USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Westford > History of the town of Westford, in the county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, 1659-1883 > Part 26
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Morris E. Jones, 1862.
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HISTORY OF WESTFORD.
William A. Webster, 1868; removed to Manchester, New Hampshire.
Edward C. Atwood, 1875. Joseph B. Heald, 1879.
LAWYERS.
John Prescott, Jr., removed to Groton. John Abbot, died in 1854. John W. P. Abbot, died in 1872.
CHAPTER XII.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Rev. Phineas Wright, for seventeen years pastor of the church in Bolton, Massachusetts .* Died, at Bolton, on the 26th of December, 1802, of a paralytic shock, the Rev. Phineas Wright, pastor of the church and congregation there, in the 56th year of his age, and the 18th of his min- istry. His remains were respectfully interred on the 30th of the same month. The death of so worthy and useful a min- ister cannot but be considered as a great infliction, not only to his relatives and the society with which he was immediately connected, but to the public at large.
The Rev. Mr. Wright was born in Westford, of reput- able parents, and received the first honors of Harvard Uni- versity, in Cambridge, at the commencement in the year 1772. During his residence at college, such were his correct morals and amiable deportment that he enjoyed the respect of the students in general, and the approbation of the gov- ernment to a great degree. His constant attention to his studies was attended with a valuable improvement in all the branches of learning which he pursued. The powers of his mind, taken collectively, possessed greater strength than is common. They were cultivated by reading, much by con- versation, and probably most of all, by close observation and deep reflection. A social disposition made an intercourse with the learned, wise and good, always peculiarly pleasing to him. His knowledge of human nature, his penetrating
* This sketch is reprinted from a pamphlet giving an account of Mr. Wright's death, and the sermon preached at his funeral. The sketch was by Rev. Daniel Chaplin, of Groton.
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sagacity in discovering the characters and designs of men, his fortitude in danger, his address in defeating the purposes of the mischievous, and his perseverance in what he thought to be right, were conspicuous to all who knew him. He seems to have been eminently qualified for the situation which Providence assigned him. Two ministers had been dismissed in Bolton before his settlement there. In conse- quence of many sharp altercations and long continued divi- sions, the habits of the people had become extremely unfavorable in a religious and civil view, and their prejudices so great that there appeared scarcely a possibility of their being brought, for many years, into a state of social order. Nevertheless, by the blessing of God on the wise manage- ment, the multiplied labors, the manly, unwearied, spirited and persevering exertions of this servant of Christ, the church has become truly respectable for its regularity, peace and unity, for the number of its members, and their religious characters. And the town has established the character of patriotic and federal, harmonious and prudent in the transac- tion of all public business, and is especially distinguished for the important care of the rising generation that they may be properly educated. He devoted much time to conversation with his people, on moral, religious, political and other sub- jects ; being of opinion himself, as he declared, that he did as much good to them by his private discourses, as by his public preaching. In the pulpit his manner was grave, his style plain and logical. His voice was clear, audible, and of a happy tone for a public speaker. He always studied con- ciseness and simplicity, rather than prolixity and ornament, in his public exhibitions. He aimed to enlighten the minds of men with knowledge, and make them unwavering, rational and persevering Christians. He paid little regard to confes- sions of faith, formed by men uninspired ; and avowed the adoption of the sacred oracles as the only standard of his faith and practice. He was independent in his theological principles, claiming and asserting the right to judge for him- self; and candidly allowed others to judge for themselves.
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He was friendly and accommodating to his brethren in the ministry, disposed to esteem others better than himself; and . generously encouraged and assisted youth whose pecuniary circumstances were difficult, but their genius and turn of mind promising, in attaining a public education, to qualify them for usefulness to the community. He was pitiful to the sick and distressed, and ready to do good to all. His sym- pathy, always awake to the calls of dependence and affliction, made him the prompt benefactor of the wretched and friend- less. His house was the seat of order, peace, economy, friendship and generosity. No man ever displayed a more cordial hospitality to friends and others who came under his roof. He was a pleasant and affectionate husband, a sincere and constant friend, a cheerful companion, tender in his feel- ings toward all his relations, an intrepid advocate for civil and religious liberty, a stable patriot on rational principles, a most valuable citizen, and a devout and exemplary Chris- tian. As the servant of the Lord, he ruled in the church with wisdom, firmness and impartiality ; and was a faithful minister of the gospel, as all who judge with candor must necessarily conclude. Pleasure was never his pursuit nor indulgence, except within the limits of due moderation ; and the temperance which he habitually observed in the use of ardent spirits of all kinds, was carried to a degree of abstemi- ousness, through the course of his life, even to the closing scene. He was able to continue his public labors until the Sabbath preceding his death. Notwithstanding the people of his late charge are disposed highly to appreciate the ex- cellency of his character and the usefulness of his ministerial services, yet most certainly they will hereafter in a greater measure perceive the worth of his talents and exertions to them. Indeed it would be difficult, if possible, to name the clergyman, either dead or living, who has done more good than the deceased whose exit we deplore to church and state, since the time of his ordination to the gospel ministry. And though religion and charity oblige us to believe that to him death was the greatest gain, for then he received the reward
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of a faithful minister of Christ ; yet it is natural to the pious, in a prospect of the present state of religion and morals and of politics in this country, to contemplate his death and that of other good ministers of late, as severe frowns of Divine Providence on the public. Under this painful impression, in the language of humble and fervent trust in God, who doth all things with consummate wisdom and unerring rectitude, they will address their prayer to him -" Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth ; for the faithful fail from among the children of men."
Samuel Chamberlin. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth, and grandson of Samuel, of Woburn. He was born in Chelmsford in 1685. His residence was near the house of Wayland F. Balch. Like many of the early settlers he was concerned in the purchase and sale of wild lands. In the year 1736 his name appears on the records of the General Court among others who petitioned for a line of towns on the Connecticut River. The petition was granted and leave was given to the petitioners to meet at Woburn December 7, 1736, to admit proprietors. Ten days after, to wit, Decem- ber 17th, in the House of Representatives, " Voted that Mr. Samuel Chamberlin, of Westford, be and he is hereby fully authorized and impowered to assemble and convene the grantees or proprietors of township number one." This was Chesterfield, New Hampshire, and the line of towns on the river above it were Westmoreland, Walpole and Charles- town, which was called " Number Four." But difficulties arose between the two colonies, and these towns afterward received charters from New Hampshire. He was known as Lieutenant Chamberlin ; was an original member of the First Church, and was one of the first board of selectmen. He died June 6, 1769, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. After his death his son Samuel lived on the homestead.
Col. John Robinson. Reference has already been made to this gallant soldier and to the part he bore at Con- cord Bridge and at Bunker Hill. A few particulars should
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be added respecting him. He was the son of Jacob and Mary (Gould) Robinson, and was born in Topsfield, 1735, and died in Westford, June 13, 1805. He married Huldah Perley, of Boxford, November 27, 1764. Their children were :
I. Huldah, born September 23, 1765.
2. Mehitable, born August 9, 1767.
3. Betty, born May 3, 1770.
4. Sally, born May 3, 1772.
5. Rebecca, born July 7, 1774.
6. John, born February 17, 1781.
Col. Robinson was buried in the West Cemetery, and the headstone at his grave bears the following inscription : "Here reposes the body of Col. John Robinson, who expired June 13th, 1805, aged 70 years. In 1775 he distinguished himself by commanding the corps of soldiers who first opposed the menacing attempts of the British troops at Concord Bridge.
Here rest thine ashes; on thy silent grave May dews distil and laurels gently wave; Let heralds far proclaim thy soul was fired By love of freedom and by Heaven inspired. First in the glorious cause our rights to attain,
Last in our hearts shall thy brave deeds remain."
Rev. Jonathan Osgood. He was born in Westford in 1761 ; graduated at Yale College in 1787 ; was ordained as pastor of the church in Gardner, Massachusetts, October 19, 1791, and died May 21, 1821, in the sixty-first year of his age. For nearly thirty years he served that town in the capacity of minister, physician and school-teacher. He rose to considerable eminence in the medical art ; and for a num- ber of years he was an officer in the Medical Society. He represented the town in the State Legislature, and was regarded as a man of respectable talents, and one possessed of good knowledge of human nature. It is natural to sup- pose that the time spent in the school-room or devoted to the
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practice of medicine must have interfered somewhat with the duties of the clerical profession; and it is said he came to regret in the latter part of his life that he had not given more attention to the duties and studies of the ministerial office.
Charles Proctor, M. D. Was born in Westford, Sep- tember 13, 1755, and died here in March, 1817. He was the son of Nathan and Phebe Proctor, and the homestead of his father was in the south part of the town, the farm now in possession of Mrs. Desmond. He was among the earliest educated physicians in the town ; but in his earlier days had to compete with others who sought to establish themselves here, among whom was Dr. Amos Bancroft, of Groton. He studied his profession in Chelmsford. He did not receive a collegiate education, but was a successful physician and was much esteemed by his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and was for many years a justice of the peace. He was one of the originators of the Academy, and one of its trustees till his death. He married for his first wife Miss Edea Carver, sister of Jonathan Carver, who died early ; and for a second wife the widow Lydia Cummings. By her he had two daughters - Edea, who married Nahum H. Groce and died within a year after mar- riage ; and Sarah, who also married Mr. Groce, December 24, 1815. None of his decendants are now living, but his memory is still cherished by the few who once knew him as a kind and benevolent friend, a dignified and upright man.
Hon. Joseph Read. A brief notice of him appears on page 163, but further particulars are here added. He was the son of Joshua and Mary (Spalding) Read, and was born at the Read homestead on Frances Hill, March 13, 1776. When nearly twelve years of age, being offended and grieved at a slight punishment imposed upon him in school in Feb- ruary, 1788, he asked and obtained leave of his father to go with an uncle, Joseph Read, to Plymouth, New Hampshire, where his uncle then resided. He engaged in the mercantile
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
business in Thetford, Vermont, in 1803; married in 1804, but in a few years obtained a legal separation from his wife (an unfortunate matter) ; married in 1812 Elizabeth Burnap, daughter of Rev. Dr. Burnap, of Merrimack, New Hamp- shire, and of this marriage there were two sons, Charles and George W. Read, Esquires, of Montpelier, Vermont. In 1814 he was representative of the town of Thetford, and was chosen to the same office five times afterward. He was elected Judge of the County in 1818 and in the two following years. In 1827 he removed to Montpelier, and in 1830 he was elected Judge of Probate for the District of Washington, and retained the office three years. In 1834 he was chosen · one of the council of censors to revise the Constitution of the State, and in 1840 one of the Presidential electors. He held the office of County Treasurer for nearly thirty years. He died February 6, 1859, aged 82 years, leaving a handsome fortune and a character well worthy of esteem and emulation. He was a gentleman of the old school, precise and method- ical in his habits ; of noble presence and demeanor ; honest and sincere in all his dealings ; reserved and prudent in his speech ; sagacious and comprehensive in his views ; of reso- lute and unflinching perseverance, and wise and ample gen- erosity. Among his marked traits, besides his general hon- esty and unbending integrity, was his particular and nice con- scientiousness .*
Hon. Willard Hall. Born in Westford, December 24, 1780. He was the son of Willis and Mehetabel (Poole) Hall, and grandson of Rev. Willard Hall, the first minister of the town. He entered Westford Academy with its first scholars, was fitted for Harvard College in 1794; was then examined and received, but went back and spent another year in the Academy, and entered Harvard as a freshman in 1795 and graduated in 1799. " Writing in years long after Judge Hall touchingly alludes to his father's sacrifices
* For this outline of his life and work and this estimate of his character, the compiler is indebted to the History of Montpelier, Vermont.
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to keep his children at school. He also refers, with not a little satisfaction, to the time when a small boy he trudged two miles on foot to school with dinner in his pocket ; a discipline to which he ascribed largely his fitness to encounter the stern responsibilities of after life. 'I should like,' he writes, ' to hear something of Levi Hedge, to whose partiality for me I owe my education, through privations and hardships and con- flict that placed me in the upper current of the struggle'; by which I trust I have done something for the good of others. I remember him with lively gratitude.' He inherited from his ancestry a constitution singularly sound and vigorous in all its parts, physical, intellectual and moral. His entire organization, body, intellect, affections, conscience and will, was healthful, active and symmetrical, a remarkable example of the mens sana in corpore sano. The early development of that delicate moral and religious sensibility, which so toned and regulated his character, is directly traceable to the mother's hand. She was a woman of much force of charac- ter ; trained in early life under the ministry and personal in- fluence of Rev. Daniel Emerson, the pastor of her native town of Hollis." Among his contemporaries at college were Horace Binney, William Ellery Channing, Joseph Story, Washington Allston and Lemuel Shaw.
" His proficiency as a college student must have been excellent. in all branches ; but there is reason to suppose that his leading interest was in the ancient classics. His appoint- ment to deliver a Latin oration in the junior year would seem to mark some distinction in that department of study. Be- sides, his style of composition, in its purity, terseness and vigor bore strong traces of early and thorough classical cul- ture."
After graduating he studied law in the office of Judge Dana at Groton, and was admitted to the bar of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, in 1803. In a remark made to his pupil years afterward, Judge Dana bore this testimony : " When you left my office, I had not a misgiving concerning you. I was as confident of your success as a farmer is of a crop from a well-cultivated field."
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
In 1802, while a student at Groton, his attention was called to the State of Delaware as one offering some induce- ments to settlement, and he addressed a note of inquiry to the elder James A. Bayard. The favorable reply of Mr. Bayard induced him to make choice of that State for prose- cuting his profession. He left his father's house in Westford, April 7, 1803, and, travelling the whole distance on horse- back, reached Wilmington, Delaware, on the 16th of the same month. On motion of Mr. Bayard he was admitted to the bar at Georgetown, and settled at Dover in the following month.
" As a counsellor at the bar he became distinguished for his legal learning, sound judgment and such fidelity to a trust as made a client's interest all his own. He has been repre- sented by the elder lawyers as being on occasions eloquent ; yet few, if any, had less of the common arts of oratory .. It was once the remark of the late Chancellor Ridgely, made from the bench, that he never called a cause of Willard Hall's in which the answer was 'not ready.' In 1812 he was appointed Secretary of State, which office he held for three years. In 1816 he was elected Representative in Con- gress and served for two terms. In 1821 he was again Secre- tary of State; and in 1822 he was elected a member of the State Senate. On the 6th of May, 1823, he was appointed by President Monroe, District Judge of the United States for Delaware District. He retired from the profession, as he himself said, ' wearied with twenty years' labors and anx- ieties.' He held the office of District Judge through the exceptionally long term of forty-eight years, retiring from it in December, 1871, in his ninety-first year, with his faculties still unimpaired, except that bodily infirmity had disabled him for protracted labor."
In 1822 Mr. Hall, while Secretary of State, took up the interest of popular education in his adopted State, with a grasp which relaxed only after fifty years of labor and under the infirmities of age. It became, thenceforth, truly his life- work. He matured the school system which in 1829 became
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the law of the State. His biographer says : "It is very far from an adequate estimate of the service of Judge Hall to the cause of popular education to regard him as the founder or organizer of the school system. That was but the com- mencement of his labors. Not content only to frame and inaugurate the system, he watched its operations with cease- less vigilance, encouraging effort, conciliating honest dissent, shaming selfish cavils and narrow prejudices, studying to the utmost detail the working of the system, seeking legislation to remedy its defects and improve its efficiency. The principle earnestly maintained by Judge Hall was, that an elementary education at the public expense should be extended to all who might desire it. He enforced it both as a duty to the young and on grounds of high public expediency.
" Through his earnest advocacy the Board of Education for the city of Wilmington was formed in 1852, and he was chosen president of it and continued to hold the office for eighteen years. On the evening of March 28th, 1870, he met with them for the last time. He then announced in few words the necessity, through age, of his retirement, and received from the board, by a unanimous rising vote, its testimony, given in the name of the people and city of Wil- mington, to his untiring, faithful and efficient service in the cause of education in the State of Delaware and in the city of Wilmington. Thus he closed the long record of his forty- eight years of service to the educational interests of that State."
Mr. Hall was for forty-eight years president of the Del- aware Bible Society, and was also president of the Wilming- ton Saving Funds Society for many years. He became president of the Delaware Historical Society when he was in his eighty-fourth year, and gave to it the prestige of his revered name.
" He united with the Presbyterian Church of Wilmington in 1827, and in 1829 he was elected a ruling elder, which office he held until his death. He taught a succession of
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Bible classes in the Sabbath-school for a period of over forty years. When far advanced in life he accepted an invitation to address the literary societies of Delaware College, having in himself a true sympathy for young men in the pursuit of an education. He gave an ardent support to the temperance cause, and in 1844 he published a ' Plea for the Sabbath,' and in 1846 a pamphlet against lotteries.
" His habits of life were systematic and exact. In one thing he was pre-eminent, that is, his rigorous punctuality to engagements, springing from his acute sense of justice.
The crowning excellence of Judge Hall's character was the absolute supremacy of the moral sentiments. Their influence pervaded his entire manhood. The natural force and freshness of his mind, and the warmth of his affections remained to the last. The change came to him on the evening of May 10th, 1875, as gently as sleep comes to an infant." His age was 94 years 4 months and 16 days. [Memorial address by Hon. Daniel M. Bates, President of Delaware Historical Society, 1876.]
Rev. James Blodgett. Died in Lexington, July 16, 1845, aged 33 years. The following obituary of him ap- peared in the Christian Register :
"Few things can be sadder to the friends of liberal Chris- tianity than to see the young servants of the church, before whom the long promise of usefulness is opening, cut off at the very beginning of their labors in the field where the harvesting is plenteous and the laborers are few. This is especially felt in the case of the young clergyman whose death we record. Mr. Blodgett was, both in his natural gifts and by his expe- rience, peculiarly fitted for the office of a Christian teacher. His whole character was ministerial ; not of that austere and over-prudent character which is sometimes falsely so named, but the character of a man with whom religion was the crowning grace of a modest, benevolent and honest heart. His judgment was excellent - the result of faculties remark- able for their even balance, and seldom disturbed by any pressure of vanity or passion. He was patient of labor, calm
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under the common troubles of life, and constant to his main purpose. The turn of his mind was rather to reflection, and his meditations had been from his youth chiefly on religious topics. These kept the first place, not merely as a matter of *conscience, but as an intellectual taste; and it might have been said of him, long before he entered the ministry, that he was far in advance of most young clergymen in well-digested theological knowledge. It had been to him, also, more than a mere inquiry ; he well knew the experience of a Christian life. Its hopes, its anxieties, its trials had long been written on his heart, and manifested in his daily walk. The result of many anxious and laborious inquiries had been to attach him more and more closely to the Bible, and his hope, the hope of his childhood, had always been to enforce its truths as a Christian preacher. He could hardly fail to be acceptable as such. The topics which it was his office to treat were those which he had long felt as most interesting and vital to himself, and though without any love of display, he had a sound understanding and a vein of strong sense which must have gained him attention as a speaker. His language was plain and he used but little ornament ; but he always spoke to the purpose, and had an unusual command of illustrations which were often homely and sometimes humorous, but which always carried him on to his point. But his great fitness for the ministry was, after all, 'the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,' which naturally sought the tranquillity of a pastor's life, never reaching into the world for a more ambitious occupation, but content to stay where God placed it."
Mr. Blodgett's life had not been without trials. His grand aim had been to fit himself for the ministry, but his studies had been interrupted and he came at last to college late in life and chiefly by the assistance of the late Dr. Fol- len, whom, in some points, he strongly resembled. He was graduated in 1841 with great credit to himself, and completed his studies at the Theological School in two years. He was ordained at Deerfield in January, 1844 ; but his eagerness to
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