USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Holden > The history of Holden, Massachusetts. 1684-1894 > Part 25
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The three days battle of Stone River, December 31st, 1862, and January Ist and 2d, 1863, was the next and last important battle in which Colonel Ross was engaged. His regiment saved two cannon which the drivers had run against trees in a thick wood. Colonel Ross with that strong left hand of his lifted one by the tire, and helped drag the two out, giving them to the First Ohio Battery. For this and other deeds, Colonel Ross received flattering mention in the official reports. At the close of the first day's contest, Colonel Ross found himself in command of portions of ten regiments, so great had been the slaughter.
A fragment of spent shell hit him on the right side, the pri- mary cause, he always thought, of the long years of suffering he experienced.
On the last day of the fight, General Rosecrans sent word to Colonel Ross that his regiment held the key to the whole posi- tion, and if it could be held for half an hour the end was sure. Word was sent back that the position should be held. It was, and the field was ours. Colonel Ross was left for dead on the field, and after two days exposure, was found and car- ried off by his colored servant, thus saving his life.
This was the end of his active service, brief in time but im- portant in results. His health failing utterly, he was compelled to resign in March, 1863, and was never able to return. Indeed,
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the ill effects followed him ever after, and without doubt short- ened his life.
Returning East, he went into business in Greenfield, then in Worcester, hence his selection of a home in Holden, in 1867. His first public work here was in connection with the re-survey of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad. The intelligent, far- seeing men of the town found that this road must touch the manufacturing villages of the town, if it was to prove any real gain to the town. The survey was made and accepted, and the road built.
Soon after this road was opened, he was elected to the State Legislature for two terms, an unprecedented honor in the dis- trict. This was the only public office in the gift of the town which he ever held. Partly from modesty and distaste for it, and partly from a throat trouble, he never spoke much in pub- ic, but he was a sagacious worker, and by his executive ability, good judgment, keen wit, and remarkable understanding of the significance of events, the connection between present cause and future effect, he gained the respect of the best statesmen and thinkers in the state. It was his pride that no one had ever dared offer him a bribe, and that he could refuse to drink intoxicating liquor even when the only member of a company who dared take such a stand. One gentleman who has received the highest honors of this State, and almost in the nation, said that he cared more for the judgment of Colonel Ross in regard to public affairs than for that of any other man he ever met. At this time, he was for several years a State Director of the Boston & Albany Railroad.
The years in which he was Superintendent of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad were years of unceasing thought and hard work to build up the road. At the time of the Mill River freshet, the Boston & Albany road was obliged to send its trains over the little Boston, Barre & Gardner. The trains were taken through on time, with no accident, with no detention of his own trains, on a single track, without telegraph connection. The Boston & Albany officials sent him a very appreciative letter, saying they believed it a feat unparalleled in railroading.
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In 1877, his health compelled him to resign from active bus- iness life. His health failed gradually, the suffering of the last years being severe. He died in Holden, March 26th, 1881, of disease contracted in the army.
Perhaps no event in his history was so far reaching in its consequences as his death and subsequent cremation at the Crematory in Washington, Pa .- the first instance in New Eng. land. This act was the cause of much cruel criticism at the time, but now the sentiment of press, of scientists, and of many in all ranks of life, favors such a disposition of the dead. This act was performed at his written request, not from any morbid desire for the sensational, but because from his reading, and from his own experience with an old cemetery in Worces- ter, which a railroad ruthlessly destroyed, he had come to believe that cremation is the only right way of disposing of the casket of the soul, in justice to the health of the living. As a result of this martyr sacrifice, public attention was drawn to the subject, and several societies were formed. People who had not thought for themselves, said that if Colonel Ross had made up his mind to such a course, it must be right.
This indicates how strongly he was a leader among men ; wise, sagacious, noble, tender-hearted as a woman, a friend of the poor and helpless, frank and merry and lovable, a noble type of highest Christian manhood. He realized those words of Bayard Taylor :
" The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring."
Not that he never made mistakes. He did, and serious ones, which no one regretted more than he ; but he had noble aims and high purposes, and lived very near to them. The world is e'er a gainer for a life well lived.
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REV. JOHN ROUNDS.
The Rev. John Rounds was born in Minot, Me., March 30th, 1822, studied at Hebron Academy, and was graduated from Waterville College, now Colby University, in the class of 1849. After two years of study at the Newton Theological Institution, he was ordained September 29th, 1852, and became pastor at New Gloucester, Me., where he remained till 1860. His sub- sequent pastorates were Freeport, Me., from 1860 to 1865 ; Alna, Me., from 1865 to 1868 ; Chelmsford from 1868 to 1872; Holden from 1872 to 1874; Kennebunkport, Me., from 1874 to 1878 ; and Northfield, Minn., from 1878 to 1883. His last pastoral work was done at Red Wing, Minn., after which he resided at Minneapolis until his death, which occurred March 29th, 1888. " He was a conscientious Christian, an earnest and faithful pastor, a sympathizing friend and a safe and trusted counsellor." 1 1
CLIFFORD W. STICKNEY, M. D.
Clifford W. Stickney, M. D., was born in Townsend, Decem- ber 2Ist, 1855. He received his literary training at Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, and studied medicine with his brother, A. L. Stickney M. D., and at the Medical schools of Dartmouth College and of the University of the City of New York, receiv- ing the diploma of the latter institution in March, 1881. He settled at once in Holden, where he still resides. His practice is large, and his ride extends beyond the limits of Holden into adjoining towns. He was Superintendent of the schools of the town from 1883 to 1886, and has also been for several years a member of the School Committee of the town. His skill and success as a leader and composer of music have often been made to contribute in various ways to the enjoyment and bene- fit of his towns-people.
1 Minutes of Maine Baptist State Convention, 1878.
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REV. JOSIAH HOLTEN TILTON.
The Rev. Josiah Holten Tilton was born at Deerfield, N. H., October 31st, 1814. His education was received in the public schools and in academies. He was ordained to the gospel min- istry in Limerick, Me., April 16th, 1840. His pastorates have been at Limerick, Me., beginning April, 1840; at South Gard- ner, May, 1844; at Holden, October, 1847; at South Ames- bury, September, 1852 ; at Lynn, November, 1853 ; at Holden, a second time, April, 1857 ; at East Brookfield, April, 1859; at Kingston, October, 1863 ; at Natick, R. I., November, 1866 ; at Palmer, June, 1869 ; at Orange, April, 1870 ; at North Ux- bridge, beginning November, 1871, and ending October, 1877. The next few years were spent at Hyde Park in rest. In July, 1881, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Chelms- ford. His last pastorate was at North Reading, beginning October, i885, and closing May, 1890. He still resides in Reading.
REV. TIMOTHY C. TINGLEY.
The Rev. Timothy C. Tingley was born in Cumberland, R. I., July 4th, 1804, and died in Raynham, April 2d, 1883. He studied at Brown University and was graduated from the New- ton Theological Institution in 1831. He was ordained at Fox- boro, July 14th, 1831, where he was pastor till 1837. He was afterwards pastor in Boston from 1837 to 1838; at West Cambridge from 1838 to 1845 ; at Canton from 1845 to 1848 ; at Sheldonville from 1848 to 1851; at West Boylston from 1851 to 1854; at Holden from 1854 to 1857; at Scituate from 1857 to 1864; at Somerset from 1864 to 1869; at Quidnick, R. I., from 1869 to 1875; at Raynham from 1875 till his death.
" At the time of his death, and when seventy-eight years of age, he was still prosecuting his pastoral work with almost unabated ardor. Few ministers are permitted for so
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many years to have the physical freshness and strength with which " he " was favored. . He belonged to the class of good men who are good everywhere and in every relation, and make the world richer by a peculiar atmosphere that attends them." '
REV. JOHN WALKER.
The Rev. John Walker was the son of Hezekiah Walker, who was born February 25th, 1751, and died December 30th, 1837, and Lucy Raymond, his wife, who was born February 6th, 1755, and died January 2Ist, 1849. They had twelve children :
Sally, born July 28th, 1776; died September 2d, 1778. Lucy, born March 29th, 1778; died July 13th, 1801.
William Raymond, born November 20th, 1781 ; died September 12th, 1790. This son was instantly killed by falling upon an open knife which pene- trated to his heart.
Silas, born February 2d, 1783 ; died December 19th, 1872. Polly, born March 6th, 1785 ; died October 30th, 1871.
Sally, born May 30th, 1788 ; died September 16th, 1879. John, born May 20th, 1789; died August 18th, 1866. Persis, born June 20th, 1791 ; died December 22d, 1866. Lydia, born August 19th, 1793 ; died October 4th, 1876. Tabitha, born November 27th, 1795 ; died December 2 1st, 1868.
Joel, born April 8th, 1798. Alive and comfortably well in December, 1892.
Eli, born March 2d, 1802 ; killed by the cars while walk- ing on the track, June 10th, 1886.
Of the nine brothers and sisters who lived to old age, all were Baptists, as were their father and mother before them. It is related that when the parents went on horseback to Still
1 Minutes of the Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts, 1883.
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River to obtain baptism, the mother carried with her two of their children, one before and one behind the saddle.
The Walker place was in the extreme northern part of Hol- den, and John Walker spent his early years in farm work, as, indeed, he continued to live on a farm in that neighborhood until his removal from town. In the year 1804, he made a public profession of religion, and was baptized by Elder Andrews, March IIth, 1805. He began preaching in a private house in Holden in October, 1812, and the next Sunday he preached at West Boylston, at what is said to have been the first regular Baptist meeting held on Sunday in that town. He was licensed to preach, August 20th, 1813, ordained as an evangelist October 30th, 1816, at the Congregational meeting- house, and settled as pastor of the Baptist Church, February 20th, 1818. This relation continued more than thirteen years, until April Ist, 1831. He baptized into the fellowship of the church during his pastorate one hundred and seventy-nine per- sons, and twenty-five others were baptized by Elders Going, Crosby and Andrews, when he was unable to officiate, so that there were two hundred and four additions on profession of faith. During his pastorate in Holden he supplied the Prince- ton Baptist Church, which was organized under his ministra- tions, once a month for six years, and in all these years he preached in neighboring towns and baptized believers. For example, in October, 1818, he preached by request in a private house in Leominster, and the next month baptized three per- sons in the presence of a company estimated at one thousand, it being the first such service ever held in town.
After leaving Holden, Mr. Walker was settled for five years, until 1836, in West Sutton. In a private letter to Dr. Damon, he said : "I took up my Pastoral relation [West Sutton] with an expectation of emigrating to the far west ! but a long and tedious journey of nearly 4,000 miles satisfied me that my con- stitution would not bear the climate. My labors commenced with the first Baptist chh. in Barre, in October, 1836. My Pastoral relation in Nov. of the same year." 1 He labored
1 Damon History, p. 114.
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in Barre seven years, from 1836 to 1843. He was never set- tled afterward, but supplied the churches in Bolton, Westmin- ster and Spencer for several years. His last sermon was preached in Barre, July 22d, 1866, and, after an illness of four weeks duration, he died August 18th, 1866.
He married Eunice Metcalf, November 29th, 1813. Their children were :
John, born January 3d, 1815. Rev. Hervey Day, born April 20th, 1817; now living at Shickshinny, Luzerne County, Pa.
A son, born February, 1819; died when six weeks old. Rev. Adoniram Judson, born July 22d, 1820; now liv- ing at Dalton.
Rev. William Staughton, born January 5th, 1823; now preaching in Rhode Island.
Eunice Metcalf, born February 28th, 1825.
Sylvia Jane, born September 24th, 1827.
WATERMAN G. WARREN.
Waterman G. Warren was born May 16th, 1807, in Ward, the name of which was subsequently changed to Auburn, on the old Warren homestead, which is in that part of the town known as West Auburn. He was the eldest of the six sons and a daughter, born to Deacon Samuel and Sally Goulding Warren. His father, Samuel Warren, born in Leicester, Sep- tember 10th, 1779, was a son of Jonathan Warren of that town, who was second cousin to General Joseph Warren, and whose father, Ebenezer, born in 1714 and settled in Leicester in 1744, was the great-grandson of John Warren, of Boston, the first American ancestor of the family, who, coming over with Governor Winthrop in the good ship Arabella, arrived in Salem, June 12th, 1630.
His mother, Sally Goulding Warren, was born in Auburn, February Ist, 1790. She was the daughter of Captain Jonah Goulding, a conspicuous rebel in the Shays' Rebellion. In
MG Wann
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this insurrection of 1787, Captain Goulding, afterwards a Colonel in the State militia, led his company to Worcester and prevented Judge Artemas Ward from opening court. For this he was imprisoned, according to his own account, "forty days and forty nights," and in addition was threatened with hang- ing. The daughter partook of the sterling character of her paternal ancestor.
Mr. Warren, the subject of this sketch, belonged to a family of tanners. His ancestors, back for at least three generations upon both sides of the line, were tanners. All of his brothers, except one, the late Jonah G. Warren, D. D., of Newton Cen- tre, a distinguished Baptist preacher and scholar, were at some time in their lives engaged in that industry, and the same is true of not less than thirteen of the children of the next generation.
His opportunities for obtaining an education were limited in the extreme. He worked upon his father's farm and in the tannery summers, and attended the district school winters, here acquiring the merest rudiments of an education.
On the 22d of April, 1830, he was married to Mary Eddy, of Auburn, his wedding present from his father being two dollars in cash to fee the minister, and the loan of his old horse and " shay " with which to bring home his bride. On the same day fifty years later, April 22d, 1880, the golden wedding anniversary of this marriage was celebrated at the Warren homestead in Holden.
At the death of his father in 1832, he inherited the ancestral tannery, which Jonah Goulding, when he moved from Grafton to Auburn, had purchased of Nathaniel Southworth. Mr. Warren conducted the tanning business here, with varying success, till 1840, when he loaded his " household gods," con- sisting of a wife and five children, into a covered wagon and moved to Holden, where for ten years he continued the tan- ning business in partnership with his brother, Samuel Warren, n the tannery built at Eagleville, then called Brick City, about 1825, by John P. Maynard.
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This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Warren, in the spring of 1850, purchased the Edward Rich- ardson tannery, located one-half mile west of Holden Center. According to the record, this tannery, with seventeen acres of land adjoining, was sold by John Watson to Heman Richard- son, December 23d, 1789, for one hundred and twenty pounds sterling. Its earlier history is not of record. The old tan- nery was enlarged and greatly improved and the business suc- cessfully continued, a part of the time with his son Samuel as his partner, for more than a quarter of a century.
In 1874, while continuing the business with his eldest son at the old tannery, he formed a partnership with his other two sons, under the firm name of B. & H. W. Warren & Co., and this company erected the brick tannery nearer Holden Center. This tannery, in its character, equipment, and its facilities for producing the kind of leather that is its specialty, card leather, probably is not surpassed by any other in the State. In 1881, business at the Richardson tannery having been discontinued, Samuel Warren became a partner, the style of the firm being changed to W. G. Warren & Sons, and the father and three sons continued the business with a good degree of success until 1886. During these years, there had been a gradual growth of the business from the tanning of perhaps fifteen hundred sides of leather in 1845 to twenty thousand sides in 1886.
Mr. Warren died August 7th, 1886, at the age of seventy- nine, leaving a wife who survived him but one year, his three sons, who still continue the business under the firm name of W. G. Warren's Sons, and two daughters, one the widow of the late Rev. Lester Williams, formerly pastor of the Baptist Church in Holden, and the other, Susan E. Warren.
He was a devoted husband and father, kind-hearted and char- itable. A man of good common sense, sound judgment, and the strictest integrity, he enjoyed the fullest confidence of all in his business and other relations. He had marked peculi- arities, and his strong personality impressed itself upon all with whom he came in contact.
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Samuel Naneu.
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He was the relentless foe of the liquor traffic, and the cause of temperance and all the moral reforms of his day received from bim a liberal and hearty support.
In his early life, in the palmy days of slavery, he was an abolitionist, a follower of Gerrit Smith, Garrison and Phillips. He boldly proclaimed his sentiments in favor of liberty for the oppressed, when such action meant hardship, scorn and perse- cation. After the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, he was zealous and active in all movements in behalf of the fugi- tive, and made his home a place of refuge for the bondman- a station on the underground railroad to freedom-thus earn- ing the honor due to those who have the courage of their con- victions, and the daring of their duty.
SAMUEL WARREN.
Samuel Warren was born in Auburn, October 15th, 1834. He was the eldest son of Waterman Goulding and Mary Eddy Warren, who removed to Holden in 1840. He was educated in the public schools of Holden, Worcester Academy and Westfield Normal School.
After teaching a short time, he became associated with his father in the manufacture of card leather, being made a part- ner in the business in January, 1867. This partnership con- tinued until 1881, when he became a member of the firm of W. G. Warren & Sons, tanners, a business that had been estab- lished six years previously by his father and two younger brothers.
He was a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1872 and 1873, of the Assessors in 1868, 1869, 1887 and 1888, and of the School Committee from 1862 to 1865, and from 1883 to 1886. In 1867 he represented his district in the State Legis- lature. In politics he is a republican.
May 13th, 1869, he married Marion E. Lakin, daughter of George Shipley and Nancy Hubbard Lakin.
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They have three sons :
Herbert Lakin, born August 24th, 1870 ; a member of the class of 1895 in Amherst College.
Arthur Kirke, born December 13th, 1871.
George Waterman, born December 3d, 1882.
BERTHIER WARREN.
Among those who have contributed to the business prosper- ity of Holden should be included Berthier Warren, of the firm of W. G. Warren's Sons. He was the second son of Water- man G. and Mary Eddy Warren, and was born in Auburn October 22d, 1836. He came to Holden, when, in 1840, his parents removed to this place. His education was received in the common schools of the town, and at Wilbraham, East- hampton and Claverack academies.
After the close of the war, in the spring of 1866, Mr. War- ren went south and purchased, in connection with his younger brother, a cotton plantation in Leake County, Mississippi. The following nine years were spent there, during which time he served, in addition to his private business, as a member of the Board of Registration for one year, and as clerk of the Chan- cery Court for three years.
Returning to Holden in the spring of 1875, Mr. Warren entered into a partnership with his father and younger brother for the manufacture of card leather. With the subsequent his- tory of this firm his own history has become closely identified. Taking the firm name of B. & H. W. Warren & Co., they erected and equipped the main building of the brick tannery, situated near the center of the town. The growth and devel- opment of the business thus begun has been followed by the admission of the eldest brother, Samuel Warren, to the firm, the name of which has been successively changed, first to W. G. Warren & Sons, then to W. G. Warren's Sons. It has also been followed by the enlargement and more thorough equip-
BERTHIER WARREN.
Henry M. Barrow.
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ment of the plant, which is now, for the purpose for which it is designed, one of the best in the state.
Mr. Warren was married September 4th, 1871, to Eunice C. Boyden, daughter of Comfort and Silence Boyden. They have had two children : one daughter, Mary Silence, now living ; and one son, Harry Lester, who died in infancy.
HENRY WATERMAN WARREN.
Henry Waterman Warren, youngest son of W. G. and Mary E. Warren, was born in Auburn, March 18th, 1838, and came ยท with his parents to Holden in 1840. In his youth he attended the public schools of the town and Worcester Academy ; was graduated at the Westfield Normal School in 1857 ; fitted for college at Easthampton, and was graduated from Yale with the class of 1865. He took an oration appointment at the Junior examination and at Commencement. After graduation he was for six months a teacher in the public schools of Nash- ville, Tenn .; then, in the spring of 1866, purchased, with his brother Berthier, a cotton plantation in Leake County, Missis- sippi, where he resided more than ten years, engaged in the cultivation of cotton.
This was the reconstruction period of the South, and in Mississippi Mr. Warren was an active participant, and had all the varied experiences of the so-called "carpet-bagger" in those stirring and stormy times.
He was Probate Judge of Leake County in 1867, by appoint- ment of General Adelbert Ames, then Acting-Governor of the State, and was elected a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of Mississippi from that county, notwithstanding the registered white voters of the county outnumbered the Afro- American two to one. He represented the county again in the Legislatures of 1870 and 1871, and was Speaker of the House in the latter year, and was its Chief Clerk during the next four years. In 1873 he was appointed by Governor
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Powers, Levee Commissioner of the State, and had the sole charge of the collection and disbursement of the funds for the payment of the Old Levee Debt, and the sale of the tax lands held by the State for that purpose.
He was a delegate from the Congressional District in which he resided, to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, in May, 1868, when General Grant was first nominated for the Presidency, and again to the Convention at Cincinnati in 1876, when General Hayes was nominated.
In the summer of this year he returned to Holden to engage with his brother in the tanning business, and is at the present time a member of the firm of W. G. Warren's Sons.
The citizens of Holden have at different times expressed their confidence in Mr. Warren in various ways since his return to the town. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1882 and 1885 ; has served as a mem- ber of the Board of Selectmen in 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1885, and was chairman in the last two years; was elected a mem- ber of the Board of Overseers of the Poor in 1890, and Town Treasurer in 1889, and has held the latter office since that date.
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