History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 11

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ham Lincoln to the executive chair of the nation and John A. Andrew into that of our State. The eonven- tion which nominated Mr. Harris was held at Taun- ton on the 10th day of October, 1872. He was elected on the 5th of November following, receiving 13,752 votes against 5090 votes cast for Hon. Edward Avery, of Braintree, the Democratie candidate. Mr. Harris' majority of 8662 votes attests his popularity.

His estimable wife, a lady of rare attainments and great eulture, who had watched with keen interest the progress of her husband's candidacy, did not live to witness his triumph or to share with him the honors and pleasures of publie life. After a painful illness of several weeks' duration she died on the 5th day of October, 1872, five days only before his nom- ination. Mr. Harris began this part of his public career at the first session of the Forty-third Congress, aud was appointed to the Committee ou Indian Affairs. During this and the second session he took part in debate on several occasions, notably upon a bill to pay the Choctaw Indians the balance due them from the proceeds of the sale of their lands east of the Mis- sissippi River, which they surrendered to the govern- ment in 1830 upou the promise of receiving sueh proceeds. More than seven million dollars had been realized from these sales, and yet the tribe had re- ceived only two hundred aud fifty thousand dollars. The government had dealt sharply, if uot dishouor- ably with them, and Mr. Harris' strong sense of jus- tice led him to advocate the payment of their elaim, which amounted, under the terms of a treaty with them, ratified by the Senate in 1869, to two milliou nine hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars.

At the first session of this Congress Mr. Harris made a report in relation to the grant of six hundred and forty acres of land in Idaho Territory, known as the Lapwai Mission, which of right belonged to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, but of which the government had taken posses- sion for military purposes without making the above board any compensation. Mr. Harris' attempt was to secure these lands to the person who had pur- chased them of the board. In his report he gave a history of the noble efforts of the Rev. H. H. Spalding and his devoted wife in eivilizing, educating, and ehris- tianizing the Nez Perce Indians. The report was a short but touching history of the trials and sufferings, the sacrifices and devotion to duty, as well as the won- derful success and triumph over difficulties and dan gers of two of the most worthy missionaries who ever labored for the elevation of the Indian raee. Mr. Harris accompanied his report by a brief but elo- quent specchi upon the floor of the House, where the

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THE COURTS AND BAR.

bill was passed by a very flattering vote, failing. how- ever. in the Senate for the want of a champion and a friend.

In the summer of 1875 a commission was organ- ized to investigate certain charges made by Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College. in reference to the management of affairs at the Red Cloud Indian agency. Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, of St. Louis, Hon. Charles J. Faulkner. of Martinsburg. W. Va .. and Mr. Harris were appointed by Mr. Delano, Seere- tary of the Interior. as members of this commission, and President Grant afterwards added to it Hon. Timothy O. Howe. senator from Wisconsin, and Professor G. W. Atherton. of Rutgers College. of New Brunswick. N. J. The commission met in New York July 20. 1875. and took preliminary testimony, including that of Professor Marsh, and then proceeded on their mission. arriving at Omaha on the 27th. and at Cheyenne on the 20th. taking evidence at both places. On the 1st day of August the commission started for the Sioux agencies, stop- ping at Fort Laramie on the way, where they were provided with a cavalry escort. arriving at the Red Cloud agency on the 7th of August. The commis- sion also visited the Spotted Tail agency. receiving testimony at both places from the Indians by aid of interpreters. The commissioners in returning visited several places. and separated for their homes at Kall- sas City, Mo .. reassembling in Washington, and, by adjournment. in New York City in September, where their report was written.

Much of this report, which with the testimony fills more than nine hundred printed pages, was written by Mr. Harris, for which, as well as for the rest of his labor- upon the commission, he received no pay. On account of the strong prejudice which existed against the management of Indian affairs, a prejudice largely created by sensational and unscrupulous news- papers, the work of the commission was a very diffi- cult and delicate one to perform. The Secretary of the Interior and his subordinate officers had been convicted of di-honest and hard treatment of the In- dians by the public without hearing their testimony, and any report which the commission might make, short of wholesale condemnation, was certain to re- ceive from prejndieed press writers the appellation of " whitewashing." The commission investigated and reported the facts as they found them to be, and bore the censure of the public press without complaint. The report was of great value, and the public accepted it. Abuses were pointed out and corrected, and un- founded charges were met with facts and disproved.

Mr. Harris was re-elected in the four succeeding

Congressional elections, namely, in 1874, 1876, 1878, and 1880. receiving large popular majorities at cach election. At the beginning of the Forty-fourth Con- gress he was appointed a minority member of the Committee on Naval Affairs. During the first ses- sion of this Congress a partisan investigation into alleged abuses, errors, and frauds in the naval service was instituted. The investigation was conducted in the most bitter partisan spirit, and continued till near the close of the session. The report of the majority was prepared by the chairman, and was read to and approved by the majority members in secret meeting, but at the request of Mr. Harris, earnestly persisted in. it was finally submitted to the whole committee. No change. however, was made in it, every suggestion of the minority members being disregarded. A mi- nority report was therefore prepared, the major part of which was written by Mr. Harris. Here again Mr. Harris faced popular elamor. It was at that time more popular to condenm the administration of naval affairs than to say anything in its favor. The publie press had, as it has often done in the history of the republic, pronounced a verdict of guilty with- out hearing or caring to hear the evidence. The ad- vocacy of the weaker cause is always proof of the bravery of its advocate, and generally the result of strong moral convictions. It is always an easy task that of picking to pieees the reputation or character of a citizen in public or private life, especially the former, but the man who steps forth in the defense is liable to have his own motives impugned. Mr. Har- ris' report, which was in defense of the naval depart- ment, and supported by convincing testimony, was vehemently attacked by the elass of newspapers to which we have alluded; but their bitter and malignant criticisms found no lodgment in the minds or hearts of his constituents, who returned him to the next Congress with the usual significant majority. Mr. Harris' position was indeed a hard one. He stood almost alone in a legislative body made up largely of his political opponents, with a corps of correspondents in the gallery constantly sending dispatches to the papers they represented full of abuse and downright misrepresentations of the facts. But the manner in which he conducted himself on this trying oceasion, and the fearlessness with whieh hc adhered to his position, is ereditable alike to his intelligence and his personal courage. Mr. Harris closed the debate for the minority in an able and spirited spceeh, which is to be found in vol. iv. part v. of the "Congressional Record." 1

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

At the beginning of the Forty-fifth Congress Mr. Harris was again placed upon the Committee on Naval Affairs. During this Congress Mr. Harris devoted himself especially to an investigation into the condition and needs of the navy. A bill pre- pared and introduced by him for the establishment of a Board of Admiralty for the navy was unanimously adopted by the committec and reported to the House, and ably debated by him. His earnest efforts in behalf of the navy continued through this and the two succeeding Congresses. At the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress he was made the chair- man of the Committee on Naval Affairs, a position which he had honorably earned by faithful, laborious, and highly intelligent research. In this Congress Mr. Harris' work ripened into law. The old and condemned ships were ordered to be sold upon the plan recommended by him. The question of using steel in the construction of new vessels was investi- gated and settled. The new cruisers now under con- struction are the first fruits of his patient and per- sistent efforts. His report of March 2, 1882, was an exhaustive one, and, with the evidence reported as to our ability to manufacture steel of the right quality and in sufficient quantities, put at rest forever the long-existing controversy as to whether ships should be built of wood or steel or iron. Steel won the vietory, and hereafter ships of war will be ships of steel.

Much was accomplished in behalf of the navy during Mr. Harris' service in Congress, for which the whole country owes him its most profound gratitude, and we doubt not he will receive it. Upon the close of this Congress Mr. Harris determined to retire. He had been desirous of doing so at the last two elections, but there was such an unhappy lack of harmony in his party as to candidates that he was practically com- pelled to accept the nomination. In 1876, when Mr. Harris had signified his desire to retire, the con- test in the nominating convention was a very bitter one, it being a triangular fight, and resulting in the defeat of each of the candidates. At last one of the delegates nominated Mr. Harris by acclamation. The hall at once resounded with loud cheers and cries of approbation. Mr. Harris was declared nominated by the secretary of the convention, when it at once ad- journed.

The voters of the Second Congressional District were determined that Mr. Harris should not retire from public life without giving him some additional proof of their estcem for him, however unnecessary that would seem to be.

A few days before the return of Mr. Harris from

Washington, in March, 1883, the citizens of East Bridgewater, irrespective of party affiliation, tendered him a public reception, and the 13th of March was selected as the time. The limited size of the town hall made it necessary to limit the invitations, and accordingly about three hundred prominent gentle- men residing in the other cities and towns in the old Second Distriet were invited. Long before the hour appointed for the commencement of the exercises the body of the hall was densely packed. More than one hundred prominent gentlemen occupied scats upon the platform. Hon. Aaron Hobart presided, and opened the exercises with a singularly graceful speech. In the course of the evening Mr. Harris made an ex- tended speech, reviewing in a highly interesting manner the principal national events in the course of the ten years covered by his life in Congress. He was followed by Lieutenant-Governor Oliver Ames, ex-Governor John D. Long, Secretary of State Henry B. Pierce, and others, and the exercises were closed by an elegant banquet.

We have thus traced the subject of this notice from his early struggles to obtain an education into the learned profession of the law and through a suc- cessful career in its practice into and through an equally successful career in public life, and have scen him yield up his high trust with the approbation of his constituents towards all his public acts, accom- panied by the most touching manifestation of their strong personal regard, the recollection of which we doubt not will solace him in his declining years.

On retiring from Congress he resumed his practice of the law, and the firm of Harris & Tucker is still continued, but the son of Mr. Harris, R. O. Harris, Esq., became a member of it.

CHARLES G. DAVIS .- The grandfather of Mr. Davis has already been referred to as the father of Nathaniel Morton Davis, a sketch of whom has been given. The father of Mr. Davis was William Davis, of Plymouth, a brother of Nathaniel Morton Davis, and a merchant for many years in partnership with his father, Hon. William Davis, of the same town. William Davis, Jr., married, Aug. 4, 1807, Joanna, daughter of Capt. Gideon White, of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, a native of Plymouth, and fourth in deseent from Peregrine White, who adhered to the royal cause and held a commission in the British army during the Revolution. Tho children of Mr. Davis were William Whitworth, born in 1808; Rebecca Morton, 1810, who married Ebenczer G. Parker, the first cashier of the Old Colony Bank of Plymouth, and after his death, George S. Tolman, of Boston ; Hannah White, 1812, who married Andrew L. Rus-

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sell, of Plymouth ; Sarah Bradford, 1814, who died n infancy ; Charles Gideon, 1820; William Thomas, 1822; and Sarah Elizabeth, 1824, who also died in nfancy. Of these, Charles Gideon, the subject of his sketch, was born in Plymouth, on the 30th of May, in the year above stated, and received his earliest education in the schools of his native town. He was fitted for college with Hon. William G. Rus- ell, of Plymouth, at Bridgewater, by Hon. John A. Shaw, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1840, with Mr. Russell, John Chandler Bancroft Davis, Judge George Partridge Sanger, and others who have won distinction at the bar. He studied law in the offices of Jacob H. Loud, of Plymouth, and Hubbard Watts, of Boston, and in the Harvard Law-School, and was admitted to the bar at the August term of he Common Pleas Court in 1843, He settled in Boston, where, until 1853, he was engaged in an ac- ive and increasing practice, in partnership at various imes with William H. Whitman, now clerk of the courts of Plymouth County ; George P. Sanger, of his own class at Harvard; and Seth Webb, of the Harvard class of 1843.

In 1853 temporary ill health induced him to relin- quish practice in Boston and return to his native own, where he has since continued to reside, adding o his professional pursuits the avocation of opera- ions in real estate, in which he has exhibited a pub- ic spirit largely benefiting the town. While living n Boston he became one of the organizers of the Free-Soil party, the father of the Republican party, and in 1851 was one of the numerous persons arrested and tried for participation in the rescue of Shadrach, he fugitive slave. In 1853 he was a delegate from Plymouth to the Constitutional Convention. In 1856 he was appointed a member of the State Board of Agriculture, holding his seat at the board until 1877, and was at the same time chosen president of he Plymouth County Agricultural Society, a position which he held until his resignation, in 1876. He was appointed by Governor Andrew on a commission to prepare a plan for a State Agricultural College, and after the establishment of the college he was made a trustee, an office which he still holds. In 1856 he was one of three delegates from Massachusetts to the convention at Pittsburgh at which the Republican party was organized; was a delegate from the First Massachusetts District to the convention at Philadel- phia, in 1856, which put John C. Fremont in nomina- tion for President, and to the convention at Cincin- Dati, in 1872, which nominated Horace Greeley to the same office. In 1859 he was chosen one of the overseers of Harvard College for five years, and in 4

1862 was a representative in the General Court. In the latter year he was appointed by Abraham Lincoln assessor of the internal revenue for the First District, and served until 1S69.

During all these avocations Mr. Davis has always steadily followed his profession, and in the trials of Mrs. Gardner and Deacon Andrews for murder, in which he was of counsel for the defendants, and in the civil cases connected with the Scituate beaches and the Green Harbor marshes, he has acquitted him- self with acknowledged ability and substantial success. He possesses a ready and large knowledge of law, a power of abstraction and concentration of mind on the question at issue, and a close, logical method, which give him high rank among the present mem- bers of the bar. On the establishment of the Third District Court of Plymouth County, in 1874, he was appointed justice, and is still the incumbent of that office.

On the 19th of November, 1845, he married Han- nah Stevenson, daughter of John B. Thomas, then clerk of the courts of Plymouth County, and has had three children, one of whom, Charles Stevenson Davis, born in 1858, was a graduate of Harvard in 1880, and, having been admitted to the bar in Plym- outh in 1882, after pursuing his studies in the office of Bacon & Hopkins, of Worcester, is now a partner in business with his father, giving promise of a suc- cessful career.

HON. JONAS R. PERKINS traces his ancestry in this country on the paternal side to Abraham Per- kins, who settled in Hampton, N. H., in 1639, and had a daughter Mary, who married Giles Fifield, of Charlestown, and they had a son Richard, whose daughter Mary was the mother of Samuel Adams, and on his mother's side to the Rev. James Keith, the first ordained minister of Bridgewater. The line of descent is as follows: Luke2, son of Abraham, lived in Charlestown, Mass., and had a son, Luke3, of Plympton, who married Martha Conant, daughter of Lot, who was the son of Roger, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ; Mark Perkins4 lived in North Bridgewater, he married Dorothy Whipple ; Josiah5 married Abigail Edson; Josiah6 married Anna Reynolds ; Rev. Jonas Perkins7 was the oldest son of Josiah and Anna (Reynolds) Perkins, and was born in the North Parish of Bridgewater, now Brock- ton, Oct. 15, 1790. At the age of seventeen he entered Phillips' Andover Academy, where he came under the instruction of Rev. Mark Newman and John Adams, and so diligently had he pursued his studies that upon examination for admission to Brown University he offered himself as a candidate

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

for advanced standing, and was received as a member of the Sophomore class. IIe graduated with honor in 1813, and immediately commenced a course of theological studies under the instruction of Rev. Otis Thompson, of Rehoboth, Mass., and was licensed by the Mendon Association, Oct. 11, 1814. He was in- vited to preach as a candidate for the Union Society of Weymouth and Braintree, at the age of twenty- four, and June 14, 1815, was ordained pastor, and remained with this society as their beloved teacher a period of forty-six years, during which time the church was prosperous, united, and happy, and con- stantly increased in numbers. He resigned on his seventieth birthday, the 15th of October, 1861. He died in June, 1874.

Hon. Jonas R. Perkins, son of Rev. Jonas and Rhoda (Keith) Perkins, was born in Braintree, Mass., Feb. 18, 1822. He fitted for college with his father, and in 1837 entered Brown University. He gradu- ated in 1841, and for two years afterwards was the principal of Rochester Academy. Having decided upon the legal profession as his life-work, he entered the office of the Hon. Timothy Coffin, of New Bedford, one of the leading lawyers in the common- wealth, and upon the completion of his studies be- came associated with Mr. Coffin in the practice of law. This copartnership lasted three years, until July 10, 1849, when Mr. Perkins sailed for Califor- nia. He remained in California until July, 1852, when he returned to the East, and opened a law-office at North Bridgewater, now Brockton, and at once entered upon the active practice of his profession, which he has continued with success to the present time.

Judge Perkins has ever been active and prominent in the affairs of the town and city, and has held vari- ous positions of trust and responsibility. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1852, was captain of the North Bridgewater dragoon company in 1857, and was selectman of the town in 1864. He was trial justice for a number of years, until appointed, June 16, 1874, justice of the First District Court of Plymouth County, a position which he still holds. A good lawyer, and possessed of an excellent judicial mind, Judge Perkins brought to the bench those qualities which have rendered his judicial career eminently successful.

He is a member of the Congregational Church, as his ancestors have also been back to 1639. Politi- cally he is a Republican, and has been since the organization of the party.

June 22, 1854, he united in marriage with Jane A. Holmes, a native of Plymouth, then living in

New Bedford. She died in July, 1858, and Oct. 26, 1859, he married his present wife, Mary E. Sawyer, of Boston.

BENJAMIN WHITMAN was the first lawyer in Han- over. He was born in 1768, graduated at Brown University in 1788, and located in Hanover in 1792, and was postmaster several years. He removed to Boston in 1806. He was an able lawyer, a man of much enterprise, and an active politician.

JOHN WINSLOW graduated from Brown University in 1795, and settled in Hanover in 1810, and subse- quently enjoyed a large practice. He died in Natchez, Miss.

ISAAC WING and JONATHAN CUSHMAN were also early lawyers in Hanover.

HON. PEREZ SIMMONS was born in Hanover, in the house where he now resides, on the second day of Jan- uary, 1811. His father was Ebenezer Simmons, son of Elisha Simmons, and a lineal descendant from Moyses Simmons, who came from Holland in the "Fortune," in the spring of 1621, that being the first ship to arrive after the " Mayflower." His mother was Sophia, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Rich- mond, of Little Compton, R. I., and a direct descend- ant from Col. Benjamin Church, the Indian-fighter. Joshua Simmons, the great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, was of Hanover, and besides being a man prominent in town affairs, was a member of the Committee of Safety and otherwise active in the Revolution. The Joshua Simmons homestead was within half a mile of Mr. Simmons' present resi- dencc. Ebenezer Simmons was a lieutenant in the war of 1812, and was at one time in command of the fort then situated at the Gurnet at the entrance to Plymouth harbor. Thither he took his wife, the mother of Perez, with her babe in her arms. The boy was one day held up to the window to see the British vessels cannonading the forts, a scene of which he still retains a vivid recollection.

As a boy, Mr. Simmons was not strong, although remarkably active. As a horseman he excelled, at one time mounting an unbroken colt with neither saddle nor bridle. His inability to do the hard work of a farm led his parents to give him an education, thinking that he might become a school-teacher or a minister of the gospel. He fitted for college under the instruction, principally, of Rev. Samuel Deane, of Scituate, the author of Deane's " History of Scit- uate," a book somewhat noted among town histories for its learning. He also attended the Hanover Academy for a short time, and studied for three or four months with " Roswell C. Smith, of Providence, R. I. With Mr. Deane he was a favorite scholar.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706