History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 16

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 16

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His association has always been sought in corpor- ate and financial affairs. From 1866 to 1880 he was a director of the Citizens' National Bank.

He has been a member of the Board of Investment of the Worcester County Institution for Savings since 1871, and a trustee and treasurer of the Memorial Hospital since 1872.

He has been a director of the Merchants' and Far- mers' Insurance Company since 1862, and succeeded the Hon. Isaac Davis as president in 1883.

His large humanitarian instincts and tastes, taking hold on all matters that have to do with educational and intellectual advancement, have made for him a congenial field where associates have warmly wel- comed him in the numerous relations he has sustained to our higher institutions and learned societies. Since 1871 he has been a councilor and secretary of the American Antiquarian Society, and is a councilor of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

He is also an original member of the American Historical Association, and has been, since 1884, a corresponding member of the Georgia Historical So- ciety. It is much to say of one that he stands high with his own alma mater. Colonel Washburn is a member of the overseers' committee on the govern- ment of Harvard University, and one of the directors of the Alumni Association of the same institution. He is one of the Board of Trustees and secretary of the new Clark University of Worcester.

This is a good record for any man to have won in middle life, and opens a field of service worthy of the best ripened powers, such as promises to give the subject of this sketch many years of useful citizen- ship.

Colonel Washburn is a man of commanding pres- ence, with a kindly dignity always open to approach.

He married, in 1860, Mary F., daughter of Charles L. Putnam, Esq. (Dartmouth College, 1830), and has one daughter, Edith, who married, in 1884, Richard Ward Greene, Esq., of Worcester.

EDWARD LIVINGSTON DAVIS,1 son of Isaac and Mary H. E. Davis, was born in Worcester, April 22, 1834. He began his education in the public schools

of his native town, completing his course at the High School in 1850 and was graduated at Brown University in 1854. Having studied law in the office of his father and at the Harvard Law School, he became a mem- ber of the Worcester County bar in 1857.

He gave up the practice of the law the following year, and associated himself with Nathan Washburn and George W. Gill in the manufacture of railway iron, locomotive tires and car-wheels, a business es- tablished in 1857 in Worcester, which soon gave profitable employmeut to a large capital. In 1864 a corporation was formed, under the name of the Washburn Iron Company, for carrying on the same business. Mr. Davis was the treasurer aud one of the chief stockholders in this company, and contin- ued to hold that office until 1882, when, upon the death of his associate, Mr. Gill, he sold his interest and retired from the corporation.

Since that time, as indeed before, he has been much occupied with various business engagements and public and private trusts, which the care of his own property and the confidence of others in his capacity and faithfulness imposed upon him. He has been a director of the Boston and Albany, the Norwich and Worcester, and the Vermont and Mas- sachusetts Railroad Companies, president of the pro- prietors of the Rural Cemetery, president of the Wor- cester County Musical Association, member of the Council of the American Antiquarian Society, aud director and trustee of many other institutions and companies iu his native city, and actively and help- fully concerned in all enterprises designed to promote the welfare of the city and its people.

While not ambitious of official honors or political influence, Mr. Davis has not refused to bear his part when his services were required in responsible posi- tions in the government of the city or State. He was elected a member of the Common Council for 1865 and held the office for three years, for the last year being president of the board. He was mayor of Worcester in 1874. During his administration im- portant public improvements were carried out, nota- bly the construction of a portion of Park Avenue, whose value has since been recognized. While holding this office Mr. Davis saw the growing need of the city for additional parks and play-grounds, which he has since in another official capacity and privately, so efficiently helped to supply.

While he was mayor, the Soldiers' Monument on the Common was publicly accepted by him on behalf of the city, and it was formally dedicated with ap- propriate ceremony. It is an interesting coincidence that his father, the Hon. Isaac Davis, accepted for the city the monument erected on the Common in memory of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, Worcester's most distinguished soldier of the Revolution. This dedication took place on the 19th of April, 1861, at the moment when other Worcester soldiers, among the first to be in arms in defence of the Union against

1 By J. Evarts Greene.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

foes of its own household, were attacked in the streets of Baltimore, and the first blood was shed in the great Civil War, whose heroes are commemorated by the monnment dedicated by the second Mayor Davis thirteen years later. These two monuments in memory of the soldiers of two wars-for independ- ence and for nnion-are the only memorial structures on the Common.

Mr. Davis was a member of the State Senate in 1876. He has since repeatedly declined to be the candidate of his party for various positions, inclnd- ing that of Representative in Congress, preferring private to political life.

He has not, however, declined employments of a public nature other than political, and has been chairman of the commissioners of the city's sinking funds, an office of financial responsibility, and a member of the Parks Commission. In this latter ca- pacity, as well as by his gift of a portion of the Lake Park and a fund for its improvement, he has con- tributed materially to devise the present comprehen- sive scheme of public parks and play-grounds, and to secure its adoption, as well as to remove obstructions from the Common and prevent encroachments upon it, and this to preserve it for the free use of the people, as a place of recreation and an adornment of the city.

Mr. Davis is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and has long been senior warden of the parish of All Saints. When the present church was built, from 1874 to 1877, he was chairman of the building and finance committees, and contributed in time and money more than any other member of the parish. He has repeatedly represented the parish in the Dio- cesan Convention, has been for several years a mem- ber of the standing committee of the diocese, and twice one of the four lay deputies of the diocese to the general convention of the church.

Mr. Davis has been twice married. Hannah Gard- ner, daughter of Seth Adams, Esq., of Providence, Rhode Island, to whom he was married in 1859, died in 1861, leaving a son, who survived her but a few days. He married, in 1869, Maria Lonisa, youngest daughter of the Rev. Chandler Robbins, D.D., of Boston. They have two daughters, Eliza Frothing- ham and Theresa, and a son, Livingston.

JAMES EDWARD ESTABROOK.1-For nearly sixty years the name and title "Colonel Estabrook," de- seending from father to son, has been familiarly known and respected, both within and beyond the borders of this community.

"Colonel " James Edward Estabrook, the subject of this sketch, may be said to have inherited the title, by courtesy, from his father, Colonel James Es- tabrook, of the State Militia, the gallant commander of the last Worcester County Regiment of Cavalry, and who had the honor of leading the escort at the reception of Lafayette in 1824.

The genealogy of the family is easily and clearly traceable as far back as 1413, to the Estebroks in Wales.

The American line begins with the Rev. Joseph Estabrook, born in Enfield, England, who came to Concord, Mass., in 1660, was graduated from Harvard College in 1664, and soon after was settled as a min- ister in Concord, Mass., where he was a colleague for many years of the famons Rev. Edward Bulkeley, remaining there during a pastorate of forty-four years until his death, in 1711. Shattuck's "History of Concord " refers to him as :

" A man of great worth, and eminently fitted for his office. His appearance carried with it so much patriarchal dignity, that people were induced to love him as a friend and reverence him as a father. These distinguished traits obtained for him, in the latter part of his life, the name of The Apostle."

In an obituary notice, the Boston News Letter of September 18, 1711, says: " He was eminent for his skill in the Hebrew language, a most orthodox, learned and worthy divine, of holy life and conver- sation."

Three of his four sons became ministers, the eld- est, Joseph, settling in Lexington, Mass., and refer- ence is made to this branch in Hudson's "History of Lexington," as "the noted ministerial family."

Ebenezer Estabrook, the father of Major James Estabrook, and grandfather of James Edward, of Worcester, removed from Lexington to the neighbor- ing town of Holden about the time of the Revolu- tion and founded the Worcester County branch of the family.

Colonel James Estabrook removed from Holden, his native place, to Rutland and thence to Worcester in 1828, and, with the exception of a few years spent in Bostion, his active business life was closely identi- fied with the rapidly developing town and city of Worcester until his death, in 1874.

During the administration of Governor Bontwell he was appointed sheriff of Worcester Connty, from which office he was removed, for political reasons only, on the return of the Whig party to power.

Colonel Estabrook was a devoted and distinguished member of the order of Free Masonry, and as early as 1825, on the organization of the Worcester County Commandery of Knights Templar, he was elected the first Eminent Commander of that honorable body. Always a respected citizen, he was entrusted with many local interests, was an honored and in- finential member of the Old South, and later of the Union Church, and was among the first to take an active and leading part in the early development of the real estate and mechanical interests of the city.

As one of the well-known men whose lives form an important part of the history of their times, we quote the following extract from an extended tribute in the records of that honorable and exclusive organization

1 By John J. Jewett.

James ECOstatrock

1 On Atrueland

Ixiii

THE BENCH AND BAR.

known as the Worcester Fire Society, of which he was a member, being the only person selected for this dis- tinction at the annual meeting in 1830:

"Colonel James Estabrook was a man of marked intelligence, who accomplished more by knowledge later acquired than have many men, whose education, beguu at college, seems to have been absolutely dis- continued then and there."

From the same authority, the Hon. John D. Wash- burn, we also quote the following paragraph, not only as a faithful description of the founder of the Worces- ter branch of the family, but also as a remarkably terse and vivid pen-picture of his son, Colonel James E. Estabrook, the present postmaster of Worcester, in whom the type and characteristics are faithfully per- petuated :

" In stature he was below middle height, but made the most of such height as he had by the erection of his figure and military bearing. His complexion was very dark, and in this, as well as his features, he re- sembled the great Democratic leader, Stephen A. Douglas. His manner was quick, his eye bright and intelligent. Opposed to the party usually dominant here, he held few offices, though counted a politician, but he never adopted the coarser modes of warfare in politics, was courteous to his opponents, refrained from the imputation of unworthy motives, and carried none of the bitterness of party contest into the rela- tions of private life."

This latter trait is especially true of his son, James Edward, who has been a life-long Democrat and a rec- ognized leader and oracle of his party, not only in Worcester County, but also prominent in the party councils of the State and nation for a quarter of a century.

He has been a delegate to every National Conven- tion of his party since the close of the war to the time of his appointment to a Federal office in 1887. He has served as chairman of the State Executive Com- mittee, and of the County, District, Congressional and City Committees through many years of his party's minority in the State, and has ever been held in high esteem as an honest and honorable politician even by his political opponents.

In this connection, his life-long friendship with the late lamented Judge Adin Thayer, one of the ac- knowledged leaders of the Republican party in the State, will be recalled by their fellow-townsmen, among whom it had been long a matter of common remark that these two natural leaders of opposing forces only suspended their intimate social relations for a few weeks, during the active hostilities of a State or na- tional campaign.

Colonel Estabrook has served his party in every capacity that choice or party exigency imposed upon him, with or without hope or prospect of reward, and his selection by President Cleveland to fill the office of postmaster, to succeed General Josiah Pickett, was received with a very general expression of approba-

tion from his fellow-citizens, without regard to politi- cal affiliation, as a well-deserved recognition of his long and faithful devotion to the principles of his party.

As a member of the School Board, president of the Common Council and for two years, 1874 and 1875, as a representative of the city in the General Court of Massachusetts, Colonel Estabrook rendered able and faithful service, and discharged his duties with credit to his constituents and with honor to himself.

He is now one of the directors of the Free Public Library of Worcester, an honor peculiarly in harmony with his tastes and acquirements, and his long famili- arity with the good society of books.

Born in Worcester October 29, 1829, he prepared for college in the Worcester High School, and was graduated from Yale in 1851. He then studied law with Judge Benjamin F. Thomas, attended the Har- vard Law School, and was admitted to the Worcester bar in the autumn of 1853, at the age of twenty-three. Later he became the law partner of Judge Dwight Foster, of the Supreme Court, and practiced his pro- fession until the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion.

Early in that critical period of the nation's life Colonel Estabrook promptly tendered his services to the government, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Charles Devens, and later on the staff of General Butler, in the Department of the Gulf.

Compelled to resign from active service, by reason of sickness, in 1862, he returned to Worcester, and has since devoted his time to the care of his valuable estates, the duties of political life, the genial society of his chosen friends and the daily companionship of his library of classic, historical and standard authors.

Few, comparatively, of his many friends and ac- quaintances know or appreciate the fact that this modest, genial and unassuming gentleman is still, at three-score years, a familiar student of the classics, and is the owner of one of the largest and choicest libraries of rare editions of both ancient and modern literature in the city.

Colonel James Estabrook, the father, married Al- mira Read, of Rutland, Mass., and to them were born five children-one daughter and four sons. Two of these children are now living-the present postmaster and his brother, Arthur Edgar Estabrook, an esteemed citizen of Worcester, who shares with his brother the care of their joint interest in the family property. Colonel James Edward Estabrook remains a ripe and genial bachelor, having never married.

HON. E. B. STODDARD.1-Elijah Brigham Stod- dard, the son of Col. Elijah Stoddard, a worthy and esteemed citizen of Upton, Mass., was born in that town on June 5, 1826.

At the age of twenty-one he was graduated from Brown University, and soon after came to Worcester,

1 By J. 11. Jewett.

lxiv

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

where he studied law with Hon. John C. B. Davis, and was admitted to the Worcester County bar in June, 1849.

For nearly forty years he has been a widely- recognized factor in the professional, political and social life of Worcester, and has filled many public trusts with distinction.

"Colonel" Stoddard, as the subject of this sketch is familiarly known, was the first commander of the Third Battalion of Worcester County Rifles, organized in 1858, and was later a member of the military staff of Governor N. P. Banks, in 1860, and on the occa- sion of the reception to the Prince of Wales, during that year, Colonel Stoddard was one of the officers assigned to duty as personal escort to the prince.

On his admission to the bar in 1849 he began the practice of law in partnership with Hon. John C. B. Davis, under the firm of Davis & Stoddard, which continued until 1852.

He then became the law-partner of his father-in- law, Hon. Isaac Davis, a man of great prominence and large estates in the community, which association continued until 1857, when Colonel Stoddard was appointed district attorney for Worcester County, succeeding John H. Matthews, Esq., deceased in office. This position he held for about six months, until the expiration of the term. For nearly tweuty years he was engaged in the regular practice of his profession, withdrawing somewhat from active prac- tice in the courts in 1866, to accept the responsible duties of secretary and business manager of the Mer- chants' and Farmers' Fire Insurance Company, a position which he has ably and faithfully filled for the past twenty-two years and which he still holds.

Colonel Stoddard has, in fact, always been a man of affairs, prominent and helpful in the public con- cerns of the city, dealing with the affairs of men and property on a large and varied scale, and intrusted by his fellow-citizens with the care of large corporate and individual interests.

Beginning his public duties as the Representative of the city of Worcester in the Legislature of 1856, he has since ably served the city and State in many capacities. He was president of the Common Council in 1858; later, a member of the Board of Aldermen for two years; twice elected to the Massachusetts Senate (1863-64), and served two terms as State Councilor of this district (1871-72).

Elected mayor of Worcester in 1882, his adminis- tration was able and dignified, and his judgment in matters of grave importance to the city has heen confirmed by subsequent events as both broad and judicious.

Always actively interested in the progress of popu- lar education, he has been a member of the School Board for nine years, and for the past ten years has been a member of the State Board of Education, where he has rendered zealous and lasting service. His native tact and business discretion has been recognized by

thirty years of continuous service as a director of the Providence & Worcester Railroad, as a solicitor and trustee for many years of the State Mutual Life In- surance Company, and as the trusted counselor of various public and private enterprises.

In addition to his other duties, he is now the presi- dent of the Quinsigamond National Bank, and also president of the Worcester Five Cent Savings Bank.

Personally Colonel Stoddard is a gentleman of pure and upright life, uniting a kindly disposition with a natural dignity of manner.

He has been a life-long Republican, an earnest worker and a faithful friend and ally of moral and political progress.

He married, in 1852, Mary E., the eldest daughter of Hon. Isaac Davis, by whom he has three children now living-two daughters and a son.

EDWIN CONANT. 1-One of the earliest European lodgments in Massachusetts, as distinguished from Plymouth, was made in the year 1625, at Cape Ann. It was a little planting and fishing station, under the superinteudence of the sturdy Roger Conant, who had previously been at Plymouth and Nantasket. He was a native of Budleigh, in Devonshire, Eugland, born in 1593, and came to America in 1623, soon he- coming a prominent character among the settlers. He was a remarkable man-remarkable for firmness, for self-reliance, and, it may he added, for utter contempt of the common and smaller hardships and annoyances of life, that so distress some and trouble most of us.

The fishing and planting were not successful, aud the station was broken up in the autumn of 1626,. and Conant, with most of the company, removed to the territory now forming Salem, and settled on the tongue of land through which Bridge Street now runs. This settlement was permanent, and made before Endicott or Winthrop came.2

1 By J. R. Newhall.

" The severity of the winter, added to the privations they endured, so discouraged the little band that some of them proposed abandoning the enterprise. Not so with Conant. His mind was fixed, and go he would not. He had suffered hardships in other places and surmounted many difficulties, hut here he had set his foot, and was determined to make in this vicinage a permanent stand. He says in a petition to the court, May, 1671 : "I was . . .. one of the first, if not the very first, that re- solved and made good my settlement in matter of plantation with my family in this colony of Massachusetts Bay, and have bin instrumental both for the founding and carrying on of the same, and when, in the in- fancy thereof, it was in great hazard of being deserted, 1 was & means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that there were here with me, and that hy my utter deniall to goe away with them who would have gon either for England or mostly for Virginia, but thereupon staid to the hazard of our lives." It is stated, on very good authority, that his sou Roger was the first white child horn in Salem ; but an ancient record says that at a church-meeting, in 1703, the old church Bible was presented to John Massey, a son of Jeffrey Massey, s companion of Consat, as the " first town-born child."

Conant was likewise among the first settlers of Beverly, which is just on the other side of Bass River-Beverly, whose beautiful shores have now for years been the summer resort of the wealthy and refined frem far and near, and which, during the last year or two, has so agitated our Legislature on the question of territorial division. Beverly was set- tled as a part of Salem about 1630, and by 1649 the settlers were suffi- ciently numerous to ask of the Salem Church "that come course be

Cauvin Coment

likas. A. Deney

lxv

THE BENCH AND BAR.

It is interesting to dwell upon the life of Roger Conant, so grand a type of the primitive and true New England character ; to trace along the line of descent from him, the head of one of our largest and best New England families.

Edwin Conant, the subject of this sketch, and many other well-known individuals can trace their lineage directly to him, and well may they be proud of their descent, though better, perhaps, that they should endeavor to emulate his virtues.

Edwin Conant, whose portrait appears in connec- tion with this sketch, was born in Sterling, Worcester County, on the 20th of August, 1810. After pursuing the usual course of preliminary academic training, he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1829. Proposing to make the law his life business, he prepared himself for the duties of that honorable though often perplexing profession, under the direc- tion of well-qualified instructors, and in 1832 com- menced practice. After continuing in that calling for some ten years, his attention was directed to other pursuits, and he did not return to the law.

In his religious views Mr. Conant has been a con- sistent Unitarian, thus swerving from the rigid Cal- vinistic faith of his early ancestors. Politically he was an adherent of the old Whig party, but on the

tuken for the negos of grace among themselves, because of the tedious- ness and difficulties over the water, and other inconveniences." The town wne incorporated in 1668 by its present oame-n name, however, which was not satisfactory to several of the principal settlers, especially to Conaat, who, io the petition ahove referred to, says : " Now my umble suite and request ie uoto this huoourable Court onlie that the nadie of our town or plnotation may be altered or changed from Beverly, and he called Budligh. I have two reasons that have moved me unto this re- quest, -the first is the great dislike and discontent of many of our peo- ple for this name of Beverly, because (wee being but a small place) it bath caused oo ns a constant nickname of beggarly being in the mouths of many, and oo order was given, or consent by the people to their ngeot, for any name uotil they were shure of being a town graated in the first place. Secondly, I being the first that had house in Salem (and neither had any hand io gaming either that or any other towoe), and myself, with those that were then with me, being all from the west- ero part of England, desire this western name of Budlight, a market town in Devonshire, and neere nato the sea, as we are lieere in this place, and where myself was borne."

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 16

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576