in figure, very slender and erect, and was very quick and graceful in his movements, producing the effect of being much taller than he really was. His features were remarkably regular and clear cut, and his whole appearance at once engaging and commanding. His voice was of unusual richness and power ; and in public speaking he had a singular faculty of holding closely the attention of his audience,
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however large or however unfriendly. He made little use of rhetorical ornament or of the ordinary, so-called, graces of speech, but spoke with a fullness of knowledge, clearness of expression and earnestness of pur- pose, seldom surpassed. He was very fond of company ; and his delight was in the communication of his ideas and sentiments, or in learning the puposes, feelings and wishes of the young.
Wherever he travelled, he easily and quickly made acquaintances, and immediately seized the occasion either to acquire or to impart infor- mation.
Next to discussions relating to finance and currency, his keenest en- joyment was in reminiscences relating to his early life ; he delighted to talk of his old schoolmates, his old school teachers, of the early mag- nates of North Brookfield and of his own initial experiences in business. He was very fond of giving advice ; and it must be said, his advice was generally very good, for no man ever understood better the secret of success in life, either in business or in the learned professions.
In politics, Mr. Walker's history was as follows : he was brought up among Federalists ; became a Jackson Democrat, on the issues of paper money, banking and the sub-treasury ; joined the Liberty party in 1844 ; helped to found the Free Soil party in 1848 ; and the Republican party in 1856.
In religion Mr. Walker was brought up an Orthodox Congregational- ist ; early joined that church and became a deacon in the Union Church of North Brookfield, which he aided and contributed much to found. His theological views, however, were never strict, but corresponded more to the general theology of the present time than to that of fifty or sixty years ago.
In charities, and in contributions to enterprises of public interest, he was liberal and even lavish.
MAJOR NATHAN GOODALE.
[From " Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio," by S. P. Hildreth, M.D.]
MAJOR NATHAN GOODALE was the youngest (posthumous) son of Solo- mon and Anna Goodale, and was born in North Brookfield, Nov. II, 1744. The father died in the spring of 1744. Three children had died in infancy, leaving four, viz., John, aged nine, Anna, aged four, Solomon, aged two, and Nathan to be cared for by the widow. She married, in 1745, Samuel Ware of North Brookfield, and had Samuel, born 1746, Jonathan, born 1747, Timothy, born 1748, when the family moved to Rutland, where Nathan passed his early years, to the time of manhood, working on a farm, and learning the trade of a brick-mason ; thus laying the foundation for that vigorous, muscular frame, which enabled him to undergo the fatigues and exposures of a military life, at a time when the
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army afforded few facilities for the comfort of the soldier. No other set of men could have borne up under the trials of want, famine, and a lack of all the common necessaries of life, for several years in succession, as did the American soldiers, but such as had been inured like the Spartans, in childhood, to bear suffering with patience. His education was rather above that of the common schools of that day, for we find him, at an early period of the war, employed by Gen. Putnam as an assistant engineer.
At a suitable age he married Elizabeth Phelps of Rutland, on the 11th of September, 1765. About the year 1770 he moved his family to Brookfield, where he purchased a farm two miles from the centre of the town. His three oldest children were born in Rutland, as we learn from the town records.
From this time to the rupture with the mother country, in 1775, he continued to labor on his farm, and to work at his trade of brick-laying ; but as nearly all the houses of that day were made of wood, his mechani- cal work was chiefly confined to chimneys. For some time previous to the first hostilities, he had, with thousands of his countrymen, been pre- paring for the day of strife, which every thinking man foresaw must soon arrive, by practising military exercises, and collecting arms and ammu- nition. Many of these volunteer companies were aptly called, by the New-Englanders, who are never at a loss for a phrase to express ex- actly their meaning, " Minute Men." They were, indeed, minute men, and when the first notes of alarm echoed from hill to hill, all over the country, at the bloodshed at Lexington, they were ready, at a moment's warning, to pour their thousands on thousands into the vicinity of Boston, the stronghold of the British, which nothing but the lack of battering cannon and ammunition hindered them immediately from storming. Mr. Goodale here first saw the actual movements of military life, and immediately entered into the service of his country, as a lieutenant. It being uncertain how long he might remain in the army, the homestead of his early manhood was sold, and his family resided, during the war, in rented premises. With what spirit and enterprise he entered into the service, and how well his activity and talents were adapted to the trying exigencies of a partisan officer, the most difficult of all military duties, will be best shown by a letter from Gen. Rufus Putnam to Gen. Wash- ington, near the close of the war.
" Massachusetts Huts, June 9th, 1783.
Sir : I do myself the honor to enclose a letter I received a few days since from Capt. Goodale, of the Fifth Massachusetts Regiment. I confess I feel a conviction of neglect of duty in respect to this gentleman ; that I have not, till this moment, taken any measures to bring his services to
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public view, has been owing to the confidence I had, that Gen. Gates would have done it, as the most extraordinary of them were performed under his own orders, and as he gave repeated assurances that they should not be forgotten. I am sorry that Gen. Gates is now out of camp, for were he not, I should appeal to him on the subject, but as I am sure so worthy a character, and such important services, ought not to be buried in oblivion, or pass unrewarded, I beg your excellency's patience a few moments, while I give a short detail of them. Capt. Goodale was among the first who embarked in the common cause in 1775. He served that year as a lieutenant in the same regiment with me. I had long before known him to be a man of spirit, and his probity and attention to service soon gained him the character of a worthy officer. In 1776, he entered again as a lieutenant, but served with me the most of the year as an assistant engineer, and the public are much indebted to him for the dispatch and propriety with which several of the works about New York were executed. In the dark month of Novem- ber, 1776, Mr. Goodale entered the service as a captain in the regiment under my command, and was in the field early the next spring ; but, although he always discovered a thirst for enterprise, yet fortune never gave his genius fair play till August, 1777. It is well known into what a panic the country, and even the northern army, were thrown on the taking of Ticonderoga. When Gen. Gates took command in that quar- ter, our army lay at Van Shaick's Island ; and Mr. Burgoyne, with his black wings and painted legions, lay at Saratoga. The woods were so infested with savages, that for some time none of the scouts who were sent out for the purpose of obtaining prisoners or intelligence of the enemy's situation, succeeded in either. Gen. Gates being vexed at continual disappointments, desired an officer to procure him a man that would undertake, at all hazards, to perform this service. Capt. Goodale being spoken to, voluntarily undertook the business under the following orders from Gen. Gates. 'Sir : You are to choose out a sergeant and six privates, and proceed with them to the enemy's camp, unless you lose your life or are captured, and not return until you obtain a full knowledge of their situation.'
Capt. Goodale, in his report of this scout, says it was not performed without great fatigue, as the party was much harassed by the Indians, which occasioned their being in the woods three days without provisions. However, he succeeded beyond expectation ; first throwing himself between their out-guards and their camp, where he concealed his party until he examined their situation very fully, and then brought off six prisoners, which he took within their guards, and returned to Gen. Gates without any loss. This success induced Gen. Gates to continue him on that kind of service. A full detail of all the art and address which he
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discovered during the remainder of that campaign, would make my letter quite too long. It may be enough to observe that before the capture of the British army, one hundred and twenty-one prisoners fell into his hands. But as Capt. Goodale is no less brave and determined in the open field, where opposed to regular troops, than he is artful as a partisan of the woods, I beg your patience while I recite one instance of this kind. A day or two after Mr. Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, in a foggy morning, Nixon's brigade was ordered to cross the creek which separated the two armies. Capt. Goodale, with forty volunteers, went over before the advance guard. He soon fell in with a British guard of about the same number. The ground was an open plain, but the fog prevented their discovering each other till they were within a few yards, when both parties made ready nearly at the same time. Capt. Goodale, in this position reserving his fire, advanced immediately upon the enemy, who waited with a design to draw it from him ; but he had the address to intimidate them in such a manner, by threatening immediate death to any one that should fire, that not more than two or three obeyed the order of their own officer, when he gave the word. The event was, that the officer and thirty-four of the guard were made prisoners. These, sir, are the services which Capt. Goodale and his friends conceive have merited more attention than has been paid to them ; and, at least, merit a majority as much as Maj. Summers' unsuc- cessful command of a boat a few months on Lake Champlain. But if the tables are reversed, and the ill luck of a brave man should be the only recommendation to promotion, Capt. Goodale, I believe, has as great pretentions as most men, for he is the unfortunate officer who com- manded about forty white men, and being joined by about the same number of Indians, fought more than one thousand of the enemy below Valentine's hill in 1778, until near two-thirds were killed, himself and most of the rest made prisoners. But I mention this not so much to show his bravery, for he takes no merit from that action, but always lamented the necessity he was under from the orders he received, to do what he did. In writing to me on the subject, he says : 'At this time a number of brave men were sacrificed to bad orders; but, as they were not my orders, I hope the candid will not censure me.' Having stated these facts, I beg leave to request your excellency will lay them before Congress, &c. He goes on to say, Gen. Washington forwarded my letter to the secretary of war ; but as about this time Congress came to a resolution to raise the rank of all officers one grade who had not been promoted since their entrance into service, the Ist of January, 1777, Maj. Goodale received promotion with the rest, and thus never had that justice done him which he so highly merited."
Thus far Gen. Putnam testifies to the valuable services of this brave
€
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and noble-minded man. Had Gen. Gates, as in duty bound, given notice to Congress of the heroic exploits of Capt. Goodale, in collect- ing information of the movements of Burgoyne, so essential to the welfare of the American army, he would no doubt have received the promotion so justly his due. But Gates was a selfish, proud man, who cared little for the interest of others, provided his own personal wishes were accomplished.
From another hand a more detailed account is given of the action at Valentine's hill. It seems that the commander of the troops to which he was attached, had ordered him to keep possession of a certain pass, important to the Americans, at all hazards, without any discretionary power as to contingencies. His command consisted, as above stated, of about forty light-infantry and a number of Indians, who stood the attack of a large body of the enemy and a company of cavalry, until there were only seventeen men left alive out of the forty. Near the close of the combat, the officer who led the charge rushed upon him with his sword. Capt. Goodale, with a loaded musket which he had probably picked up from one of his fallen men, shot the Briton dead from his horse as he approached. In a moment, another of the enemy, seeing the fall of his leader, sprung at him in desperation, with full pur- pose to revenge his death. The musket being discharged, the only resource was to parry the descending blow, aimed at his head, in the best manner he could, with the empty piece. It fell obliquely, being turned a little from its course by the musket, and instead of splitting the skull of its intended victim, glanced on the bone, peeling up a por- tion of the scalp several inches in length. The stunning effects of the blow felled him to the earth, but directly recovering, he rose to his feet. In the meantime, the cavalry man, who had leaned forward in the saddle further than prudent to give a certain death-stroke, lost his balance when the heavy sword glanced from the skull, and fell to the earth. The bayonet of Capt. Goodale instantly pinned him to the ground; and left him dead by the side of his leader. Thus two of the enemy fell by his hand in a space of time less than a minute. See- ing all prospect of further resistance useless, he retreated with the bal- ance of his men to an open woodland, near the scene of action, and secreted himself under a pile of brush. An Indian had hidden under another heap, where they might have remained in safety until dark and then escaped ; but the savage having an opportunity to shoot one of the enemy who approached their hiding-place, he could not resist the chance of adding another scalp to his trophies, and shot him. The report of the shot revealed their hiding-place, and being discovered, were made prisoners. How long he remained in durance does not appear from the imperfect memorials left of his military life. It is probable he was
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