USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 42
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His name, Peter Chardon (Pierre Chardon), was taken from that of an intimate friend and classmate of his father, who was of one of the Huguenot families that came from France to this country about 1685. . Peter Chardon, sen., lived in Bowdoin Square, at the corner of the street bear- ing his name, and where the Baptist Church now stands. He died March, 1775, aged seventy-two.
A memoir of Mr. Brooks by his son-in-law, Hon. Edward Everett, was published in the "New-England Historical and Genealogical Register" for 1854-55, and subsequently in the " Merchants' Magazine," " Hunt's Lives of Ameri- can Merchants," and in Mr. Everett's works, vol. v.
EDWARD BROOKS.
The subject of our present sketch was the eldest son of the Hon. Peter C. Brooks of Medford. He was born in Boston, in 1793, and, during the later years of his life, was a resident of this town. He died in Medford in 1878, aged eighty-four years. Mr. Brooks graduated at Harvard, in the class of 1812, and studied law in the office of the Hon. Benjamin Gorham, his uncle.
In the years 1834-37 and 1842, he represented the city of Boston in the State Legislature.
In the early stages of the temperance agitation he was its ardent supporter. He aided Dr. Howe with all his energy in establishing the Perkins Institution for the Blind.
He was the first president of the General Theological Library, in which he took an eager interest.
The Boston Public Library owes to him an original portrait of Franklin, by Duplessis. The grammar school in West Medford is indebted to his liberality and interest. The school bears his name.
1798 - 1880
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
GORHAM BROOKS.
Gorham Brooks, the second son of Peter Chardon Brooks, was born in Medford, Feb. 10, 1795. He pre- pared for college at Phillips Academy, and graduated at Harvard University in the class of 1814. He studied law in the office of Hon. Joseph Lyman of Northampton; but, not finding the legal profession congenial to his tastes, he soon abandoned it for mercantile pursuits.
He was married, in 1829, to the daughter of Mr. R. D. Shepherd of Shepherdstown, Va. In 1833, he became a member of the business-firm of W. C. Mayhew & Co., in Baltimore, Md., and afterwards of the firm of Brooks and Harrison, of the same city, where he resided for several years.
In 1840, he returned to Massachusetts, and lived upon the farm adjoining his father's, in Medford, and in the house that was built by his great-grandfather, Samuel Brooks; devoting the last fifteen years of his life largely to agricultural pursuits, for which he had a great fondness.
Mr. Brooks was a highly intellectual man, a great reader, and, having a retentive memory, was well informed upon nearly all historical and literary matters. His conversa- tional powers were brilliant. Humor sparkled in his most quiet and ordinary sayings ; and hours spent in his society were replete with entertainment and instruction.
In politics he was a stanch Democrat. He had no de- sire to be prominent in his party. He sought no position in public life ; although, in 1847, he was induced to repre- sent his town in the House of Representatives.
Mr. Brooks died Sept. 10, 1855, leaving a widow and two sons. His sons are Peter C. Brooks and Shepherd Brooks, who now reside in houses which they built on their father's estate, near the Winchester town-line.
PETER CHARDON BROOKS, 2D.
Peter Chardon Brooks, the fifth child and fourth son of Peter C. and Ann (Gorham) Brooks, was born in Boston, Aug. 26, 1798, and died there June 3, 1880. Early, as well as late in his married life, he was a householder in Boston ; but for many years after his mother's death, he lived with his father in Medford and Boston. Mr. Brooks was educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter. As a mer-
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chant and ship-owner, he was for several years in business on Central Wharf, Boston, of the firm of Sargent & Brooks. He was a quiet man, of simple tastes, reserved habits, bluff, hearty manners, strong but undemonstrative feelings, clear convictions, conservative, but unobtrusive. Though he took no part in public affairs, he was intelli- gently acquainted with them, and in a private, silent way, helped what was best in society. He was a man of pro- fuse benevolence. A Unitarian, and a member of the old First Church of Boston, where he was baptized Sept. 2, 1798, he was devoted to all the duties of his membership. He married, early in life, Miss Susan Oliver Heard of Boston, but had no children.
Much might be said, did space allow, of this representa- tive gentleman of the old school ; but his character has been indicated in what has been here written; and more has been said than, in his modesty, he would have cared to see in print.
DR. DANIEL SWAN.
Dr. Swan was a native of Charlestown, Mass., and was born Feb. 28, 1781. He was unfortunate in his youth ; his health having been greatly impaired by a severe at- tack of small-pox when he was thirteen years old; and through life he suffered from lameness, the result of a fall in his childhood.
He graduated at Harvard College, in the class of 1803, and soon after engaged in teaching the only public school for boys in Medford, to which town his father had previ- ously removed.
Among his pupils in that school, were some famous lads, known afterwards as Dr. David Osgood, Dr. Convers Francis, and Rev. Charles Brooks, the author of the first History of Medford. These men always spoke of him in words of sincere and loving admiration, feeling that they owed to the young schoolmaster, in no small degree, their scholarly attainments and success in life.
But teaching was not to be his life-work; and after a few years he made choice of the profession of medicine, and studied with Dr. John Brooks, then the resident phy- sician of Medford. He improved all the advantages to be derived from such association with that skilful and distin- guished physician, and commenced practice in Brighton, in the year 1808, where, for eight years, he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the community.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
In 1816 Dr. Brooks was elected Governor of the Com- monwealth, and the inhabitants of Medford invited Dr. Swan to become his successor as physician. The young physician, appreciating the handsome compliment, ac- cepted the invitation, and at once entered upon a large and lucrative practice.
On the 25th of May, 1821, Dr. Swan was married by Rev. Andrew Bigelow, to Miss Sarah Preston, whose acquaintance he made during professional visits at the home of her father, Mr. Remember Preston, a gentleman of large wealth.
In 1826 Mr. Preston died, and Dr. Swan, through his wife, came into possession of a large fortune; and, as he had no children, he began a work of systematic benevo- lence, which was as liberal as it was discriminating, and which continued while he lived.
Early in his practice, his attention was directed to the system of medical practice known as homœopathy, and it won his approval. He soon was an enthusiastic advo- cate of the new philosophy of medicine, and in his prac- tice demonstrated its efficacy.
He had great faith in the health-preserving potency of sunshine; and he deprecated the practice of darkening rooms, and multiplying shade-trees near dwellings. He believed, also, in the sunshine of the face and heart ; and he carried it with him into the homes of his patients, where he was welcomed not only as the " beloved physi- cian," but as the generous benefactor. During the last period of his professional work, he made no charge for his services ; and when he found that he must retire from general practice, he continued to prescribe for the poor at his own house.
He was a much-esteemed member of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Society, and also of the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society ; and though many physicians differed with him theoretically, they all accorded to him conscientious convictions and great skill in his profession.
Dr. Swan did not limit his charities to the field of his duties as a physician. His love of country was strong and active. He contributed liberally to sustain the gov- ernment during the Rebellion, and to mitigate the suffer ings of those who went forth to uphold the flag. Indeed, his charities always flowed in a steady and well-directed current. He gave money, fuel, raiment, and provisions,
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according to the need of the recipients. On Thanksgiv- ing Day, it was his custom to carry or send to the deserv- ing poor in his neighborhood, something substantial and welcome for their tables; and it may be truly said of him, " His heart was in his hands."
When he could do so, without neglecting his patients, he was a regular attendant on religious service. He gave the land on which the First Parish of Medford built its parsonage. He had cheerful views of the future life, and was a true friend of liberal Christianity. In a memorial sermon by Rev. E. C. Towne, special mention was made of the breadth of his religious views. His soul was too loving and hopeful to doubt of the final outcome of God's plan of salvation ; and his heart throbbed in sympathy with all sincere believers, of whatever church. His aim was to glorify God by an active and sympathetic fellow- ship with man.
After arriving to manhood, he enjoyed a fair degree of health, until within a fortnight of his decease. He died Dec. 5, 1864, in the eighty-fourth year of his age ; and an immense concourse of relatives and friends followed his body to the grave. He left a handsome bequest to the " Secomb Fund," for the benefit of the poor, which act was duly noticed in the Town Report of 1865.
DUDLEY IIALL.
Dudley Hall, the eldest son of Benjamin and Lucy (Tufts) Hall, was a citizen of Medford deservedly es- teemed. He was born in Medford, Oct. 14, 1780, and was educated in the public schools of the town. He was a business man of broad ideas and thoroughly honest purposes. In his earlier years he was prominent in the public affairs of the town, and throughout his life was warmly interested in its prosperity. He was a friend of the friendless in life, and left something substantial at his death for their benefit, as has been noticed elsewhere. He died Nov. 3, 1868.
GALEN JAMES.
The second of twelve children, Galen James was born in Scituate, Sept. 29, 1790. Soon after turning his twenty- first year, he came to Medford to acquire the art of ship- building in the yard and under the eye of the late Thatcher Magoun.
1
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Having learned his trade, he aspired to embark in the business on his own account; and accordingly, in 1816, he formed a co-partnership with the late Isaac Sprague, which continued for many years, till, in 1842, they launched " The Altorf," their sixty-sixth vessel, and last.
Though financially successful in business, he had, all the while, a higher aim than the bare making of money. To this his many apprentices, and the men with whom he dealt, would amply testify. Obedient to the principle that no man should live for himself alone, he devoted much time to the affairs of the town and of the church, and was deeply interested in all the philanthropic movements of his time. Conscience, enlightened by habitual study of the Divine Word, and by a deep sense of human need, was, in all his undertakings, the guide which he followed, and with such resolution and zeal as usually insured success.
His independent thinking, his originality, his foresight, his faith, and his courage fitted him better to lead men than to follow them. His aims and his plans were some- what in advance of his time; and whether applied to mor- als, education, or religion, his motto was "Excelsior." He early espoused the then unpopular cause of temperance, and pleaded stoutly for total abstinence and prohibition.
Not satisfied with the educational appointments of the day, he boldly pleaded with the town of his adoption to do better by its offspring than other towns were doing by theirs; and to establish a free school where the sexes could enjoy equal advantages in the pursuit of the higher branches of education. As it would add one-half to the school-tax of the town, the project was at first vigorously opposed ; but Deacon James, with one or two others alike progressive, large-hearted, and philanthropic, so insisted upon the utility of the scheme, that, as an outgrowth of the discussion, our high school, almost the first of the more than a hundred and seventy like institutions now supported in the State, was established in 1835.
For many years he served with marked efficiency upon the board of school committee; and, in his old age, was justly honored in having one of the new town schools called by his name. He also, for some years, served the town as chairman of the board of selectmen, and in various other important capacities.
He early united with the only church then existing in Medford ; and, in 1824, was prominent in the small colony
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which went out therefrom to found the Second Congrega- tional, afterward called the First Trinitarian Congregational Church of Medford. His remarkable familiarity with the Scriptures, his habit of terse and clear explanation, and his skill in making practical application of the truth, made him a most interesting and successful superintendent and teacher in the Sunday school.
In practical benevolence he had but few rivals. Prac- tising the most becoming economy in his personal and family expenses, he dealt out his income with a lavish hand for the poor, the ignorant, the benighted, and the afflicted. Besides contributing generously to sustain his own church, his purse was opened freely to other churches and to other denominations ; and those soliciting benefac- tions seldom left his door with empty hands.
In 1848, though once having retired from business, he was led to embark in a new and very responsible enter- prise. His strong convictions that the presentation of truth should be direct, clear, pungent, and earnest, com- pelled him to feel that the religious press of the day was not speaking out as boldly and strongly upon many vital questions as it should do. And there came before his mind the possibility of a publication that would fulfil his ideal of what a weekly religious paper ought to be. To supply that need, he, after consulting with competent advisers in the ministry, established " The Congregation- alist" in Boston ; and, with Deacon Edward W. Fay of Medford as a business partner, issued, May 24, 1849, the first number of what, before he left it, became the leading organ of his denomination in New England. He risked in the enterprise a large sum of money; and, for several years, reaped no pecuniary return. His wisdom and his perseverance, however, at length prevailed. Though he never attempted to write the editorials of his paper, he chose its editors with his usual discrimination ; and it is but justice to say that every one of them greatly respected his practical wisdom, and sought his judgment upon all the important articles that were published in the paper.
After the death of Deacon Fay in 1855, he took in two competent business partners ; and then, as the weight of his years increased, he gradually withdrew from the man- agement of the paper till about 1866, when he relinquished it altogether.
May 26, 1817, Deacon James married Miss Mary Rand
JAIWEG.
HISTORY OF MEDFORD. 459
Turner, a daughter of the Hon. Charles Turner of Scitu- ate. She bore him eight children, all of whom, except the late Rev. Horace James and Mrs. Matilda T. Haskins, died in early childhood. The devoted mother followed her six little ones, Dec. 13, 1831 ; and, on May 15, 1833, he married Miss Amanda Jacobs, also of Scituate, and an aunt of the late Hon. Charles Sumner. After her decease, which occurred Feb. 23, 1871, he lived with his daughter, at whose house he died, April 14, 1879, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, terminating there a life of usefulness such as is very rarely seen. Though he has passed from our sight, the eloquence of his life is still with us; and the voice of his benevolence, his zeal, his faith, his self-denial, his love to God and his sympathy for man, urges on the living to a like nobility of purpose and of action.
GEORGE LUTHER STEARNS.
In the parish register of Nayland, county of Suffolk, Eng., is recorded the baptism of two little girls, - Mary, born Jan. 6, 1626, and Anna, born Oct. 5, 1628; daugh- ters of Isaac Stearns, who with his wife, on the 12th of April, 1630, embarked for America in the "Arbella," fel- low passengers with Gov. Winthrop, Rev. George Phillips, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others of "The Massachu- setts Company." I It is pleasant also to remember that with them came Edward Garfield, ancestor of our revered President Garfield.
Of this number, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Edward Gar- field, and Isaac Stearns settled in Watertown, near what is now Mount Auburn, and were admitted freemen May 18, 1631, - which, Dr. Bond says, was the earliest date of any such admission. Isaac Stearns was selectman seve- ral years, and held other offices of trust. His will, with autograph signature, is to be found on the files of the probate-office of Middlesex County, and shows a goodly estate for that early time.
In the fifth direct generation from Isaac Stearns, we find Hon. Josiah Stearns of Lunenburg, Mass., who was born March 28, 1750. In 1775 he commanded a company of fifty men from Lunenburg, and until the close of the century served his country with singular liberality and devotion, - always in public life. In 1776 he was one
1 Dr. Bond's History of Watertown.
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of the "Committee of Correspondence,"' a position of exceptional trust and responsibility. The epitaph on his grave at Lunenburg records the fidelity and superiority of his character and public services. He died in 1822.
Dr. Luther Stearns, oldest child of Hon. Josiah Stearns, was born at Lunenburg, Feb. 17, 1770. He entered Dart- mouth College, but was graduated from Harvard Univer- sity in 1791, receiving his degree from both Dartmouth and Harvard. He was tutor in Harvard College; and subsequently studied medicine with Dr. John Brooks of Medford, who relinquished his practice to his favorite pupil and cherished friend, when he was elected Governor of Massachusetts.
He was a man of large views and generous nature ; honored for his virtues and fine scholarship. His sympa- thetic and sensitive temperament made surgical opera- tions terrible to him, unrelieved as they then were by modern anasthetics. The strain upon his nerves forced him to relinquish his profession, in which he had secured distinction and honors from Harvard.
His classical scholarship and elevated character signally qualified him for the duties of teacher ; and the school he established in Medford became the leading academy of the United States.
In December, 1799, he married Mary Hall, daughter of Col. Willis Hall of Medford. Her grandfather was the Hon. Stephen Hall, who for many years represented the town in the Provincial Congress, - a man of pronounced character and influence. His granddaughter Mary inher- ited many of his characteristics; and the sudden death of Dr. Stearns summoned all the strength and fortitude of her character to the formidable task of continuing the large school, then at the top of its prosperity. Bravely she grappled with the financial, domestic, and other prob- lems, bringing them, finally, to successful issues.
She was left with three children : viz., Elizabeth Hall, born Feb. 14, 1806, who died unmarried in early woman- hood ; George Luther, born Jan. 8, 1809; and Henry Laurens, who was born March 30, 1812, and died unmar- ried in June, 1859.
The death of Mrs. Stearns occurred in June, 1853, at the advanced age of eighty-three years.
It is not possible, within the limits of this work, to do
I See Life of Samuel Adams.
HISTORY OF MEDFORD. 461
any thing like justice to the character and public services of George Luther Stearns. Neither is selection of parts an easy task, where the whole is rich in values. He was well born and well bred, - a gentleman in the original significance of the word. The source of his power was a great conscience, and an absolute inability to do any thing for merely selfish ends ; an idealist, who put thought into deed; such as make the heroes of history, and the poet's verse.
We first see him a fair, rosy child, with beautiful brown eyes and sunny hair, singing all day long, -" irrepressibly happy," his mother used to say, and of tireless activity. He was only eleven years old when his father died, - a calamity which deprived him of his best friend, and a university education for which careful training had nearly prepared him. He never lost the memory of this desolat- ing grief. A gravity and seriousness succeeded to that early joy, and remained a marked characteristic of man- ner, veiling but not concealing the perennial cheerfulness and unfailing hope which were a tower of strength to himself and others in the subsequent pinches of life. After two or three years at school, he was placed as store- boy in the mercantile house of Henry Chapman, State Street, Boston, and while a clerk was associated with Rev. R. C. Waterston and Miss E. P. Peabody, in the Bethel Sunday school, and city missions ; at the same time ten- derly caring for his widowed mother and his younger brother. The sensitive delicacy inherited from his father was re-enforced by the energy and courage of his mother ; and underlying all, was a profoundly religious nature. His sweetness and generosity won all hearts, while his nobility and integrity of character drew to him the respect and confidence of all communities where he was known. The period from his father's death to successful establishment in business was one of unceasing struggle, not seldom of bitter trial.
The date of his marriage with Mary Ann Train, daugh- ter of Samuel Train of Medford, is not at hand ; but it must have been somewhere from his twenty-seventh to thirtieth year.
After her death, about 1840, he became one of the firm of Albert Fearing & Co., No. I, City Wharf, Boston. At the age of thirty-four he married Mary E., daughter of Hon. Warren Preston of Bangor, Me. Their children
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were, Henry Laurens, born Nov. 29, 1844; Francis Pres- ton, born Jan. 4, 1846, who was graduated from Harvard University in 1867; and Carl, born June 26, 1854, and who died Dec. 7, 1877.
In April, 1845, he established his residence on the handsome site opposite Tufts College, devoting his leisure to its improvement in orchards and garden. He delighted in trees and flowers, in fields of waving grain, in fine cat- tle and horses. The magnetism of character drew around him the best culture of the country ; while his doors stood wide open to exiles, and the oppressed of all lands, and within them the hunted slave found security and peace. To use the words of Samuel Johnson, "The leaders of thought took counsel together at his board. Personally intimate with scholars, artists, philosophers, religious re- formers, he mediated between the best American thought, and the popular life which awaits this as its own natural expression.
About 1845 he withdrew from the firm of Albert Fear- ing & Co., and engaged in the manufacture of lead-pipe and sheet-lead. The machinery which he invented gave him a certain advantage over all that kind of production in the United States. The perfection of the work, to- gether with the liberality and integrity of his methods, placed him at the head of that business in New England. " Wealth honorably earned flowed into his hands, by natu- ral attractions to right uses ; and no man ever rendered such constant help as he did, public and private, with less demonstration, or even of pause to notice what he did. His benefactions were incessant and unstinted : we can- not remember them, for he allowed no record. When asked by the Senate Committee how much he had given John Brown, he replied, ' I cannot tell : I keep no account of what I give to others.' But his best gift, after all, was the meaning that citizenship acquired in him ; a republican faith that ventured every thing on the fidelity of the people, and guarded their right and honor as men adore a revelation." 3
But the hour was at hand when right must be more beautiful than private affection. The passage of the Fu- gitive Slave Bill in 1850; the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, three years later, speedily followed by the " Kansas- Nebraska Act," opening that vast territory to
3 Samuel Johnson in The Radical, 1867.
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slavery, - alarmed all sane persons for the safety of free institutions. Instant and incessant, from that time for- ward, were the labors of Mr. Stearns, -"without haste, and without rest."
During the last week of May, 1856, Charles Sumner was struck down in the Senate Chamber of the United States, by Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, for words spoken in debate; and the town of Lawrence in the Terri- tory of Kansas was burned by the emissaries of slavery from Missouri. The excitement in Boston was at white heat. A meeting was called for the relief of Kansas, in Faneuil Hall, which resulted in the formation of a com- mittee to obtain funds in aid of the Free-state settlers. On the spur of the moment, some eighteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars was collected, chiefly in large sums. Very soon the work stopped, and nothing more came of it. With this committee, Mr. Stearns worked from the first ; but seeing the pressing need of more active and extended operations, and being willing to devote all his time to the cause, he was unanimously chosen chairman of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, which then took the place of that first appointed, and continued and extended the work throughout the State.
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