USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Reminiscences of Worcester from the earliest period, historical and genealogical with notices of early settlers and prominent citizens, and descriptions of old landmarks and ancient dwellings, accompanied by a map and numerous illustrations > Part 9
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ing exploits, was the tenth of eleven children of Joseph Put- nam, above mentioned, by his wife Elizabeth Porter, making the two generals bear the relationship to each other of first and second cousins. Their relationship to the Attorney General, whose great-grandfather John was a brother of Israel's grand- father and Rufus' great-grandfather Thomas, was more distant. The story of " Old Put " is familiar to all. He died at Brook- lyn, Ct., in 1790, leaving numerous descendants, of whom his son, Col. Israel, Jr., died in Belpre, Ohio, in 1812. His son, Rev. Daniel Putnam, and grandson, Rev. Aaron Putnam, successively ministers at Pomfret, resided upon the old estate. The last one died in 1813, aged 79. On the morning of April 20, 1775, the startling news from Lexington and Concord, which reached Pomfret about eight o'clock, found Gen. Put- nam at work plowing upon his farm, in leathern frock and apron, with his hired men, and son Daniel, then a lad of six- teen, the driver of his team, whom he left to unyoke his oxen in the furrow, and follow him not many days after to camp. Without stopping to change his clothes, the old hero left im- mediately for the scene of conflict, reaching Cambridge, through Worcester and Concord, by the old travelled route, early the next morning.
" Old Put's" distinguished relative, Gen. Rufus Putnam, also a revolutionary hero, was a millwright by trade, but before attaining his majority, he in 1756 enlisted in the war against the French, rising to the rank of ensign. After the war he settled in Brookfield, working at his trade as well as farming. In 1773 he went on an expedition to the newly created Prov- ince of West Florida, (afterwards Louisiana.) In 1775, he entered into the Continental service as Lieut. Colonel, in 1776 was appointed engineer with the rank of Colonel, and in 1777 commanded a regiment in the old Massachusetts line. He constructed the fortifications at West Point, and Jan. 7, 1783, was commissioned Brigadier General. Before retiring from the service at the return of peace, he removed his family from Brookfield to Rutland, at which latter place he purchased in 1781 and afterwards resided upon the confiscated estate of Daniel Murray, (son of the noted tory, Col. John Murray,)
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comprising about two hundred acres of land located half a mile west of the meeting house on the north side of the county road to Oakham. This estate was bounded on the cast and west by the confiscated lands of Col. John Murray, who was before the Revolution the wealthiest and most extensive land owner in that town, his residence (as well as the larger portion of his estate,) being on the south side of the road nearly oppo- site that of his son Daniel, whose house he probably built for him on a portion of the estate originally belonging to the fa- ther. The cellar hole of the old mansion of the distinguished royalist, Col. John, torn down about a dozen years ago, after the old homestead had passed through several owners, still re- mains as a memento of the past. The residence of his son Daniel, on the other side of the road, afterwards owned and occupied by Gen. Putnam, is still standing, it having been for more than three-quarters of a century owned and occupied by Benjamin Mead and his son the late Dea. William Mead.
But, meritorious and noteworthy as were his military achieve- ments and career, Gen. Rufus Putnam's greatest renown is of a civic nature, arising from his being the organiser of the great Northwest Territory, entitling him to the cognomen of being the " father of the Western Country." During the years 1784 and 1785, while a member of the State Legislature from Rutland, he was actively engaged in unsuccessful efforts to se- cure from Congress an appropriation of land in what was then called the " Great Northwest Territory," (comprising all the present States north of the Ohio river between Pennsylvania and the Mississippi river,) for the benefit of those who had served during the revolutionary war. On the night of Jan. 9, 1786, he held a conference at his residence in Rutland, with friends associated with him in the enterprise, who had just returned from an extended tour into that then distant region, bringing favorable reports of the prospects of the undertaking, the beauty and fertility of the land, etc., the result of which conference, lasting nearly all night, was, the abandonment of all hope of aid from Congress, and an effort which terminated successfully through associated individual effort, under the lead of Gen. Putnam, in giving existence to the now great State of
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Ohio, and other States since organized from the territory allud- ed to. A public notice was immediately issued, addressed to officers and soldiers and other good citizens to meet in Bos- ton by delegates to be chosen in the several connties, on the first day of March, 1786, for the purpose of forming an asso- ciation to be called the "Ohio Company, whose purpose shall be the purchase of lands in the Western Country, and a settle- ment thereon."
This convention was held accordingly, Gen. Putnam presid- ing, when the " Ohio Company " was formed, and the direction of its affairs was entrusted to him. After two years of ener- getic and successful effort, resulting in the purchase of one mil- lion and, a half acres of government land by the company, Putnam planted himself with fifty other persons, many of them from Rutland, on the 7th of April, 1788, in the wilderness on the west bank of the Ohio river, at the mouth of the Musking- gum, and they called their settlement Marietta, from Maric Antoinette of France. This was the germ, not only of the great State of Ohio, which Putnam lived to see a flourishing State having seventy counties and 70,000 inhabitants, but also of the numerous States since organized in that direction.
In 1786, Putnam was appointed by Washington Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory, in 1791 he was appointed Brigadier General of the United States Army under Wayne and commissioned to make a treaty with the Indians on the Wabash. In 1795 he was appointed by President Wash- ington Surveyor General of the United States lands, which position he held until he was removed by Jefferson in 1803. He was a member of the Convention which framed the Consti- tution of the State of Ohio in 1802. With others, in 1812, he formed the first Bible Society organized west of the Alleghany Mountains, and in Sabbath School and missionary enterprises he was deeply interested.
Gen. Rufus Putnam married Jan. 10, 1765, Persis Rice, daughter of Zebulon and Abigail Rice of Westborough, the General being then a resident of Brookfield. His wife, Persis, was granddaughter of Thomas Rice of Marlborough, the latter being the oldest brother of Jonas and Gershom Rice, the first
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permanent settlers in Worcester. He died at his home in Ma- rietta, Ohio, May 1, 1824, after a residence there of thirty-six years, aged 86, leaving several children and many grandchil- dren, of whom one son, William Rufus Putnam, died at Mari- etta, Jan. 1, 1855, aged 85.
Gen. Putnam at his decease was the oldest surviving general officer of the Revolution, except Lafayette. While a resident of Rutland, besides his more enlarged duties, he served as constable, collector of taxes, selectman, and in other local po- sitions. He sold his estate in Rutland in 1792 to Stephen Sib- ley of Sutton, and the latter in 1796 sold it to Benjamin Mead, Jr., father of the late Dea. William Mead, who died there in 1874, aged 84, the estate being now owned and occupied by his son, Elias Mead. The old mansion still remains very much the same as it was, the papering of some of the rooms being the same put on by Gen. Putnam himself.
When the magnificent new State House for Ohio, at Colum- bus, was built, some doors were taken from what was then sup- posed to be the residence of Gen. Putnam in Rutland, to form a part of the new structure, as a memorial of the distinguished founder of that State; but by a sad mistake the doors of the old mansion of Col. John Murray, torn down at that time, were taken instead of those from the former residence of Gen. Putnam. But the old hero has a more enduring memorial in history, and in the hearts of the people of the great north west, than could be embodied in physical shape.
At the time of the emigration of Gen. Putnam with his fam- ily and others from New England to Ohio in 1788, the route and mode of travel were more circuitous and difficult than at present, there being no railroad, stage or steamboat, and in numerous instances not even a cart path through the wilder- ness, ox-wagons constituting the most rapid as well as com- modious facilities for getting from one part of the country to another. The emigrants from Rutland, after bidding adieu to their old homes, former pleasant associations, and kind friends, started on their long pilgrimage to a then uncultivated and vast wilderness, some on foot, some in wagons, and the more feeble and delicate on horseback, weeks and even months, it is
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said, being occupied in the journey. Gen. Putnam's family consisted of himself and wife Persis, their children Elisabeth Persis, Abigail, Susanna, Wm. Rufus, Edwin, Kate, and Patty, with several domesties. Among those who went with them, was ensign Christopher Burlingame, (great grandfather of the late Hon. Anson Burlingame,) then a hatter in Rutland, who married the General's daughter Susanna. Before Gen. Putnam would give his consent to the union, the suitor for his daugh- ter's hand was required to pledge himself that he would go with him to Ohio. They were accordingly married Dec. 13, 1787, and had several children in Ohio.
Another of the emigrants from Rutland, William, son of Lt. Wm. Browning, married the General's daughter Abigail. Among others who emigrated from Rutland with their families to join Gen. Putnam, in Marietta, at this time, were Col. Silas Bent, Major Nathan Goodall, Capt. Benjamin Miles Jr, (who married a daughter of Rev. Joseph Buckminster,) and Israel Stone. The last named, who married Lydia Barret, emigrated with ten children, among whom was the late Col. Augustus Stone of Harmer, Ohio, who died some ten years since at the advanced age of 86. The emigrants from Rutland took with them some yellow cattle, still known in Marrietta under the name of the " Rutland breed."
Gen. Rufus Putnam's father, Elisha, who emigrated from Sa- lem to Sutton with him, had six brothers and two sisters, as follows: 1st, Edward, born April 29, 1682; 2d, Holyoke, born Sept. 28, 1683 ; 3d, Elisha, (father of Gen. Rufus,) born Nov. 3, 1685 ; 4th, Joseph, born Nov. 1, 1687 ; 5th, Mary, born Aug. 14, 1689 ; 6th, Prudence, born Jan. 25, 1692; 7th, Nelie- miah, born Dec. 20, 1693 ; 8th, Ezra, born April 29, 1696; 9th, Isaac, born Mar. 14, 1698. Of these children of Dea. Edward Putnam, and grandchildren of the first Thomas, one or more of whom emigrated with their brother Elisha to Sut- ton, the oldest, Edward, Jr., born in Salem in 1682, was great grandfather of the present Sibley, Jason, Salmon, Philander, Darius, Alexander, and Chas. V. Putnam of Worcester, and an- cestor of numerous. others living here. This second Edward Putnam, (oldest son of Dea. Edward,) had seven sons: John,
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Stephen, Archelaus, David, Caleb, Peter, and Asa. Of these John was grandfather of Alexander and Charles V .; Archelaus was grandfather of Jason, Sibley and Darius, and David was grandfather of Salmon and Philander. John had four sons : John, Jr., Stephen, Charles and Joseph, the latter father of Al- exander and Chas V. Archelaus had three sons : Aaron, born July 13, 1762, father of Jason and Sibley ; Archelaus, Jr., born Aug.17, 1768 ; Andrew, born Sept. 26, 1773, father of Darius. David's son, Cyrus Putnam, had five sons : David, Horace, Philander, Salmon and Leander. Of these, Capt. Salmon Put- nam has four children resident here : Otis E. Putnam, of the firm of Barnard, Sumner & Co .; Samuel H. Putnam, of the firm of Putnam & Davis ; Mary L. Putnam ; and Persis Jane who married the late F. L. R. Coes. The sons of Philander Patnam, all resident here, are : W. T., Marcus M., Edward F., and George A. Putnam.
Gen. Rufus Putnam's cousin, Isaac Putnam, who settled in that part of Sutton afterwards forming a part of Auburn, had a son, Isaac Putnam, Jr., born in 1762, who came from Auburn to Worcester and married Jan. 18, 1784, Martha Adams, daugh- ter of Charles and Abigail Adams, and granddaughter of Aa- ron Adams, who was on the first board of town officers in Wor- cester in 1722. Isaac, Jr., and Martha (Adams) Putnam, who resided on the corner of Belmont and Adams streets, (on the estate now owned and occupied by their great-grandsons, Sam- uel and Henry Putnam,) had ten children, as follows : 1st, Sal- ly (Baird,) born in 1785, and died in 1850 ; 2d, Ebenezer, born in 1787, died in 1848; 3d, Joel, born in 1789, died in 1858 ; 4th, William, born in 1790, and died in 1796; 5th, Charles, born in 1792, died in 1840 ; 6th, Samuel, (of the firm of Put- nam & Converse, quarriers on Millstone Hill.) born in 1794, died Sept. 26, 1861 ; 7th, Aaron, born in 1797, died in 1800 ; 8th, William, born in 1799, died in 1822; 9th, Martha, born in 1801, died in 1865; Mary (Blackman), born in 1805, died in 1860.
Samuel Putnam, who died in 1861, married in 1820, Re- becca, daughter of Amos Flagg, and they had three sons, the present William, Samuel, and Henry Putnam, and four daughters.
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Joel Putnam, who died in 1858, married first, Thankful N. Salter of Shrewsbury, and second, Ruth Parmenter of Win- chendon. Of their children, Isaac died in 1858 aged 43, and one daughter married S. F. Goss.
Jonathan R. Putnam who came to Worcester from New England Village, Grafton, nearly fifty years ago, and married in 1834 a sister of the late Ebenezer HI. and George Bowen, is son of John Putnam, and grandson of Zadock Putnam, who emigrated from Salem to Grafton one hundred years ago or more.
Charles L. Putnam, President of the Five Cents Savings Bank, who came to Worcester nearly thirty years ago, and his brother Rev. John J. Putnam, are natives of Chesterfield, N. H., their father, John Putnam, being son of Gen. Rufus Put- nam's brother Stephen, consequently Charles L. and John J. bear the relationship of grand-nephews to the general. Chas. L. Putnam's only daughter is wife of Col. John D. Washburn.
Rev. Dr. Alfred Porter Putnam of Brooklyn, N. Y., and his brother Judge Arthur Alwyn Putnam of Blackstone, in this county, both natives of Salem, are sons of Elias Putnam, grandsons of Israel (not the general.) and great grandsons of Edmund Putnam, one of the pioneer Universalists in this coun- try, who held the first Universalist meeting in the old brick School house in Putnamville, Salem, more than a century ago.
John Putnam, born in 1765, son of John and Martha Put- nam of Brooklyn, Ct., and a near relative of Gen. Israel, mar- ried in 1791 Philura Curtis, and emigrated from Brooklyn to Hinsdale, Mass., where John and Philura (Curtis) Putnam had Henry, Martha, Mary, and Sophia Putnam. Of these, Sophia Putnam, born Oct. 23, 1797, married Jan. 27, 1820, Daniel Nichols, they being parents of Henry Putnam Nichols of Wor- cester, for the last thirty-five years agent of the Western and Boston and Albany Railroad. Sophia's oldest sister, Martha, married in 1810 George W. McElwain, they being parents of Mrs. Charles Wright of Hinsdale. Mary Putnam married in 1815, Dr. John Kittridge, and Henry married in 1825, Martha Boardman.
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THE UPHAM FAMILY.
The Uphams in this country are descendants of Deacon John Upham, who came from England with his wife Elizabeth, Sept. 2, 1635, and settled first at Weymouth. They brought with them four children, Mary, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, and Han- nah, born between 1628 and 1635, their three other children, Phinehas, John, and Priscilla, being born after their arrival, between 1635 and 1642. The family removed to Malden about 1650, where the mother died in 1670, and the father married in 1671 Catherine, widow of Angel Holland of Boston. John Upham, senior, was Deacon of the church in Malden 24 years, and died there Feb. 25, 1682, aged 84, His son Phine- has was the Lieut. Upham, mentioned on page 13, as one of the earliest settlers of Worcester in 1675, who was mortally wounded in the fight with the Indians in December of that year. Lt. Phinehas Upham, born in 1635, married April 14, 1658, Ruth Wood, daughter of Edward and Ruth Wood of Charlestown, and settled in Malden .* In April, 1675, he emi- igrated with his wife and seven children, Phinehas, Nathaniel, Ruth, John, Elizabeth, Richard, and Thomas, born between 1658 and 1775, to Worcester, where he had a grant of land, and settled thercon. He was Lieutenant of the company head- ed by Capt. Isaac Johnson, from Roxbury, in the memorable battle of Dec. 19, 1675, with the Indians at Narraganset fort, where so many of our brave officers and men were killed. This happened after the destruction of the first settlements at Mendon, Brookfield, and Worcester. The Indians had collect- ed to the number of three thousand in their chief fort on a rising ground in an immense swamp, a short distance south- west of the village of Kingston, R. I. They were attacked by eighteen hundred troops from Massachusetts and Connecticut with one hundred and sixty friendly Indians. The fort was a work of great strength, composed of palisades, and surround- ed by a hedge sixteen feet thick, but such was the vigor of the attacking party in their determination to punish the perfidious savages for their treachery in the destruction of so many of the English settlements in violation of their treaty, that the Indian stronghold was soon reduced, though at a terrible sacri-
*Malden formerly belonged to Charlestown, being incorporated therefrom in 1649.
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fice. An entrance being forced, our men sprang instantly into the fort. and after a desperate conflict, achieved a complete vic- tory. Five hundred wigwarms containing provisions for the winter were set on fire, hundreds of men, women, and children of the savage foe perished in the flames, and a thousand of their warriors were slain or fatally wounded, besides many hun- dred taken prisoners, including the Narraganset chief. Canon- chet, who was afterwards slain, but King Philip escaped. Six brave captains and eighty others of the English troops fell in the conflict, including Captains Isaac Johnson and Nathaniel Davenport from Roxbury, and Lieut. Phineas Upham of Wor- cester, besides one hundred and fifty wounded who recovered. Capt. Johnson was killed in the early part of the engagement, his company being among the first to enter the fort, and the command of this company then devolved on Lieut. Upham, who subsequently received a mortal wound, from the effects of which he died the following October in Boston, at the age of 41. His grave stone is in Malden. His widow, Ruth, for whom and for her seven children the General Court made am- ple provision, died in Malden. Jan. 18. 1697. aged 60. The order of the General Court, Oct. 12, 1676, " in answer to the petition of Ruth Upham, widow and relict of the late Lieut. Phinehas Upham," was "that the bills of charges to chirur- geons, doctors, and diet, mentioned in said petition, be paid by the treasurer of the country, and in consideration of the long and good service her husband did for the country, and the great loss the widow sustains by his death, being left with seven small children and not able to carry on their affairs for the support of herself and family, do further order the treasurer of the country to pay unto the said widow ten pounds in or as money."
Lieut. Upham's eldest son, Phinehas Upham, Jr., born May 22, 1659, married Mary Mellen, daughter of James and Eliza- beth (Dexter) Mellen of Charlestown, and they had seven chil- dren : Phinehas, 3d, James, Mary, Ebenezer, Jonathan, Wil- liam, and Elizabeth. This Phinehas Upham, 3d, married Tam- sin Hill, and they were parents of Dr. Jabez Upham of Brook- field, father of the distinguished tory and refugee, Col. Joshua Upham, who led the British troops into New London, Ct., Sept.
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6, 1781, when that town was burnt by the traitor commander, Gen. Benedict Arnold. This Col. Joshua Upham, who gradu- ated at Harvard in 1763, was admitted to the bar at Worcester in 1765, and was a rising lawyer at Brookfield when the Revo- lution came on. He married, Oct 27, 1768, Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Col. John Murray of Rutland, and they had five chil- dren, some of whom shared in the father's banishment and exile. Col. Upham left the country at the beginning of hostil- ities, accepted of the position of colonel in the British Dra- goons, and became in 1781 Inspector General of Refugees at Lloyd's Neck, Long Island, N. Y., and while there piloted Ar- nold's troops into New London. He settled in New Brunswick after the war, practised law at St. John's, and in 1784 was ap- pointed Judge of the Supreme Court of that Province. Judge Upham died in London in 1808, aged 67, while on a visit to the mother country, on business connected with the Courts. By his second wife, Mary Chandler, Judge Upham had five children, bern in St. John's, their only son being the late Hon. Charles Wentworth Upham of Salem, formerly member of Con- gress, President of the Senate, and holding other high official positions in this State.
The distinguished tory who led the troops of the traitor Ar- nold into New London in 1781, was thus great-great-grandson of the brave and gallant Lieut. Phinehas Upham of Worcester, who in 1675 laid down his life for his country in the battle with King Philip's savages ; but the son of the tory sire was a true representative, in the councils of the nation and of the State, of the patriotic deeds of liis great-great-great-grandfather two centuries ago.
Lieut. Phinehas Upham's son Thomas, who settled in Read- ing, had a son, Dea. Thomas Upham, miller, who settled in Weston, shouldered his musket at Lexington and Concord in 1875, and was father of Nathan, Amos, Isaac, Thomas, and Ephraim Upham. This Nathan Upham may be the Nathan Upham of Brookfield, who was father of Pliny Upham and grandfather of Joel W. Upham, who came from Brookfield to Worcester about forty years ago.
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Samuel Upham of Malden had two sons, Ebenezer and Sam- uel, Jr., who emigrated with others from Malden to Leicester about 1750. Ebenezer was a lieutenant in Capt. Thomas New- hall's company which marched from Leicester to Cambridge, April 19, 1775, and was three years in the revolutionary ser- vice. Samuel, Jr., was father of Capt. Samuel Upham, who married in 1791, Patty, daughter of Jonas Livermore of Leices- ter, and in 1800 removed to Montpelier, Vt., where he died in 1848, aged 86 ; he was grandfather of Hon. William Upham, a distinguished lawyer, and Senator in Congress from Vermont, from 1843 till his death in 1853, aged 62. These as well as Hon. Jabez Upham, member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1807 to 1811 ; Hon. George B. Upham, member of Con- gress from N.H. from 1801 to 1803 ; Hon. Nathaniel G. Upham, Congressman from the Granite State from 1817 to 1823 ; Prof. Thomas C. Upham of Bowdoin College, Me .; Rev. and Col. Timothy Upham ; and other distinguished representatives of the family, are unquestionably descendants of Lieut. Phinehas of Worcester, through one or another of his sons Phinehas, John, Nathaniel, or Thomas, as Lt. Phinehas' brother Nathaniel died a few days after his marriage in March, 1662, and there appears to be no account of his other brother John's family. Their sister Mary married John Whittemore, it may be ances- tor of the John Whittemore who was one of the earliest set- tlers in Leicester, and progenitor of the Whittemores in this vi- cinity. Lieut. Phinehas Upham's son John married Abigail, daughter of Samuel Hayward of Malden.
Rev. Dr. Samuel F. Upham, of Springfield, one of the ablest and most eloquent preachers in the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a descendant of the sixth generation in remove from Lieut. Phinehas, Dr. Upham's fa- ther Frederick being a native of Dorchester, and his grand- father Samuel and great-grandfather Amos, natives of Malden.
John Upham, (father of Lieut. Phinehas,) was one of the original proprietors of Worcester (or Quinsigamond as it was then called, ) who met at Cambridge March 3, 1674, with Goo- kin, Henchman, Michael Flagg, Richard Dana, Philip Atwood, Thomas Brown, William Taylor, Benjamin Webb, and others,
Reminiscences of Worcester. 105
contemplating settlement here, and agreed to build "according to the model proposed by Capt. Daniel Henchman." This was before any one had settled upon his claim except Ephraim Cur- tis, who came the fall before.
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