History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 52

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 52

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Nathan Savery and John Bourne marched into the fort at Ticonderoga, under Col. Ethan Allen, when he demanded its surrender " in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." They were also present at the taking of Crown Point.

Lieut. Josiah Smith was a member of the "Soci- ety of Cincinnati" and one of Washington's life- guard. He fought in the battles of Saratoga, Mon- mouth, and Yorktown, and was one of " Mad Anthony's" forlorn hope that stormed and captured Stony Point. This brave old soldier

"Sank to rest,

With all his country's honors blest,"

in 1845, at the advanced age of ninety-two, and was buried with military honors.

William Bates, Esq., in early life so distinguished himself in the battle of Bladensburg that honorable mention is made of him in history. He subsequently

F. P. Sawyer

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HISTORY OF WAREHAM.

became a noted instructor of youth, fitting many young men for college, filled various local offices with honor, and at one time ran for the office of Secretary of State in this commonwealth, but his party ticket was defeated. His ability, both natural and acquired, was of a high order.

Seth Leonard performed a feat during the war of 1812 that would have gained him deification among the ancients. He happened to be in Stonington, Conn., when the British frigate " Nimrod" attempted to enter that harbor. Causing an old cannon to be hastily mounted. he, almost single-handed and alone, served it with such precision and effect that the frigate was obliged to retire to repair damages. What Israel Fearing did for Fairhaven, Mass., in the war of the Revolution. Seth Leonard did for Stonington, Conn., in the war of 1812,-saved it from destruction.

Capt. John Kendrick was one of the early ex- plorers of the Northwestern coast, and under his com- mand the Columbia River was discovered and the American flag first carried around the world. On old maps his voyage was represented by a line across the Pacific and Southern Oceans. He came to his death by the hand of savage barbarism in the isles of the Pacific. The house where he long resided in Ware- ham is in a good state of preservation.

In " Appleton's Cyclopædia" it is stated that the Columbia River was discovered in 1792 by Capt. Robert Gray ; but an old history, found some years ago in Burnham's antique book-store, Boston, says it was discovered prior to that date by Capt. John Ken- drick, of Warcham.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

F. A. SAWYER, M.D.

Frederic Augustus Sawyer, M.D. (Harvard), son of Deacon Samuel and Eunice (Houghton) Sawyer, of Sterling, Mass., was born in Sterling, April 4, 1832. His father was born in Sterling, Nov. 13, 1800; was a farmer, and owned and occupied the same farm that his father and grandfather had be- fore him. He was a prominent citizen, a man of sterling integrity, and an exemplary Christian. Samuel Sawyer was a son of Capt. Ezra and his wife, Matha (Sawyer) Sawyer. Ezra Sawyer was born in Sterling, March 20, 1764, and Matha, his

wife (daughter of Capt. Samuel and Phcbe (Cooper) Sawyer), born in Second Precinct of Lancaster, Oct. 30, 1772. The lineage of the family is traced still further back through Capt. Ezra Sawyer (who died in the Revolutionary war), born at Second Precinct of Lancaster Aug. 18, 1730 ; his father, Ezra Saw- yer, born at Lancaster 1702; his father, Nathaniel Sawyer, born at Lancaster 1670, to Thomas Sawyer, who emigrated from Lincolnshire (England) to Amer- ica 1635 or 1636 at about twenty-one years of age, and was a native of England. Thomas Sawyer re- sided first at Rowley, Mass., but in 1647 went with the first proprietors to settle the then new town of Lancaster. He was married to Mary Prescott, and had a family of eleven children, of whom Nathaniel was the youngest.

Frederic A. Sawyer (representing the seventh generation of the family in America) received his early education in the public schools of his native town, and in Lancaster Academy and Lawrence Acad- emy, Groton, Mass. He began the study of his pro- fession in the Tremont Street Medical School, at Boston, in March, 1853, having in that school for his instructors the following distinguished physicians and surgeons : Drs. Jacob Bigclow, D. H. Storer, O. W. Holmes, J. B. S. Jackson, H. J. Bigelow, R. M. Hodges, E. H. Clarke, S. Durkee, and Pro- fessor J. Cooke.

He continued a pupil in the school till March, 1856, except a few months in 1854, when he was in the office of Drs. P. T. Kendall and T. H. Gage, of Sterling. During this time he attended the lectures of the Harvard Medical College, and saw the prac- tice of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated as doctor of medicine in the Harvard Medical School in March, 1856, and in July of the same year began practice in Sterling, succeeding in that town the eminent surgeon and physician, Dr. Thomas H. Gage, of Worcester, Mass. He remained in his native town in active practice till June, 1862, when he removed to Greenfield, Mass., where he en- tered into copartnership with his brother-in-law, Dr. A. C. Deane, whose health had become impaired, and continued with him in practice till his removal to Wareham, in March, 1864 (with the exception of his service in the army), where for over twenty years he has had a liberal patronage from the people of Wareham and surrounding towns. He was admitted a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society in March, 1856, and has frequently held the office of councillor and censor in the Bristol South District Medical Society, of which he was president in the years 1883 and 1884. He represented the society as

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

a delegate to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association at St. Louis in 1873, and has sinee been a permanent member of that association. He held the office of United States examining sur- geon for the Pension Bureau eighteen years, from April, 1864, to April, 1882, when he resigned. In the war of the Rebellion he was appointed acting sur- geon of Camp Miller, Greenfield, Mass., and was commissioned surgeon of the Fifty-second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Oct. 20, 1862, and fol- lowed its fortunes through its term of service.

The Fifty-second Regiment was recruited in the counties of Hampshire and Franklin, and organized at Camp Miller. It proceeded to New York Nov. 19, 1862, and embarked November 29th, and sailed in the steamer " Illinois," December 2d, for the De- partment of the Gulf with Banks' expedition, and wintered at Baton Rouge, La. It marched to Port Hudson, and returned in March, 1863, and then took part in the Teche campaign and the siege of Port Hudson, participating, June 14, 1863, in the assault upon that place. It returned home and was mustered out in August, 1863, being the first regi- ment to make the voyage of the Mississippi after that river had been opened by the capture of Vieksburg and Port Hudson. In November, 1863, Dr. Sawyer was detailed by the surgeon-general of Massachusetts inspecting surgeon for Franklin County. After his service in the army he received the following letter from the surgeon-general :

" BOSTON, July 28, 1864.

"It gives me pleasure to state that Dr. F. A. Sawyer, late Surgeon 52d Massachusetts Vols., is a regular physician in good standing and of unblemished reputation. He served with distinction in the service as Surgeon. He is a gentleman of thorough professional training, excellent good sense, of pleas- ant and courteous manners, yet firm in the discharge of any duty he conscientiously knows to be right.

"WM. J. DALE, " Surgeon-General."

In politics Dr. Sawyer has been a steadfast Repub- liean since 1856, at times taking an active part. He is tolerant in his religious views, and attends the Episcopal Church.

July 29, 1856, he married Helen Maria Deane, daughter of the late Dr. Christopher Deane, of Cole- rain, Mass., and granddaughter of the late Dr. Sam- uel Ross, of the same town, by whom he has had four children, two sons and two daughters, of whom Charles Paekard, Sarah Helen, and Fanny Austin Sawyer are now living.

PEREZ FOBES DOGGETT.

Fifty years ago the New England country physician was generally a prominent figure in his locality, and this seems to have been especially true of the subjeet of our sketch.

Perez Fobes Doggett was born in Taunton, Mass., June 2, 1806. His father was the Rev. Simeon Doggett, prominent for many years in cdueational circles of the Old Colony. His grandfather on his mother's side was the Rev. Perez Fobės, long pro- fessor of Philosophy in Brown University, and for two years its acting president, and back of these two worthies there seems to have been a long unbroken line of ministerial ancestors.

Doggett's early life seems to have been spent upon his father's large farm, and his education to have been largely obtained in his father's library. For two years we find him in Florida, assisting an older brother in a mercantile business. Returning thence to New England, by the well-considered advice of both his parents, and following his own inclinations, he en- tered upon the study of medicine with Dr. Usher Parsons, a distinguished member of the profession, and in large practice in Providence, R. I. Two years later he entered at the Jefferson Medical School, Philadelphia, graduating therefrom after the usual three-years' course at the age of twenty-five, and soon after began the practice of his profession in Wareham, Mass. A year later he married Lucy Maria, a daugh- ter of Willian Fearing, a successful business man of his adopted town. Dr. Doggett seems to have sprung at once into a good practice, and thereafter for forty- four years went in and out among his friends, neigh- bors, and patrons in his own and surrounding towns, meeting with the success which a man well equipped for his business may command. Falling at the End upon the street, a professional call just made, in apparently full possession of physical and mental health, and at the age of sixty-nine.

Dr. Doggett was not a brilliant inan, and in some directions he was as simple-minded as a child, but it is believed few men bring to the study and practice of their profession more of those peculiar and varied mental and physical qualifications which help to make up the true physician or surgeon. Timid and slow in some departments of life, in everything relating to his profession he was always on the alert,-quick to see and prompt to aet. Proving himself the well- trained, patient, conscientious physician, whose judg- ment was not often at fault, he also demonstrated by delicate operations, skillfully performed, that a bril- liant surgeon was only concealed by his narrow field and lack of opportunity.

HISTORY OF PEMBROKE.

BY FRANCIS COLLAMORE.

NOT a great deal is known concerning what is now Pembroke prior to its incorporation. Before 1712 nearly all the territory that the limits of Pembroke now embrace was Duxbury. The Indian name of Duxbury was Mattakeeset, hut the western part of what is now Pembroke was generally called Namassa- keeset.

In March. 1641. the bounds of Duxbury were fixed at a court : " Ordered that the bounds of Dux- burrow Township shall begin where Plymouth bounds do end; namely, at a brook falling into Blackwater, and so along the Massachusetts path to the North river." This path was the regular line of travel be- tween the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies. Tradition says it crossed the Indian Head River near where Clapp's rubber-factory now stands. It was at this place that James Ludden, an early settler of Wey- mouth, acting as guide to Governor Winthrop and Rev. Mr. Wilson while on their journey to Plymouth in 1632, took their Honors over the river on his back. The Governor named it Ludden's Ford. This name is now Lowden. Namassakeeset was ordered to belong to Duxbury about the year 1658. In 1665, Robin- son's Creek was ordered to be the bounds between Duxbury's land and Scituate. The land below Rob- inson's Creek was included in the two-mile purchase made by Mr. Hatherly and his associates of Scituate of the Indian chief Josiah Wampatuck. Tradition says that this stream derived its name from a Robin- son who lived near it.

The tradition of the Barker family is that in 1628 or 1630, Francis Barker and his brother, who were among the Plymouth adventurers, took a boat and coasted along the shore till they came to the North River, which they ascended to near where L. Lefurgey's mill now stands. They built a house of stones, one story high and one room. This, with the additions that have since been made, is the " old garrison house," said to be the oldest house in the United States. In 1679 this house was converted into a garrison, and was fortified with hewed timber. This house has

been occupied by Barkers in direct line from Francis till the death of Peleg in 1883,-two hundred and fifty-three years. The line is Francis, Isaac, Isaac, Jr. (born about 1660, and a very active business man from 1700 to 1730. About 1740, being about eighty years old, he went to Plymouth to hear Whitefield preach, and became religiously insane, and was chained to a sill in the south front room the rest of his life), Prince, Isaac, and Peleg.

In 1684, Lieut. Robert Barker owned land at Pud- ding Brook, at Robinson's Creek, and at North River, over against a place called Palmer's Landing-place. In 1693 permission was given to Robert Barker to build a mill on Pudding Brook at Beaver Dam. This probably stood where the two piers make out in James H. West's mill-pond.

James Bushop owned land at Indian Head River in 1679. He was alive in 1710.

Thomas Bonney had land in Namassakeeset in 1640, and William Bonney in 1694 ; William Brett in 1640. Dolor Davis had a grant. of fifty acres in 1640. He transmitted good blood to his posterity. Three Governors have descended from him,-John Davis, John Davis Long, and George D. Robinson.

Stephen Bryant, styled of the Major's Purchase, married, in Duxbury, Sarah Magoon, Nov. 23, 1710. He was the progenitor of our honored townsmen, Martin Bryant, Esq., and William H. H. Bryant, Esq.

In 1701 the town gave Lambert Despard consent to purchase about fourteen acres of land of an Indian named Jeremiah. This land was on the Herring Brook, the site of Foster's mill, and in the vicinity of the Furnace Pond. Simeon Chandler says that a curse followed the purchase, and from that day to this no one has prospered who has owned that mill property.

Mr. Despard sold a portion of it in 1702 to Robert Barker, Samuel Barker, Francis Barker, Joshua Bar- ker, and Josiah Barker, all of Duxbury, and Robert Barker, Jr., and Michael Wanton, of Scituate, with the privilege of erecting iron-works on the stream issuing from the Herring Pond at Mattakeeset.

233

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

About this time a furnace was built, and castings made then are still extant.

Thomas Hayward owned land at Namassakeeset in 1640, also William Kemp and John Kidbye; John Prince, Jr., in 1669, Robert Sprout in 1668.

Capt. Miles Standish owned land here in 1651, and sold thirty-five acres to Robert Barker. Joseph Rod- gers had fifty acres of land on North River in 1640. Samuel Seabury owned land also on North River and at the Brick-Kilns. John Holmes had a large grant of land at Robinson's Creek in 1665. Tradition says he lived at the foot of the hill, opposite the house of Jonathan J. Simmons, and gave the name to the hill.

Joseph Stockbridge lived near Indian Head River in 1672, and lived to be one hundred years old.

Abraham Booth had a grant in 1710. This was what has been known as the " Briggs farm," now owned by Lot Litchfield. He was a Quaker, and after the incorporation of the town appears to have been an active man, a good deal engaged in town affairs.

John Tisdell had a grant of land, which he sold to William Brett in 1657. He removed to Taunton, and was murdered by the Indians in 1675.

Stephen Tracy, William Tubbs, Thomas Weyburne, John Willis, and William Witherell had grants of land at Namassakeesct about 1640.

The measures which led to the incorporation of Pembroke will be seen from the following copies of papers in the 113th volume of the State Archives, labeled " Towns 2."

In 1711 the inhabitants of the northwestern part of Duxbury presented the following petition to the Legislature :

" WHEREAS we, the inhabitants of the northwest of Duxbury, commonly called Mattakeeset, are far remote from the meeting- house and public worship of God in said town or any other town, a grievance many of us have for a long time laid under (though we have done our parts towards the support and maintenance of the public worship of God in said town, yet by reason of our remoteness could rarely attend the same) and many other inconveniences, that do attend our remoteness.

"That now by the blessing of God being increased to a con- ' siderable number of families, and the two precincts or neigh- borhoods, next adjacent to us, viz. : one belonging to the town of Marshfield, and the other called tho Major's Purchase, whose inhabitants are in the same condition with ourselvos, of re- moteness from any place of public worship of God amongst ourselves, and such other conveniences which aro necessary for a town, whereunto we have raised, covered and enclosed a public meeting-house. We do therefore most humbly pray the Great and General Court to grant the said three precincts or tracts of land, viz. : Mattakeesot, the tract of land belonging to Marshfield, and lying to the southwestward of Mattakeesot, and the land callod the Major's Purchase to be a township, and that it may be called Brookfield ; that the bounds between Brookfield and Duxbury may be from the easterly side of Matthew Keen's

land in a straight line to Pine Brook, where the way goes over it. The bounds of the whole tract containing the precincts aforesaid is as followeth, viz., towards the south partly by Dux- bury and partly by Plymouth and Plympton, and towards the west by Bridgewater, and towards the north by East Scituate.

" And forasmuch as the public ministry or ministers of the said town of Duxbury have been accommodated out of the com- mon land in said town, and the new meeting-house wholly built by the products of the sale of some part thereof, wherein we of Mattakceset had a good right in proportion as they, though little benefited thereby by reason of our remoteness, and there- fore think it just that we should be now accommodated in like manner, and therefore humbly pray this Great and General Court to order such quantity of the said undivided and com- mon land in the said town of Duxbury to be laid out and ap- propriated to the use of a successive ministry of the Gospel in our desired town of Brookfield, and to settle our first minister upon for his own propriety as may be convenient, and such a quantity thereof may be sold as may build him a house, and finish our meeting-house already begun.

" And your petitioners shall remain as in duty, etc.

" Joseph Maloson. Josiah Holmes.

Joshua Cushen. Francis Barker.

Lambert Despard. John Records.

Thomas Parris.

Josiah Keen.

Isaac Stetson.

Robert Stetson.

John Pierce. Joseph Forde.

Ebenezer Bishup.

Joseph Stockbridge.

Francis Barker.

John Keen.

Thomas Barker.

Josiah Foster.

Ebenezer Barker.

John Bonney.

Samuel Staples.

Isaac Oldham.

Joseph Roes.

Henry Perry.

Nehemiah Randel.

James Bonney.

Elias Magoun.

John Bishop.

John Megfarlin.

Joshua Turner.

Matthew Keen.

Abraham Pierce.

Benjamin Keen.

Joseph Tubbs.

Aaron Soul.

Daniel Crocker.

Hutson Bishop.

Timothy Rogers.

Joseph Trouant.

Josiah Barker.

John Holmes. Thomas Ramsdell.

William Holmes.

James Clark.

John Bonney, Jr. Ephraim Keen.

Thomas Dean, Jr. John Hefard.

William Tubbs.

John Simmons.

Timothy Stetson.

Thomas Lambert.

Abraham Howland.

James Bishop."

June 6, 1711, the court decided that before action could be taken on the aforewritten petition the in- habitants of Duxbury must have received a copy of the same, in order that they may show reason, if they wished to, why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted.

Oct. 9, 1711, the town of Duxbury met in town- meeting, and chose Capt. Seth Arnold to act as their agent in the affair, and to prosecute their claims before the Legislature. Having arrived at Boston he addressed a note to the Legislature, saying that the town of Duxbury was willing that the petitioners of the court should draw with these bounds : Begin- ning at the northeast corner of R. Stetson's land, the

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HISTORY OF PEMBROKE.

line to run in a straight direction to the head of Mile Brook, thence following the brook to its junction with Pudding Brook. thence to Josiah Keen's land, and from his northwest corner to Aaron Soule's land, and along its bounds to its full exteut on the west side, and thence in a northeast direction to the Marsh- field line ; provided they pay their proportion of the town's debts in arrears, and that Duxbury be at no charge for their church or minister. This note was dated on the 26th of October.

On the next day Joseph Barker and Joseph Stock- bridge presented a protest against this in behalf of the inhabitants of Mattakeeset. They urged that it took off from them the two families of Keen and Aaron Soule's family, all of whom had been at con- siderable expense in their proportion of the sum for the building of their church. Their claim, they said, differed only about five hundred acres from this last presented by Capt. Arnold, which tract was of great sterility, and could be of no benefit to the town.

Notwithstanding a great proportion of the town were opposed to the measure, there were some who were disposed to favor the petitioners in their ends, and the following even presented a paper bearing their signatures in favor of the prayer of the inhabi- tants of that precinct. Among the names will be found those of several of the most influential and respectable persons of the town : Nathaniel Thomas, John Bradford, James Partridge, Bethiah Little, Nathaniel Thomas, Jr., Gamaliel Bradford, Jacob Tomson, Jonathan Barnes (his mark), Kenelm Baker, Benony Delano, Jacob Cook, Joseph Stetson, Robert Studson, Joshua Turner, Hannah Turner (widow), and James Bishup.

A hearing to the petitioners and agent for the town was given by the Council on the 3d of Novem- ber, when that body passed the following order : " That the prayer of the petition be granted, and that the town be named -- -; provided that the petitioners do procure, settle and allow an honorable support to an orthodox, learned minister of good con- versation among them, and that the present inhabi- tants of Duxbury and Marshfield pay their arrears to town charges in the said town unto this time." This, however, coming before the other body on the 6th of the month, was not concurred in, the representative of the town having protested against it in a speech, whose chief point of argument was that the value of the land in question was higher than that placed upon it by the petitioners.

The house then appointed James Warren, Samuel Thaxter, and Capt. Jacob Thompson (who were joined by Isaac Lathrop and John Cushing, of the other

branch) a committee to examine affairs in the case and make report at some future time.

That portion of the town of Marshfield which was interested to become a part of the new town addressed on the 26th of February a letter to their fellow-towns- men asking to be allowed to join with the inhabitants of Mattakeeset in the formation of a new town, and requesting of them that would to join in their petition to the General Court to that effect. This wish was made on the part of the others by Joseph Ford, Robert Stetson, and Josiah Foster. The town of Marshfield on the same day granted their request.

On the other hand, the inhabitants of the precinct of Mattakeeset addressed the following letter to the inhabitants of Duxbury, which was laid before them, assembled in town-meeting, on the 19th of March :

"BRETHREN AND NEIGHBORS :- You are not ignorant of the deplorable condition we have with our wives and children long laid under, by being destitute of the appointed means of grace by reason of our remoteness from the public worship of God, so that we can rarely attend the same, though we have for a long time done our part towards the support and maintenance thereof in town. Now, gentlemen, that which we earnestly desire is this, that we may have your consent; that we, with sueh of our neighbors in the town of Marshfield and in the precinct near to us, who are in the same condition with our- selves of remoteness from the public worship of God, that are willing to join with us so that we may become a township, in order to settle the worship of God amongst us, with some other necessary conveniences as are.requisite to a town.

"They requested the same bounds as are named in their petition to the General Court, and hoped that upon due con- sideration they would rescind the vote of rejection they had passed some months before. Signed, in behalf of the inhabi- tants,

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 52

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