USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Holden > The history of Holden, Massachusetts. 1684-1894 > Part 24
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Timothy Parker, Jr., a son of Timothy, grandson of Nathaniel, and great grandson of Thomas Parker, the first
1 The patriotism of the family is illustrated by the behavior of Jonathan Parker, a brother of Timothy, Jr. Having occasion to go to Boston for a load of manure for his farm, he secreted in his load two cannon which the patriots desired to hide away from possible seizure by the British, a neigh- bor doing the same kindly office for two more. These guns were heard from next at Bunker Hill, and after doing duty through the war, were returned to the State, and two of them may now be seen at the top of Bunker Hill Mon- ument. The same Jonathan was one of the men who, disguised as Indians, threw overboard the tea in Boston Harbor.
2 Oration on "The Battle of Lexington," delivered at Lexington, April 20th, 1835.
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
immigrant, permanently settled in Holden about 1792, when about fifty-eight years of age. In early manhood, he raised a company and went out in the French and Indian war, at first as Lieutenant, and then as Captain, and was at Kingston, Can- ada, when it fell into the hands of the British and American forces. He was successful in his affairs and became "well off." He lived first at Jamaica Plain, then at Sturbridge, and finally removed, in 1792, to Holden, where he lived till his death, November 28th, 1809. In the Registry of Deeds, we read, under date of March 12th, 1792: "I Arron White of Roxbury in the Co. of Norfolk, yeoman, in consideration of a hundred and forty pounds paid me by Timothy Parker, Gen- tleman, quit claim unto said Timothy all right title," etc., unto a farm " 350 acres more or less and all the buildings thereon " in "the East end of said Holden," also, a wall pew in said Holden meeting-house, the second pew on the left hand of the front door. It was in the vicinity of this place that lime was discovered, and the settlements in the neighborhood are supposed to have been the first in town. He married Margaret White, of Brookline, by whom he had eleven children.
Aaron Parker was the eldest child of Timothy Parker, Jr., and was born December 13th, 1767. He came to Holden before his father, formed a partnership with his cousin, Aaron White, and kept a store in the house so long owned and occu- pied by him as a homestead, and still standing in good repair. He died October 7th, 1811, his death being caused by a bruise in the palm of his hand from the use of a spike-pole in raising a barn on the Timothy Parker place. April 2d, 1794, he mar- ried Ruth Smith, who was born in Worcester, October 8th, 1768, and died October 17th, 1852. Their children were :
Henry, born February 12th, 1795 ; died May 27th, 1799. Aaron, Jr., born October 10th, 1796; married, May 29th, 1823, Asenath Raymond, who died March 27th, IS56; had nine children, of whom Aaron served in Company D, Twenty-fifth Regiment, and also as Lieutenant in the Thirty-sixth Regiment of colored troops, and J. Raymond served as Sergeant
HENRY PARKER.
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in Company D, First Minnesota Regiment, partici- pating in thirty-four engagements ; died May 4th, 1840.
George S., born August 22d, 1798; died July Ist, 1821. Henry, born February 24th, 1800; died March 31st, 1854. Elizabeth, born September 2d, 1802 ; died October 24th, 1822.
Timothy, born August 31st, 1804 ; married, September 15th, 1833, Lois Pollard Fiske, who was born March 17th, 1806, and died April 28th, 1893 ; had ten children, the eldest of whom, David Fiske Parker, removed to Worcester, where he became an enterprising and prominent citizen, always retain- ing, however, an interest in the affairs of his native town; died July 7th, 1869.
Mary, born July Ist, 1806; married, September 15th, 1833, Horatio W. Paine; had one child, Mary Janette Paine, who was born April 12th, 1840, was graduated from the Framingham Normal School, taught several years in Holden and else- where, and died in Geneva, N. Y., October 26th, 1892, leaving by will the greater part of her prop- erty to the Holden Congregational Church, of which her parents and herself had been members, as a memorial ; died November 29th, 1880.
Ruth, born October 7th, 1808; married the Rev. Albert Worthington ; had three children ; died April 17th, 1871.
Naomi, born May 4th, 1811 ; died September 28th, 1813.
HENRY PARKER.
Henry Parker was the son of Aaron and Ruth Smith Parker, and was born in Holden, February 24th, 1800. His father died when he was but eleven years old. Improving all the advantages which were open to him, he became a successful teacher. He especially excelled in penmanship, his hand- writing being almost equal to copper-plate engraving, and he
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
traveled extensively in the western states as a teacher of the art. When he returned to the east, he built a house, store and cabinet shop in Millbury, which property he owned and occupied for several years after marriage, and where his four eldest children were born. Selling out his plant there in 1834, he came to Holden and occupied, for three and a half years, the old homestead. He then bought the Artemus Bartlett place, now occupied by his son, Charles E. He again went west and selected a quarter section in Illinois, which was then the "Far West," intending to locate his young family upon it, but a severe attack of chills and fever, following his third trip west, dampened his enthusiasm for immediate removal.
His faith in the future of the great west was unbounded. The struggle was then fierce between the friends and the foes of the slave power, in regard to the extension of its domain. The south was jubilant over the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise. He saw the only way to prevent the extension of slavery, namely, to fill the territory with actual settlers from the northern states. He issued a call "to all [who are] opposed to the extension of slavery and would like to form colonies to emigrate to the west," to meet at the City Hall, Worcester, Tuesday, April 18th, 1854. This call was signed " Plebeian," and published in the Daily Spy, March 21st, 1854, editors favorable to the scheme being asked to copy. Great interest was aroused, the press heartily endorsed the "impor- tant movement," and forty or fifty delegates from towns in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island were present at the meeting. Hon. John Milton Earle called the meeting to order, and stated that the sudden death of the one who had issued the call had prevented the making of any arrangements. The meeting, however, organized. Letters, warmly approving the plan, were read from Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley and Joshua R. Giddings, resolutions were passed and other conventions followed. The movement, thus begun, resulted in the sending of colonies to Kansas and Nebraska, and thus con- tributed not a little to the settlement of the slavery question. The fact that his name was not signed to the call which he
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issued, unfortunately prevented Mr. Parker from receiving the credit which he deserved.
April 9th, 1828, he married Matilda, daughter of Deacon Moses Perry, of Worcester, who was born April 4th, 1805, and died October 16th, 1860. Their children were :
Emeline Matilda, born April 13th, 1829; died April 16th, 1843.
Elizabeth, born June 23d, 1830; died September 21st, 1853.
Henry Baxter, born November 30th, 1831; married in Chicago, Ill., September 18th, 1856, Hannah Maria Caldwell ; settled in Northfield ; has had seven chil- dren. His eldest son, Arthur Henry Parker, resided in Holden for a time, and married, April 20th, 1886, Alice Edson Stone, who was born April 28th, 1865, and died December 9th, 1890.
Charles Edwin, born October 20th, 1833.
Theodore, born November 10th, 1835; married, June 28th, 1869, Nannie Vinnedge; died in Lawrence, Kan., 1871, leaving one child.
Amelia, born December 9th, 1837; married, December 18th, 1862, Isaac Hildreth ; has two children.
Alfred, born February 17th, 1840; died March 22d, 1840. Edward, born November Ist, 1841 ; enlisted in Company D, Twenty-fifth Regiment, being mustered in Sep- tember 27th, 1861 ; participated in the following en- gagements : Roanoke Island, Newbern, Kingston, Gum Swamp, Port Walthal, Arrowfield Church, Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, and in the trenches in front of Petersburg from June to September, 1864; was mustered out October 20th, 1864 ; returned to Tennessee in Quartermaster's Department; was honorably discharged at the end of the war, and has received a pension for injuries received. He married, in 1865, Mary Augusta Chenery, who died September 17th, 1874, having had four chil- dren ; May 7th, 1879, he married Hattie Louisa Mee, who has had two children.
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
Matilda, born January 6th, 1844; was graduated from the Westfield Normal School; married, October 5th, 1877, the Rev. George Morris ; lives now on Cata- lina Islands, Cal. ; has four children.
Freeman, born September 10th, 1846; died October 8th, 1846.
Gilbert, born July 28th, 1848; married, September 13th, 1870, Jennett Sophia Palmer ; has two children.
Gilman, twin with last named; married, December 30th,
1869, Angela Maria Morey. They have two children.
CHARLES E. PARKER.
Charles Edwin Parker, son of Henry Parker, and descended in the sixth generation from Deacon Thomas Parker, the immigrant, was born in Millbury, October 20th, 1833. When he was about one year old, his father sold out his store and cabinet shop in Millbury, and returned to the old homestead. About three years later he bought the Bartlett farm, and removed his family thither, and here the uneventful life of Mr. Parker has been passed.
When about seventeen years of age, together with his brother Henry and sister Elizabeth, he attended Leicester Academy for two terms, returning in the summer to assist his father. The following fall and winter, he attended school in Amherst, and later the Westfield Academy. He taught school in West Boylston and also in Westboro. In the spring of 1853, he let himself to learn the carpenter's trade, laboring at that through the summer. In the winter, he taught school, and in the spring of 1854, went back to the same employment. But, upon the death of his father, March 31st, he returned home to assist his mother in the care of the family of six, the two youngest being but five and a half years old, and to carry on the farm. By hard work and persistent energy, united with good judgment and common sense, he has improved his farm
Chat. E. Parken
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and made it one of the best, averaging well in productiveness with any in town. In 1873, he built a greenhouse, and has since done a little business in that line.
In 1886, Mr. Parker was chosen on the School Committee, and has served the town in that capacity for seven years. In 1885 and 1886, he served as Assessor. In 1888, he was sec- retary of the committee on the dedication of the Damon Me- morial, and was chosen one of the first Board of Trustees, serv- ing by re-election till 1893. In 1885, 1888, 1889 and 1890 he served as Selectman, the last year as chairman of the board. In 1885, in behalf of the selectmen, he effected a loan with the Worcester County Savings Bank for $34,000, the selectmen and treasurer giving seventeen notes of $2,000 each, at four per cent., for which, however, the town received a premium of $646, so that the actual rate of interest was only three and three-fourths per cent., making a saving of interest, as shown by the report accepted by the town in 1886, amounting to $1,200 annually. In 1889, he was chosen chairman of a com- mittee to investigate the care of the poor. After considerable inquiry, co-operation in the care of the poor was recommended, and the overseers of the poor of adjoining towns were invited to meet in conference. As a result, a Poor Farm Association was formed, consisting of Holden, Hubbardston, Paxton and Princeton ; Oakham and Westminster joining later. This has proved a very economical and satisfactory method of caring for the poor; the saving to the town being nearly $1,200 a year, with no diminution of the comforts of those cared for. The three years for which the Association was formed expiring by limitation in April, 1893, at the meeting held in November, 1892, Mr. Parker was chosen chairman of a committee to form a new Association for five years from the first of April, 1893, which was accomplished, and papers were signed in Jan- uary. In 1890, he was appointed by Governor Brackett a Jus- tice of the Peace.
He married, November 21st, 1861, Adelaide S. Collier, of Worcester, daughter of Francis A. and Eliza Collier. Their children are :
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
Samuel Perry, born December 30th, 1862 ; married Isa- bella A. Thomas, in South Carolina, December 4th, 1884; is now settled in West Boylston. They have three children.
Jennie Mabel, born June 12th, 1864.
Frank Carleton, born August 10th, 1867.
Florence, born June 25th, 1870; died August 13th, 1870.
Charles Henry, born July 10th, 1871.
Alice Louise, born September 28th, 1873.
ANDREW POLLARD, D. D.
Andrew Pollard, D. D., was born October 7th, 1814, in the town of Harvard, from which place his parents removed to Winchendon when he was two and a half years old. At the age of eighteen, he began studies with the intent of entering the legal profession, and, after a preparatory course, he entered the office of E. G. Loring, a distinguished practitioner of Bos- ton. Converted early in life, he had united with a Congrega- tional Church. His views having changed, May 31st, 1838, he was baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist Church in Winchendon. He preached his first sermon on the next Sun- day after his baptism. Soon after beginning his course of theo- logical reading, which he pursued under private tuition, he was induced to accept a call to settle at South Gardner, where he was ordained May Ist, 1839, about two years after giving up the study of the law.
August 12th, 1840, he began his labors in Holden, where he remained until April Ist, 1843. For the next six years, he was pastor in Hyannis. In 1849, he became pastor at Taunton, which position he held till 1872. He was then pastor of the Fourth Street Baptist Church, South Boston, from 1872 to 1874. From 1874 until his death, August 21st, 1886, he was District Secretary for New England of the American Baptist Publication Society.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Brown University in 1863.
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" Dr. Pollard was a man in whom was exemplified a high type of Christian manliness. Pure in heart and in life, benevo- lent in spirit, striving to do good unto all men, and especially to such as were of the household of faith."'
REV. CYRUS MURDOCK PERRY.
The Rev. Cyrus Murdock Perry, son of Deacon Cyrus Perry, was born October 5th, 1839. He was graduated from Leices- ter Academy in 1857, from Amherst College in 1862, and from the Union Theological Seminary in 1865. He was ordained at Holden, March 28th, 1865, and served as Chaplain of the Twenty-fourth New York Cavalry from April 3d to August 3d of that year. He has been pastor of Presbyterian churches at North Gage, N. Y., from 1866 to 1868, and at Jordan, N. Y., from 1868 to 1872, and of Congregational churches at South- wick from 1872 to 1877 ; at Pembroke, N. H., from 1877 to 1879 ; at the West Church, Concord, N. H., from 1879 to 1882; at Slatersville, R. I., from 1882 to 1888; at South Brewer, Me., from 1888 to 1891, and at Keene Valley, N. Y., till the present time.
REV. WILBUR RAND.
The Rev. Wilbur Rand was born in Morrisville, Vt., May 27th, 1856. He was graduated, fitted for college, from the Morrisville Academy in May, 1872. He then taught school and did other work until 1879, when he went to the Bangor Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1882. He went at once to his first pastorate at Barnet, Vt., where he was ordained and installed May 9th, 1883. After two years at Barnet, he labored for a year at Waldoboro, Me., and having spent a year in a tour around the world, labored for a year at Holden, from April, 1887 to April, 1888. He was then pastor at Cummington from 1888 to 1891. 3 He is now pastor at
Brimfield.
1 Minutes of the Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts, 1886.
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
MERRILL RICHARDSON, D. D.
Merrill Richardson, D. D., was born in Holden in 1812. His early years were spent on a farm. His preparation for college was made in part at an academy at Middlebury, Vt., and then entering Middlebury College, he was graduated with honor in the class of 1835. He pursued the study of Theol- ogy at New Haven. His first settlement was at Terryville, Conn., where he labored from 1841 to 1846. He then became actively engaged in the work of promoting and elevating com- mon school education in the state of Connecticut. While thus engaged, he supplied the church at Durham in the years 1847 and 1848. He was resettled at Terryville in May, 1849, and remained until January, 1858. He was then called to Worces- ter, and installed over the Salem Street Church at the begin- ning of 1858. After about thirteen years of service here, ill- health forced his resignation. He rested for a time, and then entered upon a brief pastorate of the New England Church in New York City. In 1872, he was installed pastor of the church at Milford, where he labored until his death. His last sermon was preached the last Sunday of August, 1876. Dur- ing the preceding winter and spring there had been unusual religious interest in his congregation and he had labored inces- santly. Throughout the summer he felt an uncommon sense of fatigue, and early in September, symptoms of Bright's disease appeared. From that time he rapidly failed, dying De- cember 12th, 1876.
Dr. Richardson was a strong man, in body, soul and spirit. His sympathies were broad and deep. He was a Christian abolitionist, an active patriot during the Civil War, and ever a philanthropist. He enjoyed pastoral work, rarely taking a vacation, rather carrying other men's burdens during the sum- mer season. He delighted in study and in preaching ; his pul- pit was his throne. He was a happy, useful and successful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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PERSONAL NOTICES.
ALBERT BROWN ROBINSON, M. D.
Albert Brown Robinson, M. D., was born in Pelham, April 12th, 1835. His academical studies were pursued at Monson. He was graduated from the Medical Department of the Uni- versity of Buffalo, N. Y., February, 1857. He practiced at Amherst until the following December, when he removed to Holden. In the autumn of 1857, he married Susan L. Chenery, the great-granddaughter of Dr. Isaac Chenery, grand- daughter of Dr. Thaddeus Chenery, daughter of Cyrus and Mary T. Chenery and niece by marriage of Dr. David Davis, who married a daughter of Dr. Thaddeus Chenery. He con- tinued the practice of medicine until August, 1862, when he was commissioned Assistant Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, to serve in the war of the Rebel- lion. In May following, he was promoted to be Surgeon of the same regiment. At the expiration of the three years service of the regiment, he was honorably discharged, and was at once commissioned Surgeon of the Forty-second Regiment, with which he served till the expiration of its term.
In April, 1865, he removed to Roxbury, now Boston, and was appointed Dispensary Physician. He has since been Pro- fessor of Surgery in the New England Female Medical College, Surgeon to the Grand Army of the Republic, and Examiner to Insurance companies. He is a member of the Norfolk District Medical Society, of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of the Washington Lodge of Freemasons, and of several other secret bodies. Dr. Robinson still continues in the active practice of his profession in Boston.
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HISTORY OF HOLDEN.
SYLVANUS B. ROEL.
The following inscription upon a monument in Grove Ceme- tery perpetuates the memory of a much loved teacher :
SYLVANUS B. ROEL, BORN IN DUMMERSTON, VT. Nov. 3, 1827-A GRADUATE OF AM- HERST COLLEGE-A. MEMBER OF ANDOVER THEOL. SEM. CONSECRATED TO MISSIONARY LABOR AMONG THE HEATHEN A TEACHER OF A HIGH-SCHOOL IN THIS PLACE FOR THREE SUC- CESSIVE AUTUMNS, DIED,
WHILE THUS EMPLOYED, SEPT. 17, 1854, AGED 26 YEARS.
He was loved most by those who knew him best.
As a slight expression of their res- pect and affection for their beloved teacher, his pupils have erected and enclosed this monument in this new cemetery, wherein never man before was laid.
COL, ISAAC N. ROSS,
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JAMES T. ROOD, M. D.
James T. Rood, M. D., was born in Jericho, Vt., December 2Ist, 1834. He received his medical diploma from a school in Montpelier, Vt., and settled in Holden in 1858, where he remained till 1860, when he removed to Rutland. He was commissioned, August 11th, 1862, Assistant Surgeon of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. His health became broken in the service, and on account of sickness he was honorably discharged, November 23d, 1862. On his return from the army, he settled in Brookfield, where he remained about six years. After a winter spent in the hos- pitals of New York City, he returned to Holden, where he con- tinued in practice until his death, which took place October 26th, 1875.
ISAAC NEWTON ROSS.
Isaac Newton Ross, eldest son of Isaac and Olive Tenney Ross, was born in Hanover, N. H., August 22d, 1824. His ancestry was in fine Scotch and English lines, with coats of arms and traditions of doughty deeds. His youth was passed on a rocky New Hampshire farm, with much wholesome work and some play. One of the great influences upon his life at this time was the neighborhood library, of few books, but solid ; five-volume Macaulay, Gibbon's Rome, Allison's Europe, were the literary food of a boy then, and so well did he digest this meat for men, that in after life he was never at a loss for an apposite historical reference, and could quote ad libitum. He attributed his grasp of affairs to the mental discipline thus acquired. His chief recreation was angling, that pursuit of all gentle natures.
January Ist, 1851, he married Maria Wright, of the same town. Later they moved to Ohio, going much of the way by boat, a tedious trip of many days. He engaged in business in
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Darbyville, Pickaway County, Ohio, the center of a rich farm- ing country. Three children came to the home, one dying in infancy. He lived there till the Civil War.
In 1861, he was elected to the legislature for two terms, but seeing a sterner duty, he left this office after the first session, to engage in raising men for the army. Eleven hundred men were enrolled in about two weeks, largely through his personal popularity. He was commissioned Colonel of one of the result- ing regiments, the Ninetieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
The regiment went into camp at Circleville, the county seat, for drill and equipment, the Colonel's commission being dated on his birthday ; but so great was the haste that one company received its guns only on the 28th of August, when the regi- ment started for the front, and this company took its first squad drill under the fire of the enemy three days later in Ken. tucky. The old Ninetieth was never a kid-gloved regiment- The hardest of service was theirs from the first. At Lexing- ton, on the 3Ist of August, the regiment met General Nelson's army in retreat, and with that army, made forced marches to Louisville, seventy miles. The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General Buell, and by con- tinual skirmish endeavored to drive the combined armies of Generals Bragg, Kirby Smith and Breckenridge. The Nine- tieth formed the extreme right of the line.
This skirmishing continued till October 8th, when the rebels made a stand at Perryville. The day before this engagement, the Ninetieth marched over twenty-five miles, over very rough roads, without food or water, scores falling by the way. Though the Colonel had two horses, he walked much of the way to relieve his suffering men.
On the morning of this fight, the regiment marched double quick for over two miles to gain a necessary position, and wheeled into line of battle on the run. After the long day's fight, lasting till nightfall, the men bivouacked on their arms. The enemy, escaping in the night, left the Union forces in pos- session of the field. The retreat of the enemy was toward Cumberland Gap.
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At Crab Orchard, Colonel Ross fell ill, and was seriously ill for over three weeks. When he started to join his regi- ment, he was still so feeble the surgeons and his superior offi- cers besought him not to go, but he grimly replied that he would be with his regiment in its first great battle or die marching toward it. Much of the way he went on foot, the railroads being destroyed.
Words cannot tell the sufferings of officers and men in those next weeks, sleeping in fence corners, frozen down so that one had to be raised by force in the morning, drinking water from hog wallows, breaking one's teeth on hard tack, and glad of too little of that.
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