USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > Reflections on Royalston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, U.S.A > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
[7.] Webster E. Pierce, born in 1851; he followed his brother, Edwin F. Pierce, to Chicago, and then back to Boston, and has been connected with him in the chair business; he married, but has had no children.
(10.) James Pierce, 10th child of William and Sally (Work) Pierce, was born in 1807; he married, and had several children.
6. Susanna Pierce, 6th child of Capt. Gad and Mary (Foster) Pierce, was born in 1774; she married Archibald Chase; they had 7 children (see page 260).
7. Esther Pierce, born in 1776; married Robert Nichols, in 1796; they had 2 children: Esther Nichols, born in 1796, and Gad Nichols, born in 1799.
8. Delight Pierce, born in 1778; married William Sweetzer, in 1799.
9. Hannah Pierce, born in 1780; married Elkanah Whipple, in 1798; she died in 1800; they apparently had a daughter, Mary Pierce Whipple, who was born in 1798, and was adopted by her grandparents, Capt. Gad and Mary (Foster) Pierce.
10. Joseph Pierce, born in 1782; married Patty Sharon, in 1802; 4 children:
(1.) Louise Pierce, born in 1804; married William H. Hammond, in 1822.
(2.) Hannah Pierce, born in 1806; married Daniel Presson, in 1824.
(3.) Foster Pierce, born in 1812.
(4.) Ebenezer Pierce, born in 1822.
11. Silas Pierce, 11th child of Capt. Gad and Mary (Foster) Pierce, was born in 1784; married Anna Chubb, in 1807; they had 7 children.
Aaron Pierce, was apparently a son of Capt. Gad and Mary (Foster) Pierce, as it was well understood that John Pierce, son of Aaron and Sally Pierce, was a cousin to the children of Jonathan and William Pierce, and other childron of Capt. Gad and Mary (Foster) Pierce; the Royalston Vital Records give no information about Aaron Pierce except that he died in 1827, aged 70 years, which, if true, would place his birth in 1757, when his father, Capt. Gad Pierce, was but 16 or 17 years of age, and would make Aaron Pierce the oldest of the children of Capt. Gad; and the Vital Records also show that
John Pierce was a son of Aaron and Sally Pierce, and that he married, 1st, Susan (or Susanna) Pierce, and 2nd, Charlotte Pierce, daughters of Jonathan and Huldah (Sibley) Pierce, and his cousins, as told on page 270. This John Pierce had a good farm in the southerly part of Royalston, which he carried on with his cousin and brother-in-law, Columbus Pierce; in the latter part of his life he sold the farm to his neighbor, John W. Stockwell, and removed to the Perkins place, on the Common, which he occupied probably until the end of his life; he had a son, mentioned on page 270.
THE BRYANTS.
Charlotte Pierce, 12th child of Jonathan and Huldah (Sibley) Pierce, born in 1812, married, 1st, Lucien Bryant, of Templeton, in 1833; he died in 1841; they had 3 children; she married, 2nd, John Pierce. The Bryant children were:
1. Solon Bryant, born in Troy, N. H., in 1835. In his early childhood, either just before or soon after the death of his father, the family removed to Royalston; as a youth he was employed in a general store in Templeton; during the Civil War he served in the army commissary department; before that service, and probably after it, he and his step-father, John Pierce, carried on a meat business, John doing the butchering and Solon peddling the meat; after that he had a store in Whitins- ville, with George Everett Pierce as partner, and then was with a wholesale house in Boston for a while. About 1868 he started on his most important business en- terprise, selling small wares at wholesale from a horse-drawn vehicle; in 1870 he took Col. Daniel D. Wiley into partnership, and they opened a wholesale house in Worcester, and visited their customers with sample cases instead of wagon-loads of goods; when Dan got a custom-house position, Solon continued the business, under the name of Solon Bryant & Co. He was active in church and Y. M. C. A. work in Worcester; he died in 1901.
273
Reflections on Royalston
2. Albert Bryant, born in Troy, N. H., in 1838; removed to Royalston with his family. Although he lost the sight of an eye in childhood play, he became an inde- fatigable scholar; he practically worked his way through college, teaching many terms of school and at the same time keeping up with the studies of his college course; after his graduation he became a missionary to Turkish Armenia, where he remained 3 years, returning to America on account of his eyesight. He was pastor of several churches, and also engaged in missionary work. He had a talent for poetry, and at school, in college, or wherever he might be, he was usually ready with verses for any occasion; his historical poem recited at the Royalston Centen- nial Celebration in 1865 was a series of gems. He married, 1st, Mary E. Torrey, and, 2nd, Anna F. Burnham. He had 7 children; he died in 1904.
3. Eunice Helen Bryant, born about 1840. She became a school teacher, and married William Frederick Sawyer, a druggist in Athol; they removed to Boston, where she died, in 1920.
Eunice Helen (Bryant) Sawyer's husband, William Frederick Sawyer, and her brother Albert Bryant's widow, Anna Frances (Burnham) Bryant, were married in 1921.
THE BROWN FAMILY.
William Brown, one of the first of that name to settle in Royalston, was born in Reading, in 1758, the son of Gen. Benjamin Brown; he was a soldier in the Revo- lution; he married Martha Richardson; he settled, quite early, as told on page 68, on the road from Royalston Common towards Winchendon, where he established a tannery; he was succeeded on this place by Isaac Prouty, who was followed by his son, William H. Prouty, and then by George Chase, and the place has now been occupied for some 25 or 30 years by Calvin H. Wilcox.
William Brown bought from Elder Whitman Jacobs a place about a mile northeasterly from his first settlement, adjoining the Newton place, and which was probably originally settled by Abel Whitney; he added to this the Heminway place adjoining on the south, giving him an extensive farm, which remained in the hands of his descendants until 1921, when it was sold to Charles F. Chase.
William Brown married Martha Richardson, and if Mr. Caswell's record is cor- rect, we may suppose that he never had another wife, as he mentioned no other, but stated that "William Brown died in Royalston Dec. 23, 1830, and his widow died there Jan. 16, 1851, aged 90 years 9 months 7 days." But the Royalston Vital Records, while they contain no record of the death of William Brown's wife, Martha, give the marriage of "William Brown and Elizabeth Cutler, Jan. 11, 1787." The date of the birth of Elizabeth Cutler is not given, but it is stated that she was baptized, with a brother and 2 sisters, in 1770; and if she was 10 years of age at that time she was old enough to have been that widow of William Brown who died in 1851, aged 90. Considerable delving in the Vital Records has brought out the fact that some of the early settlers in Royalston, when they brought children with them, had them all baptized, regardless of their ages, and copies of these entries from the church records were given in the Vital Records where no entries of births were found on the town records. However, this gets us nowhere in the matter of showing that this William Brown married Elizabeth Cutler, for the Vital Records show that William and Elizabeth (Cutler) Brown had 2 children, Elisha Brown, born in 1787, and Lydia Brown, born in 1790. Undoubtedly there were two Williams Brown around Royalston "along about that time."
William Brown had 4 children; and as the data relating to some of them given by Mr. Caswell differs from that given in the Vital Records, which is self-contra- dictory, Mr. Caswell's figures are accepted here: William Brown, born in 1784; died in 1803; Benjamin Brown, born in 1787, of whom more below; Otis Brown, born in 1793, died in 1796; Hannah Brown, born in 1795, married, 1st, William Pierce, Jr., in 1819; he died in 1827; she married, 2nd, Samuel Dadmun, of Fitch- burg, and resided there.
Benjamin Brown, the 2nd child of William and Martha (Richardson) Brown, was born in Reading, in 1787; he removed to Royalston with his parents, and grew up on the farm, and spent his life there. He became prominent in military and civic affairs. In the war of 1812, at the age of 27 years, he was Captain of the
274
Reflections on Royalston
"Royalston Grenadiers," when, on Sunday, August 10, 1814, after attending divine worship, they started on the 80-mile march to Boston, to help defend the coast against the British; later he became Colonel of the Fifth Massachusetts Regiment. He served as Selectman 6 years, and as Assessor, and as Representative to the General Court 2 years. He married Betsey Reed, daughter of Nathan and Lydia (Poor) Reed, in 1814; they had 8 children; she died in 1813; and he married, 2nd, Mrs. Catherine Townsend, of Keene, N. H., in 1834, and she was the only Mrs. Col. Benjamin Brown known to people living in 1926, although Mr. Caswell knew nothing about her. Col. Benjamin Brown died at a ripe old age. The children of Col. Benjamin and Betsey (Reed) Brown were as follows:
1833
1. William Otis Brown, born in 1815; his early life was occupied with school, work on the farm and in the shops; he built the house at 9C on the Common, now for more than 70 years known as the Horace Pierce place. In 1854 he removed to Fitchburg, and with different partners carried on a flour and grain business for a few years. During the Civil War he enlisted and became Quartermaster in the 25th Massachusetts Regiment, with the rank of First Lieutenant, and he was ap- pointed commissary at Newbern, N. C. After the war was over he held a position in the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel. He was Selectman of the Town of Fitchburg 10 years, and Alderman of the City 1 year. He began a 3-years term as County Commissioner of Worcester County in 1869, and was re-elected 6 times, giving him 21 years of continuous service, during the last 13 years of which he was chairman of the board. He was vice-president of a bank, treasurer of a chair manufacturing company, and director of a fire insurance company. He married, 1st, Hannah G. Heywood, of Royalston, in 1841; they had 2 sons, born in Royals- ton: George Mirick Brown, born in 1843, died in 1856, and Charles Brown, who died at the age of 9 years; she died in 1868; he married, 2nd, Rosa H. Heywood, daugh- ter of Walter and Nancy (Foster) Heywood, of Fitchburg, in 1870; he died in 1890; his 2nd wife died in 1923, at the age of 88 years.
2. Isabella Reed Brown, born in 1818, married John Forrester Brooks, of Petersham, in 1842; he was landlord of the noted Massasoit House, in Barre, for many years.
3. Eliza Morse Brown, born in 1820; she remained unmarried throughout her long life of 92 years, which ended in 1913.
4. Mary Richardson Brown, born in 1822; died in 1823.
5. Benjamin Hammond Brown, born in 1824; in his early manhood he was employed for a few years in Winchendon; in 1853 he started on a sailing trip which eventually took him around the world, and, after a residence of about 9 years in Australia, brought him home in 1862. Soon after his return he enlisted in the 53rd Massachusetts Regiment, was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company E, and served in the Civil War until his regiment was mustered out, Sept. 2, 1863. He settled on the home farm, which he carried on for many years; and he served the town in various offices for long terms; as Selectman 4 years, Assessor 2 years, School Committee 19 years, and Overseer of the Poor; he was Representative to the General Court in 1870. In 1904 he removed from the old farm to the old Major John Norton place, at the Center, at 19E on our map, and died there in 1910. He married Nancy Lord Wood, daughter of John and Abigail (Lord) Wood, in 1864; she died in 1912; they had 6 children:
(1.) Charles H. Brown, the 1st child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1865; at the age of 17 he went to Boston and drove a wholesale bakery wagon for 3 years; he then went to Worcester, where he was em- ployed in stores and managing his own stores for 11 or 12 years. He returned to Royalston in 1896, and resumed farm work; for many years he was manager of the Raymond farm, on the northwest road from the Center; about 1913 he bought the old Sawyer-Holman-Bigelow-Curtis place, at 36N on our map of the Center, which with other purchases has afforded a field for his agricultural activities. He has had side-lines to occupy his spare time, among wbich he has been, next to Dr. Adams, probably, Royalston's most extensive town office holder; and so well has he performed all the duties entrusted to him that the voters have usually re-elected him at the expiration of any term. His service as town officer began, apparently,
275
Reflections on Royalston
in 1900, when he was elected as a member of the School Committee, on which he served as chairman for 7 years, and had been elected on a 3-years term to serve 2 years more; but in 1907 the opportunity came for him to be elected as Selectman, and it being incompatible for him to hold both offices at the same time, he resigned that of School Committee and was elected as Selectman, and is at the time of this printing, in 1926, elected to serve until the annual meeting for the election of town officers in March, 1929, 21 years in all, and he has been chairman of the board from the beginning of his service in 1907; he has been elected to serve as Assessor from 1919 to 1929; as Town Treasurer annually beginning with 1920; he was Tax Collector in 1917, 1918 and 1919, and all along has been a member of the most of the various town boards of financial trustees and advisory committees. In politics he evidently started as a Republican and was for 14 years a member of the Republican Town Committee, and for several years its chairman or secretary; but in 1912 he jumped out of the procession behind the G. O. P. elephant, and ran off, with Fred W. Cross and other prominent citizens of Royalston, behind the seductive bellowing of the bull moose, and became chairman of the Progressive Town Committee; perhaps he has never resigned that position. He has held most of the offices in Royalston Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, was for several years President of the Royalston Old Home Week Association, and Clerk of the First Congregational Parish, and is a member of Athol Lodge of F. and A. Masons. He married Annie E. Rowe, of Boston, in 1888; they have had 5 children:
[1.] Alfred Hammond Brown, born in 1890; for several years superintendent at Alfred J. Raymond's sash and blind manufactory, at Athol; married Edith Marion Hager, of Athol, in 1913; they have a daughter.
[2.] Irving F. Brown, born in 1892; connected with the Union Twist Drill Company, at Athol.
[3.] Rose Mildred Brown, born in 1894; in her young womanhood she went west, where she married Omer W. Landon, postmaster and merchant at Ashwood, Oregon; they had a daughter, Doris Virginia Landon, born there the last day of the year 1920; in 1922 they removed to Northfield, Vt.
[4.] Gertrude Eva Brown, born in 1903; student and teacher.
[5.] Edwin R. Brown, born in 1905.
(2.) Frank H. Brown, the 2nd child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1866; in his early manhood he was given a position with the Wachusett National Bank, of Fitchburg, of which his uncle, William O. Brown, was Vice-President, and remained with it until it was consolidated with an- other bank; during the latter part of his service he was Cashier of the Wachusett; after that he became one of the Assistant Treasurers of the Fitchburg Bank and Trust Company, which position he has held for many years. He married Florence Forbes Ruggles, of Fitchburg, in 1895.
(3.) William L. Brown, the 3rd child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1868; he became manager of a shoe store in Chelsea, where he married Sadie E. Skelley, in 1894.
(4.) Benjamin E. Brown, 4th child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1869; engaged in the chair business in Winchendon. He married Susan Josephine Geddes, of Winchendon, in 1899.
(5.) Isabelle E. Brown, 5th child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1875; she became a school teacher; in 1898 she married Rev. Augustus M. Rice, of Sturbridge, who had been pastor of the First Congre- gational Church in Royalston for 3 years; after serving in other parishes, he and his wife returned to Royalston and made their home there, in 1911; he died in 1921. See pages 112 and 210.
(6.) Arthur H. Brown, 6th child of Benjamin Hammond and Nancy Lord (Wood) Brown, was born in 1877; he began his business career as clerk in the office of an extensive wholesale and retail coal concern in Fitchburg, in 1900; in 1906 he became connected with the Fitchburg Savings Bank, where he served as Paying Teller, and afterwards as Assistant Treasurer; in 1926 he was elected Treasurer, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Frederic C. Nichols. He married Florence May Ritchie, of Fitchburg, in 1905; they had a son, Robert Arthur Brown, born in 1912, died in 1913.
276
Reflections on Royalston
6. Edward Augustus Brown, 5th child of Col. Benjamin and Betsey (Reed) Brown, was born in 1827; in early manhood he was employed in a woodenware manufactory in Winchendon, and in his brother's flour and grain store in Fitch- burg; he was in the furniture business, at Beloit, Wis., for 4 or 5 years, returning to Fitchburg in 1859, and continuing in his brother's store until the Civil War began. He enlisted in the 25th Massachusetts Regiment in 1861, and became Quartermas- ter Sergeant; afterwards Quartermaster of the 53rd Massachusetts Regiment; and then Captain and Commissary of Subsistence; ha served more than 4 years, and was mustered out Oct. 2, 1865, with the military rank of Major. In May, 1866, he became General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the Boston, Clinton & Fitchburg Railroad, and retained the position until January, when he resigned to accept an appointment as County Treasurer of Worcester County, to fill a vacancy; he was elected to the office at the next election, and re-elected at each succeeding election until he had served 36 years, when, in 1912, he refused to be a candidate for far- ther service. He married Bessie Maria Harding, in 1869, and they had 3 daugh- ters; his wife died in Worcester, in 1903, aud he died there in 1916.
7. Moses Reed Brown, 7th child of Col. Benjamin and Betsey (Reed) Brown, was born April 1, 1830, and died Jan. 27, 1864. The Royalston Vital Records, under the heading of "Royalston Births," have this entry: "Brown, Mary Reed, d. Col. Benjamin and Betsey, April 1, 1830." It looks like somebody did a bit of "April fooling" over the name and the sex of the Colonel's baby, and it is more likely that it was Franklin Gregory, the Town Clerk at that time, rather than the compilers of the Vital Records, who apparently faithfully copied what they found recorded, as they were able to read them, but of course could not verify them.
8. Betsey Reed Brown, as she was first named, but afterwards better known as Elizabeth, 8th child of Col. Benjamin and Betsey (Reed) Brown, was born in 1833; she taught school in Royalston and adjoining towns for several years, and then went West and taught 9 years in other places and 27 years in Chicago, where she made her permanent home, and where she died, in 1920.
THE REED FAMILY.
Nathan Reed, from Rutland, settled in the northeasterly part of Royalston, on the place which he afterwards sold to John Holman (see pages 237-238) and which was afterwards occupied by John Holman, Jr., and later by Marcus Hobbs; Reed removed to a place further east, more recently known as the Whitmore place. His 1st wife's name was Lois; she died, according to the Vital Records, Oct. 16, 1804, and he married, according to the same authority, Mrs. Lydia Poor, of Winchendon, June 19, 1804-nearly 4 months before his 1st wife died; obviously there is an error in the dates; perhaps the records of the two events were made at the same time, and they got the names of the months transposed; let us blame the recording clerk, rather than the compilers of the Vital Records, who undoubtedly faithfully copied what they found recorded, and did not have the opportunity to criticise that the historian has when he gets the conflicting and contradictory dates and stories "up in a corner." Nathan Reed's 2nd wife died in 1846. It is probable that he removed to Winchendon as early as 1812, as his daughter Betsey was recorded as "of Winchendon," when she married Col. Benjamin Brown, in 1814; he did not have the opportunity to hold many town offices before his removal, but he served on the School Committee in 1806 and 1808. He had a nice large family of 15 children by his 2 wives:
1, Moses Maynard Reed, born in 1784; he was living in Winchendon in 1865.
2. Nathan Reed, Jr., born in 1786; married Hannah Pierce, in 1807; they had 2 children:
(1.) Sally Reed, born in 1808.
(2.) Horatio Nelson Reed, born in 1809.
3. Tabitha Reed, born in 1788; married Edward Tolman, of Winchendon, 1810.
4. Betsey Reed, born in 1791; married Col. Benjamin Brown, in 1814.
5. Arba Reed, born in 1793.
6. Abigail Reed, born in 1795, married Obadiah Walker, of Winchendon, 1818.
7. Isabella Reed, born in 1797.
277
Reflections on Royalston
8. Benjamin Hammond Reed, born in 1799.
9. Cyrus Reed, born in 1801; died in infancy.
10. Cyrus Brown Reed, born in 1805; he lived on a farm in the northwesterly part of Royalston; he was a Captain of the "Royalston Grenadiers," and served the town as Selectman 3 years, as Assessor 4 years, and on the Centennial Com- mittee in 1865. He married Seraph Goddard, in 1831; they had 4 children:
(1.) Cyrus P. Reed, born in 1834; he lived on a small farm near his father's at the west part of the town, and engaged extensively in teaming, carrying bark from that part of the town to the tannery at Winchendon, sawed staves and other pine material to the pail and tub shops in Winchendon, and cord wood to the woolen mill at South Royalston; it was arduous work for teamsters, for a team could pull only about half the load up the long and steep Jacobs hill that it could haul over any other parts of the routes, so that it was necessary to unload and reload at the top of the hill; or when two teams could co-operate and go over the road at the same time, they could "double up," and all the horses of both teams could be hitched to one full load and pull it up the hill and then all go back and pull up the other load. Those teams often brought back light loads of grain from Winchendon to the stores on the Common, and grain from South Royalston and merchandise from the freight station for the merchants and others. Sometime after his marriage Cyrus P. Reed removed from his farm to Royalston Center and with his family occupied the house at 21N for the remainder of his life, continuing in the teaming business as long as his health allowed. He married Sarah E. Wheeler, daughter of Leonard and Phebe (Smith) Wheeler, in 1858; he died in 1903, and she died in 1915; they had 2 children:
[1.] Charles Wheeler Reed, born about 1865; he was twice married; 1st, to Mabel Walker, who died in 1892; 2nd, to Alice L. Fisher, in 1900; he was engaged in restaurant and livery stable business for many years in Orange, where he died in 1925.
[2.] Lizzie M. Reed, married Carlon N. Stowell, in 1904; resided in Orange for many years.
(2.) William Goddard Reed, born in 1841; he remained as a farmer, at or near his father's farm; he married Dulcena Davis, daughter of Cyrus and Dulcena (Gale) Davis, in 1866; he died in 1872; Dalcena (Davis) Reed became the 2nd wife of William Fordyce Bigelow; she died in 1921. William G. and Dulcena (Davis) Reed had 2 children:
[1.] Emma A. Reed, born in 1870; married George Everett Pierce, in 1899, and died in the same year.
[2.] Willie D. Reed, born in 1872; died before reaching manhood.
(3.) Charles P. Reed, 3rd son of Cyrus Brown and Seraph (Goddard) Reed, was born in 1846; he died in 1863, in an epidemic of diphtheria, which led to the death of Dr. Willis, through his faithful attendance on the victims of the disease (see p. 215).
(4.) Henry C. Reed, born about 1850; he married Ada W. -; he died in the vicinity of 1895; his widow removed to Orange, and afterwards became the wife of Nathan S. Tandy, who engaged in the express business at Newport, N. H., and he died there in 1916, while she remained there indefinitely. Henry C. and Ada W. Reed had 2 children:
[1.] - Reed, born about 1885, and died in infancy.
[2.] Spencer A. Reed, born in Royalston; in his boyhood he removed with his mother to Orange, where he grew up to manhood and has held prominent positions in the business and other affairs of the town, and in the adjoining town of Athol. Oct. 1, 1919, according to a newspaper item, he retired from his position as Cashier of the Orange National Bank, to become Treasurer and Office Manager of the Athol Manufacturing Company. He has been actively interested in religious affairs, connected with the Baptist church, and President of the Athol Young Men's Christian Association. He married and had children.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.