USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The history of Medway, Mass., 1713-1885 > Part 45
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REV. CHARLES WESLEY EMERSON, M. D.
SSAR Y TO NEC CHARLES WESLEY EMERSON, son of Thomas and Mary F. (Hewett) Emerson, was born Nov. 30, 1838, in Pittsfield, Vt. His father was for many years a teacher, and a man of great cul- EXPRESSION EVOLUTION ture and fine literary taste. After leav- ing the public schools of his native town he was under the instruction of his father in higher English, scientific, and clas- DEUS PROTECTOR NOSTER sical studies. This training was most thorough, the teaching being not merely a demand on memory but on the think- ing and reflecting faculties. Mr. Emer- son's paternal grandfather was a man THE EMERSON ARMS. remarkable for his knowledge of history and famous for his familiarity with the sacred Scriptures. His maternal grand- father was a Methodist minister, and is now living, at the good age of ninety- seven years. Mr. Emerson's grand-parents on his father's side lived to be ninety-three years old. He was remotely related to Ralph Waldo Emerson. His great ancestor, Thomas Emerson, immigrant, settled as early as 1638 in Ipswich, Mass., and was the progenitor of a race of ministers and learned men. Mr. Emerson graduated and took the degree of M. D. from the University in Philadelphia, Penn. He also passed through two departments of the Boston University, law and oratory, and completed a course of theological study un- der the Rev. Dr. Tyler, and was afterward ordained to the Gospel ministry by the Association of Congregational Ministers in Windham County, Vt. His first pastorate of three years was in Halifax, Vt. He was then settled for four years in Brookfield, Vt., and afterward preached for three years in Northfield, Vt. Subsequently he was installed pastor of the First Parish in Fitchburg, Mass., and for nearly five years was the popular preacher to a large and flourishing congregation. He then pursued the study of oratory under Professor Monroe, of the Boston University, preaching on the Sabbath in Chelsea, Mass. After about two years his health failed and he traveled in Europe. Upon his return he was elected one of the faculty of the Boston University School of Oratory. But after the death of Professor Monroe this department of the University was discontinued, and Dr. Emerson drew about him most of his associate professors in that department and opened a school of oratory of which he is the Principal, known as the Monroe Conservatory of Oratory, which for some years was in Pemberton Square, and recently re- moved to Wesleyan Hall, Bromfield Street, Boston. Soon after the incor- poration of the easterly part of Medway as Millis, Dr. Emerson purchased the estate once owned by Capt. Joseph Lovell, of Revolutionary history, and is fitting up a fine residence which he will occupy as soon as completed. Dr. Emerson has already won the high respect of his new neighbors and townsmen by his urbanity of manner, his friendly interest in all, his scholarly habits, his eminent knowledge and commanding ability as a public speaker.
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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. Ile 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, 1845, 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 1870, '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, 1884. 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. S 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- 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 1839, 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. He took up gas and steam fitting in Portland, and superintended gas works in Gardiner, Me. He married in 1847, in Lowell, Mass., Miss Emma A. Smiley, of Gardiner, with whom he led a happy life until her death in 1880. 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, 1882, 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 1882 to his native town to recuperate, where he remained until 1884, 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, 1835. 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, 1831, 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. 8, 1834, in Wadsworth, O. He pursued his preparatory studies in the schools of Medway and in Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. He graduated in 1859 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 1866 to ISSo he was the superintendent of the same institution. Since 1880 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 1880. Mr. Fay married, Aug. 25, 1863, 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, 1870 ; and Charles Jarvis, born Aug. 26, 1871. 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, 1811, 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, 1885. He was the one who set on foot measures which resulted in the erection of Sanford Hall the same year, and in 1881 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 1845 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, 1881, 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 of 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 hne 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 ;
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