USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Manchester > History of the town of Manchester, Essex County, Massachusetts, 1645-1895 > Part 20
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One dated 13 March, 1779, addressed to the "Inhaby- tence of the Town of Manchester," declares his belief that "Turkish Laws are Much Preffarable & Juster then the Assessors conduct in Manchester at Present is"; he advises "those that can Watch and Ward to Look out for themselves and others; or I think the Town is Ruend." He signs himself, " an Abusd, and imposed upon, Inhabitent of Manchester." This wrathful com- munication was " to be Exhibited to the Inhabytenc of s' Town, before your Choyce of Town Officers."
In 1779, Mr. Lee asked for an abatement of Taxes, representing that the assessment of his real estate was unfair as compared with that of " Decon Herrick and Mr. Chever "; and says " if my tilling, moing & Par- string, must be sot so much hier then My Neighbours, for the --- & Butter & Cheas I have for Winter &c, I hope those that have any by them, May be taxt Allso ;
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and for there Tea, Cofey, Shugers, Cyder, flower, Wines, Porters ; and all other Articuls Used in a Luxures Way of Living; letts all fare alike in taxation, and then I am Content to be Pointed at," etc. He has another grievance : " Is not Brothers Ware Hous With 2 fire places Glass & Suller, & Claborded &c Worth more than £5 More than my Barn; I thinke my Barn is two high, or his too Low, or Both."
A copy of a note to the Assessors is appended : "Gentm, I ame at the Jenerall good, of the Town and itts Inhabitence ; & my one Presarvation, by all these Papers, to lett you know thatt allmost Every Man, that keepts any stock, or had any Corn, his been taxt three times over; and ought to be abated, by a Vote of the Town ; or other Wayes, according to my Judgment."
Truly, the town meetings of those days were not without their occasional spice, and a town office was not always a bed of roses for its incumbent.
WILLIAM TUCK was born in Beverly, July 5, 1741, and removed to Manchester in 1760. In 1777, he com- manded the " Remington," privateer, eighteen guns, and took many prizes ; he was afterward captured by a British frigate, but by a successful piece of strategy the vessel was retaken from the prize-crew, and brought into Boston Harbor.1 Mr. Tuck was second Collector of the Gloucester district, holding the office from 1796 to 1802. He passed the remainder of his life in Man- chester, where he filled the position of Justice of the Peace, and also practised medicine " very successfully." 'Squire Tuck, as he was generally called, was a public- spirited man, interested in all improvements. He was a man of great energy ; as one of the Commissioners at the time of the building of the first bridge between
1 Jide p. 85.
or chra Hory
8. Elappan
-
John Body
DJ. Bingham
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APPENDIX K.
Beverly and Salem, he rode on horseback, on the cold- est day in winter, from Manchester to Boston, leaving home before daylight. He had four wives, and was the father of twenty-three children, fourteen of whom lived to years of maturity. He died March, 1826, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.
EBENEZER TAPPAN, son of Rev. Benjamin Tappan, kept a store on Central street. He was the father of a remarkable family. If one came into his store and in- quired for his son, Mr. Tappan would say: " Which son ? Do you want Colonel Eben, Lieutenant-Colonel Israel, Major Ben, or Captain Sam?" Mr. Tappan was one of the first, if not the first, in the town who gave up the sale of liquor, and this at a time when the traffic was perfectly reputable. So profound was his convic- tion of the evil of the business that he destroyed even the measures that he had used in dealing out the bever- age to his customers. He was very scrupulous in his dealings, and a great practical joker. Many stories are told of the old gentleman's eccentricities. We can pic- ture him as a man straightforward and fearless, sanguine and hilarious ; in bodily presence
" a man of glee, With hair of glittering grey; As blithe a man as you could see On a spring holiday."
EBEN TAPPAN, son of the above, began his business career with his father in the mercantile line, and in building and employing vessels in the coasting trade. He afterward became a manufacturer of furniture and of ships' steering-wheels. He became well known, also, as a builder of fire-engines. 1 He was a member of the Legislature in 1843 and 1844. In 1818 he was
1 l'ide p. 311.
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Colonel of a Regiment of Militia composed of Beverly and Manchester men.
Dea. DELUCENA L. BINGHAM, a native of Canterbury, Conn., came to Manchester to teach school, in 1785. He was then nineteen years of age. He afterward filled many town offices : was Town Clerk twenty-nine years, Representative to the General Court in 1824, the first Postmaster of the town, holding the office for thirty-four years, and a deacon of the church for thirty- two years. Rev. Mr. Emerson, his pastor, wrote of him shortly after his death, which occurred Oct. 25, 1837: " His religion bore the stamp of a mind of something more than ordinary intellectual endowment ; to this was added a cheerfulness blended and softened with humil- ity. No man more conscientiously avoided saying or doing anything that would engender strife among neighbors." He was a man of marked character, and left an influence in the community which showed that his life had been a blessing and that his death was a public bereavement.
Captain RICHARD TRASK commenced his seafaring life by a voyage to the Grand Banks at the age of twelve years. He subsequently entered the merchant service, and rapidly rose until he obtained command of a ship, the " Adriatic" of Boston. He had few opportunities of early education, but having an active mind and an in- domitable will, he made headway against wind and tide, and became one of the most successful shipmasters of his time. In 1828, he became connected with Enoch Train & Co., in the Russia trade. He commanded some of their best vessels and had an interest in the business. In 1839, the Company built the " St. Peters- burg," a ship of eight hundred and sixty tons, the largest merchant ship that had been built in Massachusetts.
John PUllen
Johnny. Price
The Beach
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Her size, carrying capacity and furnishings, including costly woods, ent glass and silver ware, attracted atten- tion even in European ports. Capt. Trask made his last voyages in this vessel. He retired from the sea abont 1844, and died at his home in Manchester, Aug. 6, 1846, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
Captain THOMAS LEACHI was born in Manchester in 1807. His father was a noted mariner who had sailed in the employ of William Gray. Young Leach was bred to the ocean from boyhood. His father intending to make him a first-class sailor, the discipline of ship- board was never relaxed in his favor. In 1832, he be- came Captain of the brig " Oregon," and made success- ful voyages for many years to Russia, China, and many other ports. For fifty-one years, his home was on the ocean wave. He had many adventures and some mar- vellous escapes. These he was fond of recounting to sympathetic hearers, and could tell a story with a good deal of humor. One of his thrilling experiences is narrated in substance as follows: On one of his East Indian voyages, Capt. Leach sighted one day a suspic- ious craft, which proved to be a prou, crowded with bloodthirsty Malays; the pirates with their sweeps soon overhauled him, but when almost within range, seeing the warlike appearance of the ship with its mounted cannon and its crew armed with cutlasses, prudently hauled off and left the brave Yankee skipper to pursue his homeward voyage in peace.
His last active service was as Port Warden of Bos- ton, an office which he held for twelve years, until fail- ing health compelled his retirement. Captain Leach was a vigorous, self-reliant, self-made man, of cheerful temperament and kindly disposition. Few men better fitted for the position ever trod the quarter-deck, or in
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their own community received more universally the re- spect of their fellow-citizens. He died, in the house in which he was born, Dec. 5, 1886.
Capt. JOHN CARTER began his profession in the fish- ing fleet at the age of fourteen. He soon shipped on a merchantman, was mate at twenty-two, and at twenty- seven was promoted to a captaincy ; he was almost con- stantly afloat, either on the waters of the Atlantic or the Pacific, until he was sixty-five years old, when he re- tired to his home and well-earned rest. Like the two above mentioned, Captain Carter's success was the re- sult of patient industry and unremitting attention to his duties. In a serene and peaceful old age, Capt. Carter lives surrounded by children, grandchildren and neigh- bors, who love and respect him for his sterling worth. He is waiting in calmness his orders to sail for the Un- seen Port.
JOHN PERRY ALLEN has already been noticed in the account of the Cabinet-making, of which he might almost have said " all of which I saw and a great part of which I was." Mr. Allen was a man of great force of character and executive ability, and had great in- fluence in town affairs. While not a man of liberal education, he was a forceful speaker and his impressive bearing added power to his speech. Few men have done more for the business interests of the place, or manifested a more marked ingenuity or a more indomi- table pluek in overcoming adverse circumstances. His name is a name to conjure with to the present day.
LARKIN WOODBERRY was not a native of Manchester, but the town has had few citizens of whom it has had more reason to be proud. He was at one time an ex- tensive manufacturer, but he met with reverses in busi- ness, adding another to the long list of excellent men
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who are not successful in life from a material and finan- cial point of view. Mr. Woodberry was a man of ster- ling character, a strong temperance man, a warm friend of education, and a leader in the Anti-Slavery ranks. He was one of the originators and strongest supporters of the Lyceum, and though never seeking office, his opinion on public matters always carried weight. Many men have brought the wealth of gold and silver to the town, of whom nothing more can be said. Mr. Woodberry brought to it the wealth of brains, charac- ter and life.
Dr. ASA STORY was one of " Nature's noblemen." He was for many years not only the physician of the town 1, but also one of its most public-spirited citizens. He was a man of large calibre, and one who did with his might what his hands found to do. His character had in it a " strain of rareness." Dr. Story was born in Essex, July 20, 1796. While working in his father's saw-mill, he was in the habit of studying evenings and nights, walking three miles on every alternate evening to recite. He graduated at Dartmouth College, where he also studied medicine and received his medical de- gree. After spending one year in Washington, D. C., he came to Manchester, well-equipped for his life work. He was a man of great integrity, honor, and benevolence of disposition. He never refused though at the cost of great personal inconvenience to respond to calls upon his service, even from those from whom he could expect no remuneration. His son, Charles R. Story of San Fran- cisco, remembers that when he was a boy, his father was called up one winter night and was obliged to climb
1 Dr. David A. Grosvenor preceded Dr. Story, from 1810 to 1820. Dr. Lakeman was here from 1801, for some years; before him were Drs. Nor- wood and Whipple. See Index. There is very scanty knowledge of the earlier physicians.
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in by the barn window to get a shovel to remove the drifted snow, in order to get his horse out, then riding to a distant part of the town to see a patient who already owed him a bill for attendance and was never likely to pay a cent. Dr. Story has left no family in town, but his name is held in honor among us.
OBED CARTER was a man of somewhat eccentric traits of character, who served the town as Treasurer through more than a generation. Some amusing stories are told, which illustrate equally his simplicity, his primitive method of keeping his accounts with the town, and his unimpeachable honesty. In 1846, the following Resolution, offered by Jonathan Hassam, was adopted by the town :
Resolved, That Obed Carter, Esq' is justly entitled to, and should receive a vote of thanks of the citizens of Manchester for the faithful Zealous and Honourable Discharge of the ar- dnous duties devolved on him in the Treasury Department for Forty years and upwards.
It is worth recording as one of the humors of the time, that the Moderator would often say when the polls were open, "Gentlemen, bring in your votes for Obed Carter for Treasurer "; and, a few votes having been cast, would declare the polls closed. Those were days when office sought the man, and not the man the office.
ISRAEL FORSTER was born May 28, 1779. He studied at Phillips Academy, Andover. He was selectman for many years and had great influence in the town. He built a grist-mill on the site of the old Bennett mill property, introducing all the improvements known; adjoining the mill, he built a wharf, warehouses, and flakes for drying fish. He gained the reputation of cur- ing fish better than most of his competitors, and thus es- tablished a large business. With his brother, he built a
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schooner of one hundred tons for the Grand Banks fish- eries. Mr. Forster was much interested in military affairs, and was Major of the Militia in 1812. He represented the town in the Legislature in 1810 and in 1836. His residence, built in 1804, remains as an excellent speci- men of the architecture of the early part of the century ; it was known for many years as the summer home of his grandson, George C. Leach of Boston.
EZEKIEL W. LEACHI was born in Manchester, July 1, 1809. He received his collegiate training at Amherst, and studied medicine with Dr. George S. Shattuck of Boston, taking his medical degree in 1835. Soon after commencing his medical practice in Boston he united with the Baldwin Place Baptist Church, during the min- istry of the eminent Baron Stow. He was very active in church and educational matters, and held several offices. He served the city in the Legislature in 1839 and 1840; and was again elected in 1841, but from ill- ness was obliged to resign. Dr. Leach was never a man of robust health, and a change to a milder climate being deemed advisable, he went South, and afterward took passage from Savannah to Havre, dying on the passage, at the age of thirty-three. He was a man universally respected and loved. For many years Dr. Leach inter- ested himself in the history of the town, and left at his death a large collection of materials in manu- script, which is deposited in the Library of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society.
MRS. ABIGAIL HOOPER TRASK. - Widow of Capt. Richard Trask; she was the oldest resident of Manches- ter at the time of her death, March 3, 1885, being of the age of ninety-six years and five months. In her prime there was probably not a person in town who ex- celled her in business capacity. She kept herself in
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touch with the present in a remarkable manner, and maintained up to her last illness a regular correspond- ence. She was one of the " chief women " of Manches- ter, and one whom convention could not keep down.
LEWIS N. TAPPAN, son of Col. Eben Tappan, was born June 25, 1831. Mr. Tappan was in business some years in Boston. In 1857, he went to Kansas, and was Secretary of the Senate under the Topeka Constitution. He was one of the Fort Scott Treaty Commissioners, and one of the fifteen armed men who captured the box containing the altered election returns at Lecompton.1 The discovery of this fraud resulted in the overthrow of ' the Pro-Slavery party in Kansas. Those were perilous times, and they called for brave and resolute men, who could well claim to be the advance guard of liberty ; men who could say,
" We tread the prairie as of old Our fathers sailed the sea, And make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free."
In 1859, Mr. Tappan joined the Colorado pioneers, was a member of the first city government at Denver, a member of Governor Gilpin's Council, and one of Governor Cummings' staff. He organized the first Sun- day school in Colorado, started the first smelting-works, and opened the first store in the territory. Returning to Manchester, Mr. Tappan was elected to the Legisla- ture in 1877. He was a man of public spirit, conscien- tiousness and integrity, and was much respected by his fellow citizens. He was identified with the interests of the Baptist church while he was a resident in town. His death occurred on the 25th of February, 1880, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
1 American Commonwealths; Kansas, p. 229.
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APPENDIX K.
SAMUEL FORSTER TAPPAN was born June 29, 1831. He learned the chairmaker's trade, but afterward went into business in Boston. In 1854, he went to Kansas with the earliest company of emigrants from Massachu- setts, and located on the site of the present city of Law- rence. Later in the same year, a city government was organized, and Mr. Tappan was elected Alderman. The " Border Ruffians " were at this time carrying elections by fraud and force, and mobbing and murdering gener- ally. Mr. Tappan was one of a determined band who saved Kansas for Freedom. He canvassed Southern and Western Kansas, was Secretary of the House of Representatives and acting Speaker when it was dis- persed by United States troops under orders from the Pro-Slavery administration, was Clerk of the House in 1856, Secretary of the two Constitutional Conventions, and active in the whole struggle that resulted in driving out the myrmidons of Slavery and enrolling Kansas among the Free States.
In 1860, Mr. Tappan removed to Colorado, and the next year was commissioned Captain in the First Colo- rado Volunteers. After seeing active service in break- ing up a gang of desperadoes that terrorized the settle- ments, and receiving severe wounds afterward at the hands of some of the outlaws, he was promoted as Lieu- tenant Colonel, and instructed to increase his command to a full regiment. In 1861 and '62, Colonel Tappan rendered most efficient service in holding Colorado for the Union, and with the aid of some Regulars and other Volunteers driving the rebels from Utah and New Mex- ico. The plan of cutting off the Pacific coast from the Union was thus thwarted. The regiment was subse- quently mounted, and during the rest of the War held the frontier against Indian attacks and rebel raids, Mr. Tappan having the rank of Colonel. Mr. Tappan has
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since served on the Indian Peace Commission, and also as Superintendent of an Indian Industrial School in Nebraska. His life has been largely given to securing freedom for the black man, and equal rights for the Indian. He now resides in Washington, D. C.
HENRY C. LEACH, son of Benjamin Leach, was born Oct. 9, 1832. His home was in St. Louis from 1855 to 1861, spending the summers of 1856 and '57 in Kansas and aiding in the early contest in that Territory for free soil. He was active at the outbreak of the Rebellion as a member of a military organization, the object of which was to hold Missouri in the Union. In 1863, Mr. Leach removed to Colorado, and went into business at Den- ver. He was elected to the Territorial Council in 1865, serving two years, and was President of the body. This was before the days of the Pacific Railroad, and Colo- rado was separated from the East by 600 miles of track- less plains. To the North was an unexplored wilder- ness, inhabited by Indian tribes with whom the pioneers were compelled to carry on a harassing border warfare. In 1865, a Constitution was adopted at an irregular elec- tion which was obnoxious to a majority of the citizens. Mr. Leach and Col. Samuel F. Tappan spent the winter in Washington, and succeeded by enlisting the interest of Charles Sumner and others in securing the rejection of the Bill for the admission of Colorado. The time was one of intense political excitement, not unmingled with personal peril at times to the actors. Mob law was often in the ascendant, and "Judge Lynch " frequently held court. Things were in a nebulous state, " slow rounding into form." Since Mr. Leach returned East, he has been in business in Boston, having his home in Salem. For a few years past, he has made his summer residence among us, at the old homestead on the " Plain."
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Capt. WILLIAM A. ANDREWS, son of Asa Andrews, was born in 1843, in the house now owned and occu- pied by Mr. J. Radford Lord. His grandfather, Zebulon Andrews of Essex, taught navigation, and was pilot of United States ship " Ohio " on her voyage to the Mediterranean, and was said to be the only man who could navigate that vessel, a seventy-four gun ship of the old type. The grandson performed a more hazardous feat in navigating alone a small boat from Atlantic City to Palos, Spain, in the summer of 1892, arriving in the latter city in time to take part in the festivities held there in honor of the discoverer of the New World. Captain Andrews received great atten- tions from the Government and was presented to the Queen. The boat, which passed through town Jan. 22, 1895, and was seen by many of our people, is 14 ft. 6 in. long over all, and is a canvas-covered folding boat, decked over, excepting a cock-pit 2 ft. by 3 ft. and 6 ft. long, fitted with a sliding hatch. She carries 350 lbs. of lead on her keel.
JOHN LEE, son of Andrew Lee, was born Dec. 6, 1813. He was identified with town affairs for an unusually long period. He served on the Board of Selectmen twenty-five years, and for a considerable part of the time was also town clerk. He was Repre- sentative in the Legislature in 1847, '48 and '68. He was a man of strength of character, and an able de- fender of the town's rights in instances when they were imperilled. Mr. Lee was greatly interested in historical and antiquarian matters, and contributed to the Beetle and Wedge, during the brief term of its ex- istence, a number of articles on the earlier history of the town. He kept a Diary for many years which is a mine of information on local events. Mr. Lee died July 9, 1879.
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These are among those who were either the "Mak- ers" of Manchester, or who went forth from its shops and shores to plant New England institutions and ideas on other soil and beneath other skies. There were others worthy of equal mention, who lived less event- ful lives, or concerning whom only scanty memories or traditions remain, but whose names deserve to be " writ large " in the respect and gratitude of posterity. "The time would fail " to tell of the Bennetts, the Leaches, the Marsterses, the Wests, the Normans, the Hiltons, the Knowltons, the Edwardses, the Sibleys, the Bishops, the Herricks, the Hassams, the Hoopers, who fished the seas, subdued the forest, laid out the roads, built the wharves, served the Church and State, and ruled the Town. Many of them were men of such strong individuality that it needs but slight effort of the imagination to reinvest them with a personal inter- est, till " only they who live in history seem to walk the earth again."
APPENDIX L.
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.
ANCESTRAL NAME AND HOME OF THE ALLENS. The name of Allen, or as it is variously spelled, Allin, Allan, Allyn, is doubtless the same as that of the noted non-conformist preacher and author, Joseph Alleine, born 1634, who is supposed to have been a descendant of Alan, Lord of Buckenhall, in the reign of the first Edward. The Alans of England are thus traced to a Suffolk ancestor. Is it not possible that some of the Allens came from Yarmouth, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, and gave the name to that part of the town which they settled, and which later became known as " North Yarmouth " to distinguish it from Yarmouth on Cape Cod ? A confirmation of this theory may per- haps be found in the name early given to the " Row," from the ancient streets called " Rows " in the English Yarmouth; also, in the quaint lines on Capt. John Allen's gravestone (p. 275), which are found in seaside graveyards on the eastern coast of England.
THE WILL OF WILLIAM ALLEN. - Copied from First Book (Old Series), page 72, Essex Probate Records :
WILLIAM ALLEN'S WILL.
the last will of Wim: Allen Sen' of Manchester made the 7: June 78:
Imp's. I doe make my wife Elizabeth Allen my full & Sole executrix of all my lands & goods during her life: & after the death of my wife, to be disposed in manner & forme, as followeth, that is to say, I give to my sonn samuell the remainder of ye 25 acre lott; which he alreddy pos- sesseth, that is to say the vplands & the share of ye fresh meddow belonging therevnto, I giue to my two sonns onesiphorus & William Allen, my whole 50 acre lott, with
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