USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Pelham > History of Pelham, Mass. : from 1738 to 1898, including the early history of Prescott > Part 38
USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Prescott > History of Pelham, Mass. : from 1738 to 1898, including the early history of Prescott > Part 38
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
Mr. Harkness attended the public schools of the town and at 17 years of age accompanied his brother on the ox-team journey across the plains to California in 1849. He has been engaged in mining most of the time somewhere in the mining regions of the Pacific slope, and for the past twenty years has been a resident of Salt Lake City, engaged as superintendent for a Pittsburg mining company.
Henry Harkness, youngest brother of Dr. H. W. Harkness, was born at the Sylvester Jewett farm, near the western line of Pelham, in 1833. He spent his boyhood on the home farm until the death of his oldest brother Sumner, and in 1852 set out for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama to join his brothers already there. He engaged in mining most of the time until his death at Auburn, Cal. in March, 1895.
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Sumner J. Harkness, son of Sumner Harkness and a nephew of Dr. H. W. Harkness, was born at the Jewett farm in Pelham, and joined his uncles on the western shore of the continent about the year 1873. He is a resident of Scofield, Utah. Has served as Judge of Probate and is engaged in mining and stock raising.
William Pomeroy Daniels was born in Pelham, May 11, 1815. His parents, Joseph and Lucy Daniels, moved. to Pelham from Wor- cester, Mass., where they lived on a farm located at the site of the present Union station. Their Pelham residence was in a little house near the Orient house on the south side of the road leading to the Methodist church. The subject of our sketch had almost no school privileges, a few terms at the district school being the limit of his opportunity. Before he was fifteen years of age he was " put out to work." A boy of that age to-day would count it a hardship to be obliged to start for his work by four o'clock in the morning, with lunch and dinner in his hand to be eaten frozen, with snow deep and no companion to share the hours and then to chop wood in the wild- erness until dark. Such was the experience of this boy. He often told of it in later days but with no consciousness of hardship beyond the loneliness of the work. He served an apprenticeship as carpen- ter and for a considerable time was connected with the factories of Barre, Mass., as carpenter and repairer. It was the custom in those days for the native born girls to be factory help and the best girls left farm and country villages for this purpose. Here in Barre he became acquainted with Miss H. Ann Stark of Hanover, N. H., who became his wife June 4, 1837. They began their home life on a farm in Lyme, N. H., where they resided, Mr. Daniels dividing his time between the farm and his trade as carpenter, until 1853, when the family consisting of four sons and one daughter, removed to Wor- cester, Mass. Here he became a builder and contractor, and later a lumber merchant owning one of the prosperous lumber yards of the growing city. He never sought or held public office, but was known as an honorable business man, interested in the welfare of the city. Of a puritan type of thought, he loved his Bible, the Lord's Day and his Church. During the later years of his life he was a large and constant contributor to Christian institutions. His mind early turn- ed with abhorance to the iniquities of slavery and he was an aboli- tionist long before the war appeared as arbiter of righteousness. He
JUDGE ITHAMAR CONKEY.
BIRTHPLACE OF JUDGE ITHAMAR CONKEY.
425
PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN.
gave to his country in the war of the Rebellion the costly offering of two sons, both victims of the battle field. Then he gave to the freed- men of the south his hearty sympathy in their efforts for Christian education. He was a Republican in politics in those days when great moral questions were maintained by its platform. Many far away schools, churches and christian workers shared his unostenta- tious charities. He delighted to give loving helpful sympathy to those whom the less thoughtful might overlook. Of a quiet, unde- monstrative temperament, of Quaker origin, his life was one of deeds more than words. In the summer of 1873 during a season of ill health he felt a great desire to spend a little time with his cousin Thomas Buffum of Pelham. Here within one mile of his birthplace, which he had left more than forty years before as a lad, he died on the nineteenth of September, 1873, aged fifty-eight years and five months. His daughter became the wife of Hon. Frank T. Blackmer, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. One of his sons holds an influen- tial position in the same city as the general superintendent of the Washburn, Moen Manufacturing Company. The other son is an alumnus of Amherst college and a well known minister of the Con- gregational denomination, having been recently elected to the respon- sible position of corresponding secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, with residence in Boston.
Ithamar Conkey was the seventh son of John Conkey and Mar- garet Abercrombie, and was born May 7, 1788, there were besides, three daughters. His father was a leading man in the town, and his mother was a daughter of Rev. Robert Abercrombie, the first settled minister at Pelham. He studied law with Noah Dickinson Mattoon at Amherst and opened a law office in his native town in 1814. He was elected town clerk of Pelham in 1816 and for the two following years. In 1818, N. D. Mattoon having removed to the west, Mr. Conkey succeeded to the business of the office at Amherst and removed to Amherst; was chosen special commissioner for Hamp- shire county in 1828, and was elected county commissioner in 1830 ; was appointed Judge of Probate for the county by Lieut. Governor Armstrong, acting as Governor, in 1834 and held the office contin- ually until 1858 ; was a member of the Constitutional convention for the revision of the Constitution in 1853. Judge Conkey married Elizabeth Clapp Kellogg, daughter of Deacon John Kellogg of North
.
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Amherst, Jan. 26, 1820. Miss Kellogg lived in the family of Gen. Ebenezer Mattoon from the age of seven until marriage, her mother, Roxana Mattoon, was a sister of the General. Judge Conkey had four children, but all died when quite young except Ithamar F. Con- key, who studied law and became the leading lawyer of Amherst until his death Aug. 8, 1875, aged 52. Judge Conkey was a leading member of the Second Congregational church and his residence and law office were in that part of the town known as East Amherst. He delivered the address at the Centennial celebration of the incorpora- tion of the town of Pelham, Jan. 16, 1843. After his services for twenty-eight years as Judge of Probate, he retired form active inter- est in legal business and directed the work upon his farm until his death, October 30, 1862. He was the last of the family of seven sons and three daughters, children of John and Margaret Conkey of Pelham, whose names follow :
Israel born April, 1774-died May, 1814.
Daniel
" Sept., 1775- "
July, 1855.
Joshua
" Feb., 1777-
April, 1790.
John
" Dec., 1778- 66 May, 1853.
Isaac
Dec., 1780-
1822.
Sarah 66 May, 1782- 66
June, 1855.
Eleazer
Feb., 1784- 66 Feb., 1808.
Anna 66 April, 1786-
Sept., 1835.
Ithamar " May, 1788- 66
Oct., 1862.
Mehitable " Feb., 1791-
Adam Johnson was a son of Adam Johnson, one of the original settlers of the town who drew home lots Nos. 34 and 52, and built his house on No. 34, which is the farm now occupied by S. F. Arnold Esq., whose house can be seen upon the Pelham slope, looking straight east from Amherst college. It was on this farm that Adam Johnson the subject of this sketch was born about 1753, and he con- tinued to live on the home lot, No. 34, until 1800, when he disposed of his farm to Samuel Arnold for $3000. He was somewhat inca- pacitated for the heavy farm work by lameness, which was probably the cause of his retiring from the labors of the farm. Mr. Johnson removed to the Valley and afterwards lived on the John Gray farm, now occupied by Levi Moulton. It is believed that he had other money or property than that received for his farm, and having no family and but few near relatives, save perhaps a sister and one brother ; when more than 70 years old and in declining health the
427
PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN.
matter of the disposition of his property became a question for con- sideration. Amherst College had but recently been incorporated and had erected but one building, (South College) and was in sore need of a chapel. The era of rich men and liberal donors to the struggling college had not arrived, and some of the trustees and friends of the college presented the great need of a chapel to Mr. Johnson for his consideration ; and either at first, or later, the prop- osition to have the proposed new chapel known as "Johnson Chapel," in case he should decide to bequeath his property to the trustees for use in erecting the much needed building, was added, as an inducement or appeal which they hoped would be effectual in influencing Mr. Johnson to make his will as they desired to have him. The trustees were successful. Samuel F. Dickinson, Esq., of Amherst, who had made frequent calls upon Mr. Johnson to present the needs of the college, was called upon to write the will which bequeathed the accumulations of a lifetime to the trustees of Amherst College. There was but a few thousand dollars but it was probably the largest bequest the college had received up to that time.
The total inventory under the will was $6,559.12. Of this sum $4,000 was donated for the use of " The Collegiate Charity Institu- tion in Amherst." The will was executed on the 6th of February, 1823, but the final decision that the will should stand was not made by the court until 1826, owing to the strong and persistent attempt to have the will set aside, which was made by Thomas Johnson, the testator's brother, on the ground that undue influence had been brought to bear upon the testator, who, as Thomas claimed, was in a weakened and unfit condition of mind to dispose of his property. In 1827, Thomas Johnson, who was a poor man living in Greenfield, having been cut off by his brother Adam with a paltry legacy of $12, issued a pamphlet of twenty-four pages, entitled " The Last Will and Testament of Thomas Johnson of Greenfield, County of Franklin, in favour of the Trustees of Amherst College."
In this last will Thomas bequeathed the trustees a good generous piece of his mind concerning the covetous tactics he believed had been employed in getting possession of his brother Adam's property. The pamphlet abounds in Scripture quotations which he believed applicable to the Amherst trustees, a few paragraphs of which may be interesting here.
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
" And although imperfection cannot keep the law perfectly, yet if we are volunteers in coveting and taking our neighbors' property, contrary to the law of God, then the transgressor must be condemned by the law: which brings me to consider what was the cause of dispute between the heirs of Adam Johnson, late of Pelham, deceased, and the trustees of Amherst Col- lege ; to which I answer, the dispute was because Amherst trustees were making merchandise of the poor, the widow and the fatherless, all of which is in direct opposition to God's law, which brings down the judgements of God in this world, and eternal damnation, which the word of God makes manifest, as you may see. 2 Peter ii-3: And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Secondly, Luke 20, 47 : Which devour widows houses, and for a show make long prayers ; the same shall receive greater damnation. Yea Mathew and Mark give the same account respecting damnation to hypocrites and devourers of widows houses. See Matt. XXIII, 14; Mark XII, 40. With respect to cove- tousness, inspiration saith :- There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men."
The closing paragraph follows :
" Nevertheless, as Amherst trustees never rested until they got the princi- pal part of my brothers property into their possession; and as I am an old man, and therefore must be near the close of life, and my earthly property all consumed, yet would attempt to will and bequeath, as a memorandum this composition of Scripture truth, for the benefit of Amherst TRUSTEES, with all interested in the college, with which I close this essay, in the words of the Apostle Paul, namely, Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth ?- THOMAS JOHNSON."
In the West burying ground, at the head of Mr. Johnson's grave, is. a plain white marble slab with the following inscription : " Adam Johnson, Esq. Died August, 1823, aged 70 years. Erected by the trustees of Amherst College in testimony of their gratitude for the Johnson Chapel."
James N. Smith only son of James Smith and Betsey Otis Smith was born in Pelham, March 25, 1826. He came of Revolutionary stock and was a lineal descendant in the maternal line of James Otis, well known as one of the most powerful and persistent opponents of the acts of the British Parliament for taxing the American colonies.
The early life of young Smith was spent at Pelham where he laid the foundation of his education in the public schools of the town. Later he attended the celebrated Leicester Academy at Leicester, Mass., from which he was graduated and while quite a young man
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COL. JAMES N. SMITH.
429
PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN.
went West. Before going west he engaged in railroad building by contract and it was while engaged in building a railroad at Lock Haven, Pa. that he was first married, but his first experience in rail- road building was in superintending railroad work at Willimantic, Conn. He was engaged in railroad building at Oskalousa, Ia. when the war of the Rebellion broke out. He joined the 7th Iowa regi- ment as a line officer and hurried to the front, and subsequently commanded a cavalry regiment. After the war Colonel Smith became actively engaged in railroad building again in New York, Pennsylvania, the New England and Western states, under the firm name of Smith & Ripley. When Commodore Vanderbilt and the men associated with him determined upon the gigantic scheme for sinking the tracks of the New York Central and Hudson River rail- road from the Grand Central station toward Harlem the contract was awarded to Dillon, Clyde & Co., Mr. Clyde being the active manager of the work, but when work was only about half done Mr. Clyde died and Colonel .Smith assumed full management of the great and diffi- cult contract which he completed. Other large contracts on which Colonel Smith was engaged were: The extension of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western road, a large section of the Northern Pacific railway, the Enterprise, Atlantic Coast & Indian River railroad in Florida, besides many branch lines in various parts of the country. Colonel Smith assisted in the formation of the Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island railroad company and built the road as sole contractor, and served for sometime as President of the company. Among his business associates were many of the leading capitalists of the time in New York, including Hon. William H. Barnum, chairman of the Democratic National committee and Sidney Dillon, President of the Union Pacific railway, who was his brother-in-law. Colonel Smith contracted for the double tracking of the Morris & Essex railroad from Madison to Morristown, and from Dover, N. J. to Easton, Pa. He was senior partner of the firm that built the Weekawken tunnel for the West Shore road.
Few men were more conspicuous or instrumental in developing the. railway system of the country, and none more conscientious or effi- cient in the execution of the great contracts committed to him. He was a man of prodigious energy and of great executive ability, and noted for his uncompromising fidelity to his professional obligations ..
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Politically, Colonel Smith was a stalwart republican. As a warm friend and admirer of General Grant and Roscoe Conkling, he always clung to that wing of the party. He contributed liberally always for the legitimate campaign needs of the party, and took an act- ive part in the leadership among republicans of the twentieth ward and frequently represented the party at local and state conventions. He was a candidate for the republican congressional nomination in the third New York district in 1884, and again in 1886, being defeated the first time by Darwin R. James, and later by S. V. White, but he did not allow defeat to cool the ardor of his party faith and interest. During the pastorate of Rev. H. W. Beecher at Plymouth church, Colonel Smith was a prominent member of the church and a warm friend of the people.
His city residence was 265 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn. His sum- mer home was a fine farm well stocked with the best Holstein and Alderney cattle, a few miles out of Litchfield Conn., and it was to his farm that he retired when his health failed him and he had failed to receive permanent benefit from a visit to Europe and treatment at Carlsbad.
Colonel Smith died at Litchfield July 31, 1888. He was married three times.
Nathaniel Gray was the son of John Gray and Betsey Rankin Gray, and was born at Pelham July 20, 1808. He attended the pub- lic schools of the town and learned the trade of stone cutter as did many other young men of the town, and worked at it for some years before his marriage. He was married at Brattleboro Vt., Dec. 29, 1832, to Miss Emeline A. Hubbard, daughter of Giles Hubbard of Sunderland. In 1833 Mr. Gray and wife removed to the city of New York, where he continued working at his trade for six years, and then became a local missionary in the employ of the City Tract Society at a salary of $700 a year. He was a member of the West Presbyterian church of that city and was elected ruling elder in 1840. He was engaged in the missionary work for twelve years, and in 1850 removed to San Francisco, via the Isthmus of Panama, the journey taking the time from February 12 until June 12 on account of delays and sickness.
In 1852 Mr. Gray was elected coroner for the county of San Fran- cisco, and in 1863 was elected a member of the California legislature on the independent republican ticket.
NATHANIEL GRAY.
43I
PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN.
Much of his time was devoted to the interest of various charitable institutions of the city and state and he served in them as follows ; president of Old Peoples Home, president of San Francisco Benevo- lent Society, trustee of California Bible Society, director of San Fran- cisco Theological Seminary, director of California Prison Commis- sion, and trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Gray was successful in business and built a fine residence at 758 Tenth Street, Oakland, where the golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Gray was celebrated on Dec. 29, 1882, in the presence two hundred invited guests, among them was his brother William D. Gray and wife, and Mrs. Harriett Steuben. The latter was a witness of the mar- riage at Brattleboro fifty years before, and Mr. W. D. Gray was a witness of the marriage of William W. Oliver and Miss Lorania Gray, the later was a sister of Nathaniel and William, at Pelham, Oct. 4, 1826, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver also being present and celebrated the fifty- six anniversary of their marriage.
The children of John Gray, father of Nathaniel and Lorania inclu- ded also the following ; Mary Gray, Ira Gray, Sarah H. Gray, (after- wards Sarah H. Thompson,) William D. Gray, Hinckley R. Gray, and Horace Gray. All of these left Pelham early in life except Horace and Mrs. Sarah H. Thompson, and the descendants of those who went out from their native town are scattered in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, and California.
The children of Nathaniel Gray are as follows; Giles H. Gray, a prominent lawyer of San Francisco, Henry M. Gray, Edwin P. Gray, George D. Gray and Emma A. Gray, now Mrs. Cyrus S. Wright of Oakland. The birth place of Nathaniel Gray was the farm in that part of the town known as "The Valley" on which is situated the quarry from which so many building stones are quarried, and known for the last twenty years or more as the Joseph G. Ward place. John Gray the father of Nathaniel lived there and was known as "Cooper " John Gray to distinguish him from another John Gray, son of Dea. Ebenezer Gray, who lived on the farm near by now owned by Levi Moulton, who was known as " Tanner" John Gray. "Cooper" John was a farmer and made good barrels, "Tanner" John was a practical tanner and worked at the business in connection with the work of the farm. Both were useful men in the community, " Cooper" John Gray
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
and "Tanner " John Gray were from different races of Grays and were not related to each other by blood.
Nathaniel Gray's business in San Francisco was that of under- taker; beginning July 1, 1850, and continuing until his death April 24, 1889, and during that time he attended to thirty thousand five hundred and forty-nine burials. He was liberal in his gifts to educational and other benevolent institutions. He gave $5000 to the San Francisco Theological Seminary towards the endowment of a professorship, and other property now valued at $30,000; and to educate the young women of the state he gave Mills Seminary, in Alameda county, $10,000, and also a sun sufficient to establish a scholarship so that at least one young woman could obtain free tuition ; he also gave a site for the hospital for children and training school for nurses, but the many smaller gifts would aggregate a much larger sum. He was always laboring for the relief of the needy and the distressed. The board of trustees of the Old Peoples Home of San Francisco, of which Mr. Gray was president, in the resolutions at the time of his death, gave expressions to the following: "An able factor in every Charitable cause in which he took part. He pos- sessed a robust constitution, and the mind of a pioneer of the city of his residence, he possessed business qualifications which made him the peer of the business men of his day, both in worldly accomplishments and success. At the same time he posesssed a religious fervor, an eminently pious character, and a most benevolent and charitable dis- position to the poor, the aged, the sick, and the oppressed, which commanded from him respect alike in business circles and is Christ- ian brotherhood." There were Grays among the original settlers of Pelham, and there have been families of that name in town until recent years, but at present not a person of that name resides in town. In 1799 there were fourteen voters bearing that surname, as follows : Jacob Gray, Mathew Gray, Ebenezer Gray, John Gray, Jonathan Gray, Elliot Gray, Adam C. Gray, Justin Gray, Daniel Gray, John Gray, Thomas Gray, Patrick Gray, Moses Gray 2d, and Joel Gray.
Israel H. Taylor. M. D., was born in Pelham 1811. He was a son of John Taylor and Martha Thompson Taylor. The family con- sisting of five sons and two daughters, besides the subject of this sketch there were Alfred, John, Stewart and James. The daughters were Lucy, afterwards Mrs. Lucy Houston, and Martha, afterwards Mrs. Colton of Springfield.
REV. ALDIN GROUT.
BUFFUM BROOK.
433
PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN.
Israel laid the foundation of his education in the common schools of the town ; began the study of medicine with Dr. Daniel Thompson of Northampton, who was at that time associated with Dr. Barrett. He supplemented his study with Drs. Thompson and Barrett by attendance at the Pittsfield Medical School, and later by attendance upon medical lectures in New York city. He commenced the prac- tice of medicine in Pelham in 1833.
In 1842 he married Miss Lavinia C. Crossett of Prescott, and brought his wife to Pelham. Dr. Taylor continued in the practice of his profession in Pelham until 1848, when he removed to Amherst and soon increased his business very much, at the same time con- tinued to answer calls from the many friends he had left in his native town. He continued in active service for forty years after his removal to Amherst, making a total of fifty-five years of active ser- vice as a physician. He was for several years the leading physician in the town, and very highly respected among a large number of the citizens of the town in whose families he had ministered in the many years of his residence among them. His kindly cheerful manner, while making professional calls, endeared him to many families who looked upon him as a kind friend as well as family physician. For two years or more before his death he did little in the line of his pro- fession, and he died Oct. 15, 1890.
Rev. Aldin Grout was a son of Joel and Aseneth Grout; he was born at Pelham, Mass., Sept. 2, 1803 ; graduated at Amherst College 1831, and Andover Seminary, 1834; married Miss Hannah Davis, Nov. 17, 1834 (who died in 1836); ordained at Holden, Mass., 1834. He sailed from Boston Dec. 3, 1834, on the bark Burlington with five other missionaries and their wives, sent out by the American Board to establish a mission in South Africa, or rather two missions, but both among the Zulus. One was to be in the interior, and the other on the coast, to be called the Maritime Mission. Rev. David Lindley, Rev. H. I. Venable, and Dr. Alexander E. Wilson, with their wives, were to form the interior mission, while Rev. Aldin Grout, Rev. George Champion, and Dr. Newton Adams, with their wives, were designated to Natal, for the Maritime Mission. Landing together at Cape Town, Feb. 5, 1835, the first company went to the country of Umzilikaze (Moselekatse) who was the father of Loben- gula, the Matabele king. But this mission secured no foothold
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