USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > The history of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1877 > Part 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
REV. JOSIAH BADCOCK.
He was the son of Nathan Badcock, born in Milton in 1752. He graduated at Harvard College in 1772, and was settled in the ministry at Andover, N.H., the Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, of Danvers, preaching the ordination sermon in 1783. He left the active work of the ministry twenty years before his death, and lived quietly on his farm, where he died in 1831.
RUFUS BADCOCK.
He was the son of George and Ruth Badcock, born in Milton, July 6, 1755. He graduated at Harvard in 1775, in the class with Edward H. Robbins. He became a teacher, and died in a Southern State, where he was employed in his profession, in 1793.
ANN BENT.
Ann Bent was the daughter of Rufus Bent and Ann (Mid- dleton) Mckenzie. Her father, Rufus Bent (born March 10, 1741-2), was the son of Joseph and Martha (Houghton) Bent, who were married in Milton, Feb. 13, 1723-4. Her mother, Ann Middleton (born 1741, died July 31, 1807), was great-granddaughter of Dr. George Middleton, Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, Scotland, whose grandson, Alex- ander Middleton, Jr., came to Boston about 1735, and married
537
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN.
Ann Todd,1 sister to Mrs. James Smith. After their father's death and their mother's second marriage, the three daughters of Alexander Middleton lived principally with their aunt and uncle at Brush Hill; and after Mr. Smith's marriage to Mrs. Campbell a strong friendship sprang up between Mary, Ann, and Prudence Middleton," the nieces of his first 3 wife, and Dorothy and Elizabeth Murray, the nieces of his second wife; a friendship which has been perpetuated through all branches of their descendants.
In 1763 Ann Middleton married, in Milton, Andrew Mc- Kenzie, of Dorchester, by whom she had a daughter, Ann, born May 3, 1764, who probably died young. Her marriage with Rufus Bent took place 1767; and Ann, the eldest of seven children, two sons and five daughters, was born June 19, 1768.4 She was early called to aid in the support of the family; and while still quite a child went to live with Madam Price at Hopkinton, for two pistareens a week. Madam Price was very kind to her, and always remained her firm friend. After some years she returned to Milton, and taught school on Milton Hill, in the small school-house which was built in 1793 and burned down Nov. 23, 1846. She lived with Judge Robbins in what was afterwards known as the "Churchill house," at the head of Churchill's lane, and four of his children attended her school : Eliza, Edward, Sarah, and Ann-Jean. In 1795, by the ad- vice of Judge Robbins, Miss Bent opened a shop at 56 Marl- borough street (afterwards 214 Washington street5), which was in the beginning stocked for her by Messrs. Gregory & Pickard with goods imported by them for her to sell on com- mission. At first she and her sister Sarah, who aided her, boarded with Mrs. Thayer (mother of Rev. Dr. Thayer,6 of Lancaster), in what is now Washington street, opposite Central
1 Alexander Middleton and Ann Todd were published Nov. 10, 1735. She married, seeond, Sept. 28, 1752, David Fick, foreman of Mr. Smith in his sugar refinery; a marriage whichi was very displeasing to Mr. Smith.
2 Mary Middleton married James Lovell, son of John Lovell, master of the Boston Latin School; an ardent patriot, and member of Congress all through the Revolution. Her only daughter, Mary Lovell, married Mark Pickard, an Englishman, and was the mother of Mrs. Henry Ware, Jr. Prudence Middleton married Dr. Joseph Whipple, surgeon in the State Corps of Artillery, Lieut .- Col. Paul Revere commanding; her four children died unmarried. A fourth daughter, Helen Middleton, dicd unmarried.
3 There is a tradition that Mr. Smith was three times married. He was born, son of James and Prudence, June 12, 1689.
4 Rev. J. H. Morison, in the notes to his Centennial sermon, June, 1862, says that Ann Bent's birthplace was a house that used to stand in a now disused lane leading south from Canton avenue, just east of the Amory plaee (now Col. H. S. Russell's). There is an old well at the entrance.
6 The first number of the shop-door was 214, and that of her house, when she lived over the shop, was 216; but after a fire, in 1837, the shop was placed on the right and became 216, and the house 214.
6 Father of John E. and Nathaniel Thayer, founders of the banking-house which is now Messrs. Kidder, Peabody, & Co.
538
HISTORY OF MILTON.
court (probably No. 3 Marlborough street); but later she removed to the house over her shop; and here, until her retirement from business in 1833, and her removal to Canton a year or two before her death, she lived and worked, supporting and assisting her sisters and later her nieces, whom she educated and started in business. Capable, energetic, and business-like, she yet had a warm, generous heart, which made her a blessing to all her friends and acquaintances; and, in such a small community as Boston was then, these included all the people worth knowing: she knew everybody and everybody knew her. Her shop was a kind of ladies' exchange, where friends could meet by appointment or otherwise, where they were always sure to find the best French and English goods to be had in the town, and where the relation between those be- hind and those before the counter was such as would be impos- sible now.1
Miss Bent early became interested in Dr. Channing's preaching, and was a constant attendant at Federal-street Church during his pastorate and that of the Rev. Dr. Gannett, his successor. The last two years of her life were passed in Canton at the house of her sister, Mrs. Rufus Kinsley, sur- rounded by the affectionate care of three generations of rela- tives and friends ; and she finally passed away, in full possession of her faculties, on the 27th day of February, 1857, aged eighty-eight years, eight months, and eight days.
REV. JOSIAH BENT, JR.
He was the eldest son of Josiah Bent, of Milton, the origina- tor of the Bent Bakery, on Highland street. He was born at
1 Her first assistants in the shop were her sisters Mary and Sarah (Mrs. Charles Barnard) ; then Nancy Pierce (who married Gideon F. Thayer, master of Chauncy Hall School), and Fanny Cushing (who married Dr. Stone, of Greenfield, and was mother of Gen. C. P. Stone). She later took into her family, educated, and started in business, her sisters' children, Ann M. Allen (Mrs. Nathaniel Tracy) and Mary Bent Kinsley ; and later still, Ann Kinsley and Sarah B. Kinsley (who married her cousin, William II. Allen). When Miss Bent retired Miss Ann Allen and William JI. Allen continued the business at 216 Washington street; and this shop retained the high character that Miss Bent's had always had. Mr. Allen remained on the same spot until the great fire of 1872. A niece of Miss Bent said of her : "The beauty and purity of my aunt's character no one knows better than myself. I lived in the most intimate relation with her for more than forty years, and I never saw her do or heard her say anything that might not have been said or done before the whole world. In her business relations she was perfection; she was so high-minded and so just to everybody in hier dealings and her estimation of character. She was a mother to her sisters and their children, cver thinking of their good." " These were the qualities which made steadfast friends of those whosc friendship was most to be sought, and formed for her a home in which she was never allowed to feel the loneliness of celibacy or age. The affluent, the educated and refined, valued her society and were among her cherished friends. But there was a nearer circle yet. Children were drawn towards her; and as onc generation of those to whom she had been as a mother left her to establish homes of their own, others still younger took their place, and looked up to her with love and reverence." - Dr. Morison's Centennial Sermon.
539
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN.
the Milton homestead ; graduated at Harvard College in 1822; studied theology at Princeton, and devoted his life to the min- istry. He settled in Weymouth, and was ordained pastor of the First Church. In 1834 he was installed as pastor of the church in Falmouth, Cape Cod, and was dismissed in 1837 to take charge of the First Church, of Amherst, Mass., where he died Nov. 19, 1839. His body was brought to Milton for burial, and placed in the Bent tomb. He married Miss Paulena Rice, of Albany, and had six children.
WILLIAM DAVIS.
William Davis came to Milton when a boy, and learned the trade of leather-dressing in the shops of General Whitney. He was a poor boy when he commenced his apprenticeship, but faithful and trustworthy and careful to save his wages. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the business, and at the end of his service continued with General Whitney as journeyman for several years. We then find him starting the business for himself, which he carried on at different places.
Afterwards he came back to Milton and purchased of Maj. Samuel H. Babcock the " Babcock Farm," where he set up the " wool business," near the old establishments of Caleb Hobart and General Whitney, who evidently looked upon the new enterprise as antagonistic to their own.
Mr. Davis entered no rings ; he kept his own counsels, made his own bargains, and moved on in the even tenor of his ways, which seemed always to be in the path of integrity, and, con- sequently, of progress and success; and in the end he left an estate larger than the united estates of his Milton competitors.
Mr. Davis was a plain man. To a casual acquaintance he seemed distant and morose. But beneath the calm exterior was a warm and tender heart. In a sermon, preached on the Sab- bath after his death by the Rev. Dr. Morison, in a brief sentence, the character of our worthy citizen is truly described : "He did good by stealth." The worthy poor, the dependent, the suffering, found in him a constant friend, and these are the only earthly witnesses of his many acts of benevolence.
SAMUEL HENSHAW.
He was the son of Samuel, Jr., and Waitstill Henshaw ; was born in Milton, at the Henshaw homestead on Center street and Randolph avenue, 1744. He graduated at Harvard College in 1773, and studied for the ministry, but subsequently relin- quished that calling. He married Sarah, daughter of Nathan-
540
HISTORY OF MILTON.
iel Swift, in 1777 ; she died in 1781, and he married a daughter of Rev. John Hunt, of the Old South Church.
Mr. Henshaw may justly be ranked among the most energetic and useful citizens of Milton during the revolutionary struggle. He was a member from Milton, with Hon. Edward H. Robbins, of the convention which formed the Constitution of Massachu- setts in 1779, and he represented the town at the General Court in 1780. Many of the stirring papers of the times found in our records were the productions of his hand. After the Revolution he removed to Northampton, and was appointed to the office of Judge of Probate for Hampshire County, in which service he continued until his death in 1809.
THOMAS HEWES HINCKLEY.
Thomas Hewes Hinckley was born in Milton, in the house now owned and occupied by him on Brook Road, Nov. 4, 1813. His early education was received at the schools of his native town. As a child he evinced a love of art. After his father's death there were found among his private papers two creditable drawings of a pig and dog, marked "T. H. H., aged 4." In 1829 he was sent by his father, who was greatly opposed to his following art as a vocation, to Philadelphia, to engage in mer- cantile pursuits. While in that city he came under the instruc- tion of Mason, a most conscientious teacher, who held evening classes in drawing at his house. Mason's methods of instruction were those adopted later by the Lowell Institute, of Boston, and furnished to the boy admirable drill in the study of per- spective, light, and shade. This was, in fact, the only instruction he ever received. Returning to Boston, he abandoned, on the death of his father, in 1833, his early occupation, and began his career, first as sign and fancy painter ; then essayed portrait- ure; and, finally, found his congenial field in animal painting. His first effort in this department, in 1838, was a spaniel painted for, and still in possession of, E. J. Baker, Esq. But his first picture to attract public attention was in 1843, - " A Setter and Pups," purchased by Lucius Manlius Sargent, Esq.
In 1845 he built his studio in Milton, and the same year was invited by Daniel Webster to visit Marshfield, and make draw- ings of his famous Ayrshire herd. The sketches of these cattle furnished material for many pictures the following years, most of which were bought by the American Art Union. In 1850 he painted " The Disputed Game " and " The Rabbit-Hunter," both bought by the American Art Union. The former picture attracted the attention of Jenny Lind, who was then in this
541
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN.
country, and who endeavored to purchase it from the Art Union ; the latter was bought by Smith Van Buren at the sale of the closing of the before-mentioned institution.
Through the enthusiastic interest of William W. Swain, Esq., of Naushon Island, familiarly known as "the Governor," he was given every facility for studying the deer inhabiting that favored spot. Later he continued his studies of the animal in the Adirondack Mountains, and at Moosehead Lake. "The Sentinel Deer," painted in 1850, was bought by Governor Swain, and presented to Governor Clifford. In 1851 he visited Europe, to study the works of Landseer and other English and Flemish artists. In 1857 he painted two pictures of dogs and game, which were exhibited in the Royal Academy Exhibition, London, in 1858. In 1870 he visited California, and made studies of the elk. "The Single Elk," giving Cape Mendocino and the Pacific Ocean, from Humboldt County, was sold in New York. To the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876 he sent " The End of the Chase." Among other pictures which have attracted attention are, " The Buck at Bay," owned by Charles R. Greene, of New York; "The Dead Shot," bought by Russell Sturgis, of London ; " Rebel and Tramp," owned by Henry A. Whitney ; "The Post-Mortem Examination," bought by George R. Russell ; "Bull's Head," owned by Smith College, North- ampton ; "The Three Rogues;" "Great Expectations," etc. His pictures are in the galleries of the principal cities of the United States. The scenery of his native town has furnished him abundant material for his brush. He has followed no artist or school of art; but has endeavored to represent nature as he saw it. The recorded number of pictures he has painted up to 1886 is 478. Of late years he has rarely exhibited in public.
CALEB HOBART.
Mr. Hobart came to Milton about 1797, and purchased a tract of land now mostly embraced in the estate of T. Edwin Ruggles. For several years he was engaged largely in business as a butcher, mostly in the mutton trade, employing many hands in marketing. In the war of 1812 wool rose to such a price that the wool of a single skin would nearly pay for the whole animal. He commenced to pull the wool from his own skins, and soon began to buy skins from other butchers, thus establishing a large business for the times. His first place of business was on Canton avenue, near the residence of Mrs. Godfrey; subsequently he removed to the rear of the present Ruggles house, where the business was continued for fifteen
542
HISTORY OF MILTON.
years or more. Mr. Hobart was a useful citizen and a good member of society. He left by will to the minister of the First Evangelical Church of Milton the sum of two thousand dollars, the income of which is paid annually to the poor of the town.
REV. CALEB HOBART.
He was the son of Caleb Hobart, Sen. He fitted for college at Milton Academy, and prepared himself for the ministry. He was ordained as pastor of the Second Church, North Yarmouth, Me., Dec. 3, 1823, and continued in this, his first and only pas- torate, until his death in 1864. He married Miss Hyde, of North Yarmouth.
GEORGE HOLLINGSWORTH.
George Hollingsworth, born Oct. 17, 1813, died March 20, 1882, was one of the sons of the late Mark Hollingsworth, who was well known as a member of the firm of Tileston & Hollings- worth, paper manufacturers, a business still continued under the same style by descendants in the third generation. In the development of the inental faculties of George Hollingsworth an early predominant trait determined his choice of profession as an artist. Keen powers and habits of observation, subordi- nate to the discipline of his profession, imparted a clear intel- lectual vision and imbued his utterances even in social converse with the charm of originality. To these advantages were added diligent study and enlarged culture in foreign schools, and during his sojourn amid the repositories of European art. The munificent endowment of the Lowell Institute had enabled its trustee, in the eminently wise administration of his trust, to establish, as early as 1850, a department of free instruction in the principles and art of drawing and its kindred utilities.
To this school applicants were received as pupils whose good moral character, ability, and skill were accompanied with a taste for drawing and design. Of this school, known as the Lowell Art School, Mr. Hollingsworth was chosen manager and teacher. He entered upon these duties in the maturity of his powers, impressed with a due sense of his responsibilities in these untried relations, of the discouragements attendant upon efforts to keep alive in such rudimentary departments that vitality which consists in sound method, and of the limited scope afforded for the exercise of that freedom which experi- ence in more advanced studies was suited to impart. This school was sustained with merited success both in the progress of its pupils and the impulse imparted in the establishment of
543
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN.
kindred schools. At the suggestion of Mr. Hollingsworth its privileges were subsequently extended to both sexes and to the lady teachers of the Boston schools ; and Mr. William T. Carlton rendered several years of valuable service as Mr. Hollingsworth's assistant. Of the five thousand pupils in art instruction in the city of Boston thus disciplined under the educational culture and professional endowments of the subject of this sketch dur- ing twenty-eight years in his efficient superintendence, many have attained distinguished reputation as sculptors, painters, and teachers.
Mr. Hollingsworth was at an early period a member of the Artists' Association of Boston, which enrolled as associates the names of eminent artists and leading engravers. Hence, the Artists' Association in primary influence, and the Lowell Art School in more direct and immediate agency, became the germ of the present Art School. The committee of trustees of the existing Museum of Fine Arts, in their recent appeal for a subscription of $300,000 to enlarge their museum, commend its high educational character, its opportunities, and increasing demands, ministering " not merely to the student and lover of art, but to large numbers hitherto ignorant, yet by no means unsusceptible of artistic teaching."
While Mr. Hollingsworth, in his life-work as an artist, recog- nized allegiance to the sway of rigid conventional rules in the realms of art, he took advantage of new opportunities and im- proved methods to encourage in his pupils works worthy of intelligent admiration. Nor was he unmindful of the dawn of a new era in the progress of the imitative arts, coordinate with those of the studio, then claiming to assume a rank more exclu- sive and æsthetic. The great discovery of Daguerre, and the marvellous adaptability of photography to manifold uses, be- came world-wide disseminators of the designs of art and a normal element of culture in the education of the masses. The classic forms and unrivalled designs of the old masters, which enriched the Vatican, the cathedrals, palaces, and galleries of the Old World; the triumphs of individual genius, of West, Copley, and Leslie; the pictorial records depicted by Trumbull of scenes and events of revolutionary renown ; the national portraits of Stuart ; the varied conceptions of Allston, - emerg- ing from the silence of their wonted repose to be transposed to an enlarged domain opening to the improvements in pho- tography, engraving, and invention, to embellish the volumes of literature and science, assert preëminence as the handmaid of industrial art in a household age, and intromit a renaissance akin to the renovation of Italian art, even as the sun in its
544
HISTORY OF MILTON.
course shall ever open on the land of shadows the myriad forms of art on which its rays have rested.
The economic advancement of industrial art in the United States, in varied applied arts, to manufactures, in competition with those upon which some branches of European industry depend, is already a topic of discussion in foreign journals. The fine arts, however, under their governmental system of patronage and endowments, must remain the prerogative of European schools. To have served his generation as a co-worker in the application of designs so refined, to utilities so expansive ; to have promoted by the free school of his profession the unob- trusive beneficence of industrial art; to have maintained the reputation of the good neighbor and exemplary citizen, -is suf- ficient tribute to ability and worth. And such was the lot of our departed friend.
REV. JOHN HUNT.
He was born in Milton, and was the son of John Hunt, who lived in Scott's Woods, in the house now owned by Edmund J. Baker. He was a brother of Mary Hunt, well known to many of our citizens, who in the last year of her life was blind, and received the sympathy and assistance of her many sincere friends ; she died Oct. 9, 1885.
Mr. Hunt studied for the ministry, and was for many years settled as pastor of the Baptist Church, Long Meadow, Mass. He and his wife died in September, 1854.
WILLIAM SANFORD HUTCHINSON.
He was the son of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. He was born at the Governor's mansion, on Milton Hill, June 30, 1752, and graduated at Harvard in 1770.
When the Governor left his native shores for England, in 1774, he accompanied his father, or soon followed him, and died at Brompton, Feb. 26, 1780, a few months before his father.
JOHN LILLIE.
Maj. John Lillie was born in Boston, July 18, 1752, and married Elizabeth Vose, daughter of Daniel Vose and Elizabeth (Smith) Vose, of Milton. He was a member of Paddock's Art. Co. before the war ; commissioned 2d Lieut. in Morton's Co. of Gridley's Regt., May 1, 1775, and present at the siege of Boston ; 1st Lieut. in Knox Regt. of Artillery in 1776; Capt .- Lieut. in Crane's Regt. in 1777 ; commissioned Captain, Nov. 1, 1778 ; Aide-de-Camp to General Knox, May 1, 1782; appointed Cap-
544
HISTORY OF MILTON.
course shall ever open on the land of shadows the myriad forms of art on which its rays have rested.
The economic advancement of industrial art in the United States in varied applied arts, to mãmofo
;
In Lillie
545
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN.
tain of 2d U.S. Artillery, Feb. 16, 1801, and commanded at West Point at the time of his death, Sept. 22, 1801.
In a letter addressed to the Hon. Samuel Smith, member of Congress from Maryland, Major Lillie narrates some incidents of his military experience in the war. This letter first appeared in Bradford's notices of distinguished men, issued in 1842, and is here reproduced : -
I fought with you often in the same field, and bore with you the hard- ships and misfortunes which the incidents of war called us to encounter. It was my lot to be sonietimes with a gallant regiment from Maryland, con- manded by the brave Colonel Smallwood, and to see it wasted away by fatigues and hard fighting in defending the country. Too well and with pain do I recollect many brave officers of that corps falling by our sides ; and it seemed as if we were designated as targets for the enemy to fire at. But, thank Heaven, some of us still live (1799) to repeat the tale of events, and condole with each other on the past catastrophe. If my services in the action on Long Island (1776), and assisting in the retreat from a very for- midable British army -if, with six men in a small boat, after the evacua- tion of Governor's Island by our troops, I went over, unspiked some of the cannon, fired on the "Roebuck," of forty-four guns, obliging her to slip her cables and retire to Staten Island, by which means we went over in the night with a hundred men, and brought off all the guns and stores to New York - if the service performed with two twelve-pounders in cannonading the Rose ship, from an open field, when commanded by Commodore Wallis was of any utility to our cause -if by assisting by two six-pounders in defending Chatterton's Hill in front of White Plains four hours, in presence of the whole English army, where you acted well your part, and so many brave men of your regiment fell by our side - if on our retreat through the mire of New Jersey, bootless, and with scarcely a shoe, when the soldiers were so disheartened that a whole brigade of militia, to which I was then annexed, deserted me in one night, leaving my artillery without protection, except a small band of veterans, which, with some address, I kept together by my company - if, on that memorable, that most important night for America, when her liberty or bondage was vibrating by a silken thread, I did my duty at the attack of Trenton, that night, which may be almost said sealed the independence of our country - if, in the advance of the army to Princeton, almost barefooted, over frozen ground, where the brave General Mercer fell, a few feet from my side, in the first of the attack -if at Chads- ford, on the Brandywine, I sustained the heat of the action, and brought off my artillery safe - if on that dark dismal night at Paolis with General Wayne and twelve hundred men, three hundred of whom were massacred, at the recollection of which the eye of humanity must ever wecp, I sup- ported a soldier's character through the day - if, on that melting Sunday, in addition to my other duties at Monmouth, I took the first prisoner by single combat, a sergeant of grenadiers, with his arms, and brought him to General Lee, from whom we received early information of the enemy's position and strength - if at the close of eight years' service, as far as I know my own heart, I sheathed a sword without a tarnish of dishonor, which had been the companion of my toils during that period -- if still retaining an inflexible attachment for my country, its constitution and laws, with a desire to defend it when necessary, against all enemies - if there is any merit in these trans- actions I would only claim my little share, by having done the duty assigned me on the theatre of the late war.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.