USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The biographical sketches of prominent persons, and the genealogical records of many early and other families in Medway, Mass. 1713-1886 > Part 5
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EDWARD HARVEY ELLIS, M. D.
EDWARD HARVEY ELLIS, son of James H. and Laura (Harding) Ellis, was born Feb. 6, 1856, in Rockville, Medway. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, and completed the course of scientific and classical studies in Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass., where he graduated in 1876. He pursued his professional studies in the Boston University School of Medicine, and received in 1879 the degree of M. D. He com- menced the practice of medicine in Holliston, Mass., but after some six months, established himself in a wider field in Marlboro, Mass., where he has a successful and lucrative practice. Dr. Ellis married in November, 1879, Hattie Harding Bullard, daughter of Henry and Bethia (Wheeler) Bullard, of Holliston, Mass.
DR. GEORGE OTIS FAIRBANKS.
GEORGE OTIS FAIRBANKS, son of Otis and Sylvia (Fuller) Fairbanks, was born Feb. 14, 1815, in Medway. He was the oldest of nine children. In early youth he had the advantages of education then open to farmers' sons. When seventeen years old he began teaching school, and for several years was thus engaged in Upton, Canton, Dedham, Lowell, and Newburyport, Mass. Subsequently he studied dentistry, and in December, IS45, began to practice in Fall River, Mass., where he was for many years the leading member of his profession. Dr. Fairbanks took a deep interest in public affairs. In 1848 he was chosen a member of the general school committee, to which position he was reelected. In 1852 and 1853 he was a member of the board of select- men of the town. In 1861 he was elected to the common council, and upon its organization was chosen president of that body. In 1866 he was elected a member of the school committee for a term of three years, and on the or- ganization of the committee was chosen chairman. In 1867 he was elected mayor, and was reelected the following year. Dr. Fairbanks, during his administration, inaugurated and advanced to completion a large amount of important municipal work. As chief executive officer it was his desire to have the city take high rank in whatever would bring prosperity and happi- ness to the mass of the people. He was chosen representative in 1869 and was reelected to that office in IS70, '71, '72, and '73, and again in 1875. Dur- ing his second term in the legislature he was appointed on the committee on railroads, and continued on that committee during the remainder of his ser- vice in the house. After his return from the legislature, Dr. Fairbanks was appointed clerk of the overseers of the poor, which position he held for sev- eral years. He was re-appointed until failing health forced him to relinquish work. After a few weeks of confinement he died March 11, ISS4. Dr. Fairbanks was married twice. His first wife died Feb. 2, 1849, and his second died April 27, 1860. Three sons and one daughter survive him.
Dr. Fairbanks came of good old Puritan stock, his ancestors being among the early settlers of Massachusetts. He was reared on a farm in a country town, and early imbibed those principles of domestic virtue and rectitude, together with the habits of industry which are so characteristic of the people who dwell remote from the cities. He was a great reader, an apt student, and was blessed with a retentive memory. He had great powers of obser-
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vation with an intuitive mind, and could quickly grasp an idea or theory ad- vanced by others. Hence, though his early advantages for securing an edu- cation in the scholastic sense were limited, yet his native intellect combined with perseverance and close application to studies brought to him at man- hood a well-stored mind, and so thoroughly trained as to fit him for the work of teaching a public school, a profession in which he early engaged, and was very successful. He was an acute thinker, a good reasoner, and was fond of argument. In his religious convictions he was clear and decided. Much of this was no doubt due to his early parental training, and the effects of the preaching of the Rev. Dr. Ide, of Medway, whose sermons were full of strong doctrinal truths, argumentative, and very closely reasoned. It was natural, therefore, that he should acquire a remarkable love for logical and able preaching. Soon after he came to Fall River in 1845 during an extensive work of grace in the Central Congregational Church under the pastorship of the late Rev. Dr. Thurston, he made a public profession of re- ligion and united with that church, retaining his membership with them until death. He was very constant in attendance upon the ministrations of the Gospel, whenever his health permitted. He was a man of exceedingly generous nature, kind-hearted, and took great pleasure in administering to the necessities of the destitute. The poor were lavish in their praise of his kindness, and always remembered him with gratitude.
EDMUND F. FARRINGTON, ESQ.
EDMUND F. FARRINGTON, son of Asahel and Henrietta (Fisher) Far- 1 rington, was born Oct. 25, 1820, in the " southwest room of the old Otis Fairbanks house," which formerly stood on the road from West Medway to the Village. His maternal grand-parents, Leonard and Betsey Fisher, resided for years on the borders of Franklin. Their bodies rest in the old burying-ground in West Medway. They originally came from Wrentham, as did his paternal grand-parents. Mrs. Henrietta Farrington, his mother, resided, during the later years of her life, in West Medway, and became a member of the Congregational Church in that place, but died in 1846, in Warren, Mass. "Incompatibility of temper" caused an early separation between Asahel and Henrietta Farrington, and the guardianship of Edmund was assigned to his mother, who returned to her father's house. Asahel settled in one of the northern towns in New Hampshire, married again and became the father of nine sons and daughters. He finally died at an ad- vanced age in Lyndon, Vt. Some years before his death he became a Meth- odist lay preacher. Edmund Farrington in early life was frail in body, bashful and retiring in disposition, imaginative and unstable in mind. A few summers and winters in the district school and one term at Leicester Acad-
emy sufficed him for schooling in " book learning." The hand of poverty was ever upon him. In his tenth year he was " put out" on the farm of Sanford Ware, in Franklin. After one season of farming we find him mak- ing cotton wadding with A. M. B. Fuller, in what is now known as Daniels' box factory, in North Franklin. Subsequently he worked for Hiram Metcalf, making stocking yarn in the same building, and a year or two more as card stripper and piecer in White's and Gills' factories. At the age of eighteen
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he began to learn the carpenter trade. He afterward worked for " Boss Daniels" at boot making, having been instructed by William H. Temple. Leaving Medway in IS39, he went on a whaling voyage from New Bedford, was left in the Azore Islands, shipped from there to the coast of Africa ; thence to Brazil, and coming up to the West Indies, he ran away in San Domingo, whence, after a sojourn of several weeks, he shipped and worked his passage to Boston in the brig " Sea Eagle." Soon after his return from sea he joined the Fourier Association at Brook Farm, West Roxbury. Here
he became acquainted with such men as Ripley, Dana, Parker, and Greeley, and became dimly conscious that he had a mind and a soul, and that there might be a place and a work for him in the world. At Brook Farm he learned last making, which he followed in Boston, Malden, Lynn, and Dan- vers, Mass., and in Gardiner, Me. In Lynn he edited for a time a paper called The Forum. He contributed also to various papers at different times and rode the "lecture hobby " with some success.
steam fitting in Portland, and superintended gas works in Gardiner, Me. He took up gas and
He married in 1847, in Lowell, Mass., Miss Emma A. Smiley, of Gardiner, with whom he led a happy life until her death in ISSo. They had four children, but only a son and a daughter survive. In Lowell he assisted to build and fit up the large carpet mill, and afterward went to Chicago and engaged in building. He returned to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he remained for eighteen years, engaged mostly in contracting and building. He removed
to New York and followed the same business, but failed in it during the first years of the war. While looking over a scrap of The New York Herald, in which a workman had brought a lunch, he saw an advertisement for a master carpenter on the Covington and Cincinnati suspension bridge. He answered this advertisement, was accepted and spent nearly three years in the position, mastering meantime all the mysteries of the business. He was next appointed superintendent of construction on the new suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, where he remained a year. He afterwards erected two suspension bridges over the Delaware River, between New York and Penn- sylvania, at Hancock and Lordville. He was called to East River Bridge in 1870, and placed in charge of the wood work of that structure, to which was
soon added the iron work, and finally the wire work, when he was installed master mechanic. He remained on this bridge twelve years and four months, when he retired July 31, ISS2, on account of failing health. While on this work he went through the operations of sinking the caissons safely ; got over all the temporary wire ropes and erected the foot-bridge after his own plans ; and first crossed the space from one anchorage to the other in a " boatswain's chair," attached to the smallest of all the ropes. He erected the machinery for cable making, made the cables and suspended a large portion of the super- structure, and inspected and prepared the lumber for the roadway. No other individual had any previous knowledge of suspension bridge building except Col. W. A. Roebling, Engineer in Chief, and for nine years this gentleman was unable to visit the work, or to give it proper personal attention, so that the burden fell on Mr. Farrington. How well he bore it and how patiently, in face of the intrigues of place-seekers and the opposition of assistant engineers, arising from professional jealousy, the completed work and the encomiums of the public, who watched him in its daily progress testify. When he left the
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bridge, little remained but routine work to be done and men who had grown up under his instruction remained to do it. Mr. Farrington retired in ISS2 to his native town to recuperate, where he remained until IS84, when he re- turned to New York to engage in new enterprises. Mr. Farrington's towns- men have reason to feel somewhat of pride and gratification in the success of one born among them who was a weak, friendless child, thrown on the world and his own resources at an early age, drifting for years on the tide without chart or compass, but who finally became an esteemed Christian, honored and even famous for his mechanical achievements.
REV. GILBERT FAY.
GILBERT FAY, son of Otis and Mary (Morse) Fay, was born May 2, 1803, in Westboro, Mass. He graduated in 1826 from Brown University, and studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Ide, of Medway. He was ordained Oct. 6, 1830, as an evangelist in Westboro, Mass., and entered the service of the American Home Missionary Society, being stationed at Wadsworth, O., where he labored some five years without the loss of a single Sabbath from illness. But at the early age of thirty-two years, after a short and very use- ful ministry, he died Oct. 27, IS35. The little church of eleven members during his ministry increased to sixty members, and this is the record made : " He was much loved and lamented by his church and his brethren in the ministry." The Rev. Mr. Fay married, Sept. 11, IS31, Clarissa Walker, daughter of Comfort and Tamar (Clark) Walker. She was born Nov. 28, 1805, in Medway, and died Nov. 23, 1881. Their only son was Gil- bert Otis Fay.
REV. GILBERT OTIS FAY, A. M., PH. D.
GILBERT OTIS FAY, ( Gilbert, Otis, David, David, Jonathan,) son of Gilbert and Clarissa (Walker) Fay, was born Nov. S, IS34, in Wadsworth, O. He pursued his preparatory studies in the schools of Medway and in Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. . He graduated in IS59 from Yale Col- lege, New Haven, Conn., and in 1862 from the Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass. He was licensed to preach April, 1862, by the Mendon Association. For four years next succeeding he was a teacher in the Ohio Institution for Deaf-Mutes in Columbus, O. From IS66 to ISSo he was the superintendent of the same institution. Since ISSo to the present time he has been a professor in the American Asylum in Hartford. Conn. Besides his other duties in these institutions he preached regularly to the deaf-mutes on the Sabbath, during the whole period of his connection with them. He received the literary degree of Ph. D. in ISSo. Mr. Fay married, Aug. 25, IS63, Adelia Caroline Allen, daughter of William and Caroline (Gibson) Allen. Mrs. Adelia C. Fay died Jan. 11, 1867. Mr. Fay married, April 14, 1869, Mary Jane Jarvis, daughter of Edwin and Lydia (Gross) Jarvis. The children were : Adelia Clara, born Nov. 28. 1866 ; Elizabeth, born May 21, IS70 ; and Charles Jarvis, born Aug. 26, IS71. Dr. Fay was brought up in Medway, his father having died while he was an infant, and is regarded and beloved as a son of this good old town.
. M. M. Fisher
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HON. MILTON METCALF FISHER, A. M.
MILTON METCALF FISHER, to whom the town of Medway is much in- debted for its established industries and business enterprise, and who has contributed largely to the social, educational, and religious development of the place, was the son of Willis and Caroline (Fairbanks) Fisher. He was born Jan. 30, ISII, in Franklin, Mass., and came of a godly and somewhat distinguished ancestry. Vid. The History of Franklin, Mass., The Pub- lished Works of Dr. Emmons, and The History of Norfolk County. Mr. Fisher became a resident of Medway in 1840, when about thirty years of age. His manhood was fully fledged and he was well equipped for an honorable business career. In his earlier and preparatory life he had received the ben- efits of an education in the public, private, and classical schools of his native town and of Medway, and had had the training of two years in Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. Mr. Fisher had had the experience, also, of several years as a teacher in the public schools, and had been in business and held official positions for a few years in the town of Westboro, Mass. All this qualified him to assume at once a prominence which for nearly half a century he has continued to hold, much to the welfare of the town, and with credit and honor to himself. Upon his settlement in Medway he became a manufacturer of straw goods, which business he vigorously pursued for a period of more than twenty years. In 1863 he retired from it and established an extensive Insurance Agency in which he is still active, his younger son, Frede- rick L. Fisher, Esq., being associated with him. He has had an official as well as business prominence during his residence in Medway rarely equaled by any citizen. As early as 1840 he was chosen a Deacon in the Vil- lage Church which office he still holds. His townsmen have repeatedly called him to fill the various municipal offices within their gift. He was appointed in 1856 to 1865 the State Commissioner for the New York and Boston Railroad and a State Commissioner to establish the line between . Danvers and South Danvers. In 1859 and 1860 he was chosen to the Massa- chusetts Senate, and in 1863 he was elected Commissioner for Norfolk County. He continued in this office twelve years, until 1872, serving for three years as chairman of the board. In 1871 he brought about the establishment of the Medway Savings Bank of which he has been the only and honored President from then to the present, ISS5. He was the one who set on foot measures which resulted in the erection of Sanford Hall the same year, and in ISSI he was prime mover in securing the building of the Sanford Mills. To a large extent he has been the moving spirit in the business and enterprise of the town for forty years. His connection with the development of the railroad facilities of the town was marked and full of interest. He was often upon the board of school committee. He held and advocated liberal and advanced views upon the subject of public education. He was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement, and as a young man in college, startled the professors in their seats by his bold and fervid utterances in an oration before the college on the subject of " Human Freedom." He was a delegate in 1833 to the first anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He addressed public meetings, and wrote many articles for the press upon slavery and kindred topics of modern reform. In IS45 he prepared a petition, numerously signed, to the American Board of
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Commissioners for Foreign Missions as to the matter of slavery in the churches under the patronage of that society. This petition led to the forma- tion of the American Missionary Association. Thus "Deacon Fisher," as he is familiarly known, has been a force for good in the town, the Common- wealth, and the nation, by his energy, his advanced sentiments, his earnest devotion and eminent ability, as a man, a citizen, a philanthropist, and a Christian disciple. On the seventieth anniversary of his birth, Jan. 30, ISSI, Sanford Hall, crowded with guests, and the air eloquent with laudatory greet- ings, manifested something of the wide public esteem in which the subject of this sketch was held.
" The hall was tastefully decorated with bunting and evergreen. Supper was served and the tables groaned under the load of viands prepared, consisting of all the solids and delicacies of the season. About two hundred guests sat down to supper. The Rev. Mr. Cutler, of Auburndale, offered prayer, after which an hour was spent in discussing the viands. The tables were cleared away, and then the Rev. R. K. Harlow called the meeting to order, on behalf of the committee of arrangements. Mr. Harlow welcomed all to the occasion, and on behalf of the people assembled tendered the congratulations of the townspeople to Mr. Fisher, and in a humorous manner referred to his other days of like import. When he celebrated his twenty-first birthday he doubtless thought that he was of considerable importance in the world. Mr. Harlow paid a tribute to Mr. Fisher's services, in both public and private life. He read letters from relatives, and a telegram . from George P. Metcalf, Esq., of Framingham, who said : 'Give my congratulations to the old Locofoco, and the sincere well-wishes of his kinsman.' Mr. Wellington G. H. Hunt, of Boston, was called upon, and responded in a felicitous manner. The Rev. Alexis W. Ide, of West Medway, responded to a call in his earnest, happy way. After Mr. Ide's remarks the audience arose and sang one verse of Hebron -' Thus far the Lord hath led me on,' after which the Rev. E. O. Jameson, of East Medway, made remarks full of pleasant reminiscences of his intercourse and acquaintance with Mr. Fisher, and tendered the congratulations of the old First Church in Medway. Mr. Jameson read a poem by the Hon. Charles Hamant, of Medfield, appropriate to the occa- sion. The Rev. Dr. Spaulding, of Newburyport, related his early acquaintance with Medway and the honored guest of the evening, interpersing his remarks with illustrative anecdotes. The Rev. James M. Bell, of West Medway, in the absence of the author, after a few preliminary remarks, read the following poem, written for the occasion by Dea. Anson Daniels :
" THE GARDEN BEYOND THE IRON GATE.
"Across life's road there's an iron gate, Bolted and barred by the hand of fate ; Three score and ten are its iron bars,
Three score and ten are its rusty spars ; It is riveted thick, again and again,
And the number of rivets is three score and ten.
Remorselessly shut on the human crew, It noiselessly swings for only a few -
Only a few of the struggling crowd
Arrive at this portal, toil-worn and bowed, With heads all white with the dust of the way,
Or a polished scalp above the gray -
Like a mountain dome above the pines,
Or a boulder, 'round which the snow re- clines.
Their eyes are dim with the constant strain,
Observing the scenes through which they came ;
Far have they journeyed, far and long, At first with a gay and hopeful throng Who fell by the thousands, or one by one Dwindling away with each setting sun.
All the long way there were flowers in bloom,
But the brightest group overshadowed the tomb;
And the sweetest perfumes of summer's breath
Were mingled and soiled by the odor or death :
And the soft, sweet voices that cheered the day, And the eyes of love full of beauty's ray,
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Were hushed and smothered in low mounds by the way.
But they who have passed the narrow door, Behold its repulsive side no more ;
But looking back on the gate, behold
Three score and ten shining bars of gold, Three score and ten bright rivets, like stars Holding together the golden bars. And all around is a garden fair,
Where the sunshine gilds the purple air, And shining through the leaves overhead, It flecks with light the ground they tread. 'Tis the golden light of the afternoon
With the deeper tints, brown Autumn's boon ;
For the flowers and the grass that are growing here,
And trees, have the hue of the closing year ; Golden, and brown, and crimson, and gray, Like the woods on a soft October day.
The paths are clean for the aged feet,
And under the trees there's a cool retreat,
There's a dreamy sound of the fountain's play,
And the murmuring sigh of the breeze alway;
And the chirp of the birds indistinct on the ear,
And the soft, slow rhythm of footsteps near ;
All mingled in murmur soft and sweet,
That soothes the spirit and rests the feet. The bell from its tower, with sober tone, Pronounces the name of the hour that's gone ;
From the great mad world of strife and sin There comes but the hum of its ceaseless din ;
The boom of a gun, or the rumble of a train,
Or shriek of a mill when its wheels start again ;
No more is heard of its worry and rage In this garden of God, this home of old age. And there in groups do the inmates sit, As in early life they often met;
Some still ruddy and lithe and strong, Ready to join in labor or song - Others their thin hands lean on a staff.
With a wheezy voice and a creaky laugh, Recounting the deeds of earlier years, And laughing again till their eyes fill with tears,
At some reminiscence of school-day fun, Some narrow escape when the birch nearly won. .
Another recounts his earliest jov
When he first started out, a fisher boy,
With a stick and a string, a bent pin for a hook,
He dabbled along in the edge of the brook, And caught his first fish, a prouder prize Than any that since has gladdened his eyes. Or he talks of his loves, of the Janes and Bessies,
With radiant eyes andimmaculatedresses- How they flirted, and danced, and ban- tered, and sung - --
All the smiles he received and the hearts that he won,
Remembering the joy of their weddings and wooings -
Or they talk of more serious sayings and doings :
As what they have suffered for church or state,
How often their vote was the fiat of fate,
How many elections they helped to carry, What political foes they helped to bury,
What changes they've seen in nations and men,
What reforms they have aided again and again ;
And with such reminiscence is mingled the fear
That the true age of heroes will soon dis- . appear.
Or they talk of the future, and try to fore- cast
Its greatness and glory compared with the past.
The sisters are there of these elderly broth- ers,
Sweet, thoughtful women, and large- hearted mothers,
With soft, quiet faces, white, ringleted hair. And the warmth of affection that smiles away care.
O! what were a garden all sunshine and flowers -
Even Eden, if woman were not in its bow- ers,
To join in its chatter, bring beauty and grace,
Truth, purity, love, in the smiles of her face?
There wait they the ferry across that river On which the stars of eternity quiver, And glance o'er waters so heavy and black That the noiseless keel never leaves a track, And never is heard the dip of an oar ;
And they who step from the silent shore Into the stillness, are never seen more. But beyond this dark and silent stream, Figured afar in the evening's gleam,
Are the domes and spires in purple and gold,
And glories too bright for the eyes to be- hold,
Indistinct in the outline and soft as the light, And mixed with the purple and gray of the night; And those in this garden that linger and stray, May look on this vision of visions alway.
May he who yesterday stepped through the gate,
Find the joys that abound in this garden of fate ;
And be cheered by the music that floats from the shore Beyond the dark waters, where is life ever- more."
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DR. JOHN S. FOLSOM.
JOHN SANBORN FOLSOM, (John Tilton6, Nicholas", Peter", Peter', Peter", John1,) son of Jolin Tilton and Hannah Morrill (Sanborn) Folsom, was born Oct. 12, 1S10, in Manchester, N. H. He was a lineal descendant in the seventh generation from John Foulsham, now written Folsom, who set sail April 26, 1638, from the mouth of the Thames, England. in the ship " Dil- igent," of Ipswich, and on arrival in America settled in Hingham, Mass. Vid. The Historical and Genealogical Register, April. 1876; pp. 207- 231. His father, Dr. John T. Folsom, was for many years a successful and widely-known practitioner of dentistry in Gloucester, and afterwards in Bos- ton, Mass. John S. Folsom having spent his boyhood and youth in school, at the age of sixteen years entered his father's office, and devoted himself to the study and practice of dentistry under the careful instruction and experienced eye of his father, who designed to give his son the best advantages for this profession. After two or three years under the personal training of one of the best dentists in New England. he went to Baltimore and then to New York City, spending some two years in the offices of Drs. Stinson, Franklin & Sproul, Stratton. and other most eminent dentists in the country at that period. Dr. Folsom, about 1S60. returned to his father's office in Gloucester, a well-read and skillful operator in dentistry. After some years he, with his father and uncle. N. T. Folsom. also a dentist, opened an office on Winter Street in Boston, where they had a large practice. Meanwhile his uncle became the inventor of what was known as the "Folsom Dental Packing Ridge," patented Jan. 1, 1867, which became so important to dentistry everywhere that they all were engaged for a time in introducing this new invention, which yielded a very handsome pecuniary harvest. Subsequently Dr. Folsom engaged somewhat in other business, but still doing more or less in his profession. He himself made some valuable inventions in saddlery and other hardware, which proved successful. Subsequent to 1873 he re- sided in the easterly part of Medway, which became Millis. Mass. After his father's death for some years he was in company with his uncle, N. T. Folsom, Esq., and had an office in Boston, where he gave attention to the sale of goods manufactured under their several patents, and devoted some time to his professional practice in the place where he resided. He was a prominent citizen in Medway, and a leader in politics as a Jacksonian Democrat, being on the Democratic town committee, where he was a faithful and energetic worker. As a business man Dr. Folsom had a good measure of executive ability, enjoyed the entire confidence of those who knew him, and among - his business associates he was called a "square man," one whose word was considered as good as his bond. Dr. Folsom was a popular candidate in ISS4 for Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts, receiving a heavy vote of his townsmen without respect to party lines. In 1885, upon the incorporation of the town of Millis he was chosen a member of the first board of selectmen, and on the decease of Lansing Millis. Esq., Dr. Folsom became chairman of the board. He was a far-sighted, judicious, progressive and faithful town officer, a valuable and highly esteemed citizen of the new municipality. Dr. Folsom married, July 6, 1865, Marion Augusta Gould, daughter of Dr. James B. and Priscilla A. (Godfrey) Gould. She was born
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