USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > Representative families of Northampton; a demonstration of what high character, good ancestry and heredity have accomplished in a New England town . > Part 7
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Lewis J. Dudley
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ton, known as the Collegiate Institute. This school was on Gothic Street, on the land now owned by the Roman Catholic Church, and was familiarly known as "Shady Lawn." The school was a success, and continued to flourish for fourteen ยท years. Most of the pupils came from the South. At the outbreak of the Civil War its support from the South ter- minated, and, as conditions nearer home were not favorable to educational experiments, the school was closed.
When the war put an end to Mr. Dudley's career as a teacher, he devoted his energies to public service. He was State Senator in 1864, and for three years was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was active in securing direct communication between Northampton and Boston by means of the Massachusetts Central Railroad.
The most conspicuous public service Mr. Dudley ever rendered was at this period of his life. It was due in great part to his influence and persistence that the gift of John Clarke, to found a school where the deaf should be taught to speak, was accepted by the state, in spite of considerable opposition. Mr. Dudley's interest in this philanthropy was awakened by his experience as a father.
In May, 1851, he married Theresa Hunt Bates, daughter of Honorable Isaac C. Bates, of Northampton, a colleague of Daniel Webster in the United States Senate.
Two daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Dudley- Theresa Bates, who died in infancy, and Etta Theresa, who became the wife of Wallace Holbrook Krause, now of North- ampton. This child was without the faculty of speech, and thus a private sorrow enlisted Mr. Dudley's sympathy and aid in securing the charter for the Clarke School for the Deaf.
It was the general opinion that such persons could not be taught to speak, but Mr. Dudley would not believe this,
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and he drew facts and arguments from his own experience. His appeal, vehement, eloquent, and pathetic, carried con- viction at length, and the charter was granted by the Legis- lature.
Mr. Dudley was chairman of the school committee of the Clarke School from its organization until his death, and the last atom of his strength was given to this service.
In 1883 he was elected to the presidency of the Clarke School, and he held this office until his death, February 27, 1896.
The impression he made on a stranger was that of a man of intellect. Few men lived so much in the spirit. What fretted him most was the effort to reconcile himself to the necessary limitations of human knowledge. Truth was always for him the most excellent thing in the world. His mind was a miraculous lamp, renewing its light continually.
He was a church attendant, devout in spirit, and a constant and patient hearer of sermons.
Toward the end of his life he lost the use of his eyes in great part, but, by hiring other people to read to him, he kept up with all that was best in modern thought and liter- ature.
Through his whole life he was, as a college classmate said of him, "Loyal to truth and manhood, a genuine hater of shams, self-conceit, and pretenses; upholding goodness, honor, and manliness, as a rare Christian scholar and gentle- man."
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"Shady Lawn"
The Seminary, first erected for the Madam Dwight School for Young Ladies. Afterward used by Lewis J. Dudley as a Preparatory Academy for Young Men. Later a private retreat for the insane under direction of Dr. Austin W. Thompson. Next occupied as a parochial school by St. Mary's Roman Catholic Parish
SILAS M. SMITH
Successful Merchant and Highly Respected Citizen
S ILAS M. SMITH headed one of the most noteworthy families of the Smith name which distinguished North- ampton citizenship of the last generation. His family was not important in a political sense, although one of his sons was a deservedly popular public servant, and held office as county treasurer for many years. The family was a not- able one because it held a high position in the home life of the community, and its head contributed largely to the busi- ness and social prosperity of Northampton.
Silas Moody Smith was a native of Chester, Massachu- setts, where he was born May 8, 1810. His father was Colonel Horace Smith, who was born February 16, 1781. Horace Smith married Rebecca Moody. He died at Am- herst in 1862, in his eighty-first year. The family was of English ancestry, but its history has not been traced beyond this country. Silas Smith's immigrant ancestor was Lieu- tenant Samuel Smith, who sailed from Ipswich, England, in 1634. He came first to Wethersfield, Connecticut, and set- tled in that place. Afterward he removed to Hadley, Massa- chusetts. There he was one of the leading men and was sent to the Great and General Court to represent the town for several years. The family is related to the Springfield Chapins. Asenath Chapin, Silas Smith's grandmother, was descended from Samuel Chapin, who settled in Springfield in 1642.
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When one of those who knew Silas Smith well thinks of him he naturally recalls the palmy days of the "Old" First Church. If these pages could spare space for reminiscences of a personal nature much interesting matter could be writ- ten, but such material must find another outlet. It was in the "Old" Church that he showed the most useful charac- teristics of his life, for there he was almost omnipresent, officiating as deacon and chorister for practically all his active manhood and with such unfailing urbanity, considera- tion, and efficiency that to a marked degree the church and parish have never seemed the same without him.
As a business man he was also a success, and he and his sons built up, by untiring industry and courtesy to the gen- eral public, a large furniture trade in the great block in the rear of the county court-house.
Mr. Smith began life as a poor boy. He came to North- ampton in 1828, and learned the furniture trade in a shop on South Street which stood in front of the present gasometer. In 1831 he formed a partnership with Robert Crossett and commenced business in a three-story wooden structure on the site of the block long occupied by the C. N. Fitts Com- pany. Fifteen years later he assumed control of the busi- ness, and he retained this control for twenty-five years. Then the firm of S. M. Smith and Company was organized with his son Watson and J. H. Searle. In 1840 the wooden building was destroyed by fire. Mr. Smith lost all he had, and with only eight hundred dollars' insurance he began anew, and put up the brick building. In 1877, after he had been in business for fifty-six years in that one spot, he retired, and his youngest son, George, was admitted to the firm, which took the name of W. L. Smith and Company.
Politically, Mr. Smith was a Republican, but he never engaged in strife for public office. He was a trustee of the
Silas M. Smith
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State Hospital in Northampton for over twenty-five years, was a director of the First National Bank, and held many other offices in corporate institutions.
Mr. Smith married Theodosia Hunt, daughter of Abner Hunt, January 6, 1832. They had four children - Watson L., George S., Mrs. William E. Wright of Springfield, and Mrs. Edward S. Hildreth of Boston. Mrs. Hildreth is the only one surviving. Mr. Smith died February 12, 1887, at the age of seventy-six.
Watson, the oldest son, was born in 1834. Like his father he was a very popular citizen. For several years he served as county treasurer. He married Miss Eunice A. Brewster, a resident of Cummington who was of Mayflower lineage. She died in 1904, and her husband passed away in 1913. They had five children. Of these the only ones now living are Mrs. G. L. R. French of Rutland, Vermont, and Mrs. Edwin L. Harpham of Evanston, Illinois.
Silas Smith's youngest son, George, married Miss Annie Pratt of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His second wife was Miss Nellie Richards, and they had four children. Three of the children were boys, Raymond, Harold, and Earl. They are all now living. One resides in St. Louis, one in Baltimore, and one in Northampton. George died in 1913, and Mrs. Smith now makes her home with her brother, George Sher- man Richards, at Forest Hills, Long Island.
But to return to the main subject of this sketch-Silas M. Smith was a man of what might be termed the old Amer- ican school. He had a fine conscientious character, sound judgment, and was a person who always stood ready to help others. As treasurer of the church poor fund he will be long remembered for the unnumbered charitable deeds he per- formed, and he was liberal in private benefactions. Perhaps the following paragraph from a local newspaper best describes him:
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"Mr. Smith had no political aspirations. If he had but hinted a desire for political promotion it would have been gratified by his townsmen, who had supreme confidence in his integrity and worth. He wisely chose the more quiet and congenial walks of a home life. His connection with the 'Old' church has been long, useful, and beneficial to it. For more than forty-five years he was a member of the choir and for a great part of the time its leader, all his service in it being gratuitously given. He had charge of the distribution of the church poor fund. In summing up the traits in the character of Mr. Smith we are forcibly reminded of the aptness of the Scripture estimate in Proverbs: 'Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.' "
Watson L. Smith
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CHARLES G. STARKWEATHER Farmer and Pioneer
C HARLES GRAVES STARKWEATHER was born in Northampton March 20, 1819, on Old South Street, in a house very near the Lyman estate on Fort Hill. He died at the age of eighty-seven years and three months, June 26, 1906.
Mr. Starkweather's father, Haynes Kingsley Stark- weather, was born on South Street, at "Homestead Num- ber 52." He married Lucina Almina Merrick of Wilbraham, April 30, 1818. They had four sons and three daughters.
Haynes' father was Charles Starkweather, who came from Mansfield, Connecticut, in 1787. He married Miriam Kingsley, and they also lived in the old homestead on South Street. They had five children, Haynes Kingsley Stark- weather, and four daughters. He was in the Revolutionary War, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne.
The subject of this sketch, Charles Graves Starkweather, son of Haynes K. Starkweather, was the oldest of the family. He received his education in the schools of Northampton, and at the time of his death he was the oldest member of the First Church, with which he had united in 1834. Politically
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he was a Republican, and he had been allied with that party since its formation.
Mr. Starkweather's first taste of adventure came in 1849, when, with a party of twenty-one others, he decided to try his fortune in the gold-fields of California. He was thence- forth known as one of the "forty-niners."
February 5, on the day the company left the town, some of the citizens met at the First Church, to give the adven- turers a farewell, with an address by the minister, Rev. E. Y. Swift. The party sailed from New York and landed at Panama, where they remained for a long time, unable to obtain transportation. As a last resort they joined with others and bought a vessel en route for California, and at last reached San Francisco, their destination, August 8, hav- ing been six months on the journey.
After selling the vessel and its cargo, the company sepa- rated, and traveled the last seventy-five miles to the mining regions by ox teams. Mr. Starkweather worked in the mines one year, when he was joined by his brother Alfred, and they turned their attention to farming. Haynes Kingsley, an- other brother, was in the drug business in Sacramento.
Charles and Alfred made a great success of the farm un- dertaking, but after several years the former sold his interest to his brother and returned to his old home on South Street in Northampton, where his parents were living. Here he carried on farming.
Soon after his return he married Sophronia W. Merrick of Wilbraham. Of their four children who grew to maturity, the eldest is Charles Merrick Starkweather. On October 24, 1904, he married Lucy Williston, daughter of A. L. Williston of Northampton. They have three children, a son, L. Wil- liston Starkweather; and two daughters, Sarah S. and Esther S., who are living in Hartford, Connecticut; Frederick Mer-
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rick Starkweather, the second son of Charles G. Stark- weather, married Mary Semans of Delaware, Ohio, daughter of Professor W. O. Semans, of Ohio Wesleyan University. They live in Northampton; the other two children of Charles G. Starkweather are Emily Bliss Starkweather, who married David B. Howland, and Roderick Merrick Starkweather. Both live in Northampton.
In his day Mr. Starkweather made some changes in the old home of his birth, by the removal and remodeling of sev- eral buildings. He built a new residence in the year 1870, and in 1888 he sold the house and lot to E. H. R. Lyman. Then he moved to Maple Street a house which his brother, Haynes K., had occupied before leaving a second time for California, and that was his home for the remainder of his life.
ARTHUR WATSON
A Man of Many Public Trusts
M R. WATSON'S parents were Henry and Sophia (Peck) Watson, and he was born at Greensboro, Alabama, July 28, 1851. He fitted for college at Round Hill School, Northampton, and graduated from Yale in 1873.
Northampton has honored him in an official way to a notable degree, as is evidenced by the following list of the various capacities in which he has served the municipality. In 1884 and 1885 he was Registrar of Voters; from 1885 to 1887 he was Assessor of Taxes; he was postmaster from 1886 to 1890; alderman in 1896; Referee in Bankruptcy from 1898 to 1900; mayor in 1901; member of the Public Library Committee from 1891 to 1916; and has been a trustee of the Forbes' Library since 1893.
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WILLIAM PHILLIPS STRICKLAND Judge of the District Court of Hampshire County
4, 1915.
W ILLIAM PHILLIPS STRICKLAND was born at Tyringham (now Monterey), Massachusetts, Jan- uary 12, 1835, and died in Northampton, August His father, Lemuel K. Strickland, who moved from Egremont, to Sandisfield in 1840, died at the latter place in 1860, aged fifty-six. Judge Strickland's mother was Emeline, daughter of William Phillips. Jonathan Strickland was his grandfather on the paternal side. The grandmothers were Elizabeth Crittenden (Strickland) and Lora Smith (Phillips).
The father was noted as an upright lawyer, and a lover of justice. He was highly respected by his fellow citizens of Sandisfield, by whom he was sent two terms to represent them in the Legislature. The family homestead in that town was occupied by five successive generations of lawyers.
The ancestry of the Strickland family can be traced back many generations, but work on the record of it is not yet completed. At this time it can be said that the Strick- lands were of English ancestry, while the Phillips and Crit- tenden families came from Wales.
Judge Strickland's mother was a cousin of Rev. Edmund H. Sears, D.D., author of "The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ," and the Christmas hymns, "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night" and "It Came upon the Midnight Clear."
As a boy William went to the public schools for a few terms, and then his father placed him in charge of Rev. Platt Tyler Holley, pastor of the Sandisfield Congregational Church, and a graduate of Yale College, for further educa- tion. The result was most favorable. The pupil read Virgil
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with his tutor at the age of twelve years, and showed marked ability and perseverance as a student. It is worthy of note that, in his later years, he often carried a Latin Testament in his pocket, when going about the county holding court.
The boy attended the Great Barrington Academy and Williston Seminary, and afterward entered Williams College with the class of 1857. Although he was compelled by ill health to leave college for a season, he returned and de- livered the Latin oration in 1858, when he was awarded the degree of A.B. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities.
His own interest inclined to the study of medicine, but, following the desire of his father, he began the work of life by reading law in the office of Marshall Wilcox of Lee, Mas- sachusetts, and was admitted to the bar of Berkshire County in 1861. He practiced at Ware, Massachusetts, in the years 1861 to 1864. During this period of the Civil War he be- came subject to the draft of the national government for soldiers, but was rejected on account of physical disability, greatly to his disappointment; and he sent a substitute.
It was his appointment as Clerk of Courts, in 1864, which brought him to Northampton. He held the office from 1864 to 1882, when he was appointed as the first justice of the district court, which was established that year. In this court he did the most important part of his life work, although it should be mentioned that while clerk of courts he was also trial justice, being one of the few men who held a similar office in the state. Judge Strickland also accomplished a work which was much appreciated by the Hampshire bar, in building up the law library in the court-house. It is now one of the best in Massachusetts.
Judge Strickland did not allow the close duties of his profession to turn him from social intercourse with his fellow
Judge William P. Strickland
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citizens. He was a charter member of the Northampton Club, and he was a much interested member and participant in the meetings of the Northampton Literary Club for more than thirty years. In politics he was a Republican, but he did not hesitate to endorse the better man, though not of his party, as when he voted for President Cleveland. In re- ligious belief he was broad and liberal, though with a strong leaning toward the Episcopal Church, with which all the Strickland ancestors had been affiliated. But in his boyhood, at Sandisfield, there was only a Congregational Church. So, when he came to Northampton, he united with the First Church, in which he officiated as deacon thirty-seven years.
Mr. Strickland married, September 4, 1861, Mary A. Pelton, daughter of Asa Carter Pelton and Ophelia (Austin). She was a descendant from John Howland, who came to this country in the famous Mayflower. Their children numbered seven. A boy and girl died in infancy. The second son, Lemuel Sears, a lawyer of much promise, died in 1901, at the age of thirty-five. The third son, George Hyde, who had marked business ability, died in 1909, aged forty-three. The children now living are three daughters, Mabel E. P., Blanche L., and Mrs. E. Christine Doane (Mrs. Will Nelson Doane). Judge and Mrs. Strickland were given an informal surprise party in 1911 at their Round Hill home, in commemoration of their golden wedding anniversary, and this occasion brought them the congratulations and good wishes of a host of their fellow citizens.
In his accomplishments as an exponent of the law, Judge Strickland showed exceptional learning, and he has been widely praised. The lawyers of Hampshire are all agreed as to his fine ability, and they have spoken most highly of his admirable discretion in the disposal of cases. No man could be more conscientious in his decisions. He exercised the
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utmost care in arriving at conclusions, and spent much time in consulting legal decisions of the past. The more puzzling the detail of the case he was investigating the more he studied it, and the most contradictory evidence did not daunt him. He sifted matters to the bottom, and he rarely failed to ar- rive at a just conclusion. This is shown by the fact that his decisions were seldom overruled by the higher courts.
His decisions were often couched in terms that attracted much attention from the pith and point of their expression. He frequently gave advice to litigants and offenders that was well worth heeding, and in some instances it was heeded with excellent results. Many a prisoner brought before him had occasion to be thankful for the manner in which the judge treated him. He gave counsel that went straight home, and there were those among the offenders whom it put in the way of better living. He found severity necessary at times, but he was lenient and indulgent when he believed this to be of any use, and he was apt to give the benefit of the doubt in favor of a youthful offender.
Judge Strickland had high ideals about the dignity of the court and evinced genuine art in the handling of his work. He loved wit and humor, and took occasion to say many bright things in connection with the cases that came before him. He had a wonderful memory, a command of the best English language, and his eulogies on the deaths of those in official positions are real gems.
The Springfield Union, in commenting on him shortly after his death in August, 1915, said:
Judge Strickland was of the old order of things, eminently patriotic, and a lover of American ideals and American institutions. Those who knew him intimately fully appreciated his fine qualities. He was a man of rare intellectual attainments, a genuine student, informed on all the leading questions of the day, and when he talked he had something to say. He commanded attention and when he
Judge Strickland with his Grandson
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expressed his views they were listened to with great interest. He was a man of wide vision and had a rare grasp of situations, he had a bright mind, and found keen delight in the society of men of large mental caliber.
Judge Strickland's memory will be held sacred in Northampton. He will be looked upon as an intellectual leader-the type of a man who is fast disappearing. His shrewd observations, his sound advice, his words of wisdom and his keen wit will long be remembered.
When the end finally came to the venerable jurist, he was in his eighty-first year. It was only on the morning of his last appearance for his daily task at the courthouse that friends commented on his remarkably favorable appearance as they greeted him, and agreed that there were few men who bore the burden of their years so well. Many supposed him to be ten years younger than he actually was. To all who saw or spoke to him that morning he appeared in his usual health and in one of his frequent humorous moods. But when he was walking back to his Round Hill home his strength forsook him, and he fell by the wayside.
Rev. Irving Maurer, who officiated at the funeral service, spoke of the life and work of Judge Strickland as follows:
Judge Strickland will be remembered as a friend of men. Not in an effusive, nor yet in an exclusive sense, was this true. Sitting on the judge's seat for thirty-three years, he saw a generation of human life trail its little sorrows and its deeper tragedies along the way. The truant boy, the drunkard, the outcast, the widow, the orphan, the shiftless, the sinful, the lonely, and the discouraged, all beat against his heart.
The impression which he leaves is one of personal interest in the problems of human need. The old, old story of individual sin and shame did not dim the keenness of his regard for the single example of the case before him. And the numberless personalities who looked at his searching eyes from the standpoint of the guilty passed out of his courtroom knowing that he was right, but that he was also con- cerned in them as persons.
This constant realization within his cultured soul, that law is a path running through human relationships, that crime and penalty have the spiritual significance of humanity, struggling and winning and losing, was what made Judge Strickland a magnifier of his office.
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Take a personality gifted with the powers of penetration and analysis, with deep interest in the philosophy of human good and evil, with insight into the fact of sin, make that personality the mouth-piece of the public law, and the well-being of the community prospers and bears fruit.
In these days of unrest, when law itself appears to many as hazy and unmajestic, when it is easy for gifted men in places of leadership, instead of voicing the prophet's message, to speak the half-formed thoughts of the ignorant and the misled, we have need of men like this man, one who knew when men and women sinned, who believed that social wrong, crime, must be punished, and yet who maintained in the hour of penalty the role of a friendly heart, seeking even in the depths of shame for better things.
A few who knew Judge Strickland in a more intimate way will miss a rare soul, a splendid type of the men that the Berkshires have reared. His home, which was founded just a month less than fifty- four years ago, will cherish him for his great heart. His church will recall him as a layman gifted with the powers of priestly ministry. His city will honor him for his public spirit. But for the community at large his name will stand as the name of a man who was a just judge, a judge of the poor and the needy, a friend of men.
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