USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 21
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THE GALE FAMILY
Richard Gale, the ancestor of the Gale family in the United States, first appears, as the purchaser of a homestead of six acres in Watertown, Mass., in 1640, it being part of a lot of nine acres in the town plot granted to Elder Richard Browne.
In describing the characteristics of the family, the "Gale Family Records" say: "as a race, the Gales have been more distinguished for their athletic powers than for the culture of their minds, but the late generations are fast changing in this particular, and the learned professions have a fair propor- tion of the present generation. They have ever been reason- ably jealous of their rights, but strong friends to a well-ordered government; and in our Revolutionary struggle, they were a unit in taking up arms and marching to the fields of strife, from which several of them never returned alive. They were nearly as unanimous in the support of the war of 1812."
Captain Isaac Gale of Sutton of the fourth generation from Richard Gale, the first settler, married about 1731, Judith Sawyer of Framingham, to which place he removed, where his first child, Isaac, was born in 1732, and the follow- ing year he removed to that part of Sutton afterwards set into a new town called Millbury, where he spent a long and useful life and died about October, 1793. The muster rolls of the old "French and Indian War," shows that as lieuten- ant he made a campaign in August, 1757, for the relief of Fort William Henry, but when they reached Sheffield, the
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news reached them of the surrender of that fort on the 9th of August, when they were ordered back. Lieut. Isaac Gale held his post in the military company of Sutton, until March. 1,1763, when he was appointed by the Governor of Massa- chusetts, captain of the same company, which office he held. with honor until he resigned in September, 1769. In those days of French wars and Indian raids the captain of the militia was regarded as the most important office in town.
He gave his sword to his son Isaac, with instructions, as tradition says, to have it preserved by his descendants of that name; and in 1864 it was in the hands of Isaac Gale of Royalston, who presented it to Galesville University, Wis., for preservation as a family relic; his son, Isaac, who would have been entitled to the sword having died in 1854.
Isaac Gale Jr., son of Capt. Isaac Gale of Sutton was born -; he married Mehitable Dwinel, or Duvel, of Sutton. He removed to Royalston about 1770 and settled near Doane's Falls, having a
grist and sawmill on the site of what was formerly the Sullivan Raymond sawmill and pail shop. He was the ancestor of the numerous Gale families of Royalston.
He served as a sergeant in the campaign of 1776 in the Northern Army at Ticonderoga under Col. Samuel Brewer. He was called a "Miller" and was the owner, when he died intestate of a saw and grist mill in Royalston and a farm of nearly 200 acres. The return of the appraisers on his estate dated Aug. 28, 1779, valued the whole estate at £11,662,13s. 4d., Peter, the oldest son, receiving according to the law then in force a double share and the widow one-third of the whole. Owing to the disturbed condition of the currency at that time "hard money" value was placed at £2,709,29s.12d.
He left a large family, of whom Isaac Gale, a son, was a prominent citizen of Royalston until his death Jan. 12, 1826. Jonathan Gale, another son, married May 11, 1776, Rhoda Baker for his first wife and Susanna Matthews for his second. He entered the 3d Regiment as a volunteer from Royalston in Revolutionary service, and received from the town a bounty of $50. His son, Isaac Gale 2d, was born Feb. 23, 1787, married Tamar Goddard and served in the war of 1812, as Sergeant and Clerk of the Company with headquarters at Boston. They had ten children, of whom Samuel C. Gale,
HARLOW A. GALE SAMUEL C. GALE
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THE GALE FAMILY
Rev. Amory Gale and Harlow A. Gale removed in early life to Minneapolis, where they were prominent factors in the business, political and religious life of that city and the State of Minnesota.
Samuel Chester Gale, son of Isaac and Tamar (Goddard) Gale was born at Royalston, Sept. 15, 1827. His father died, when Samuel was eleven years of age, leaving a family of ten children, and the young boy was apprenticed to an uncle (Salmon Goddard) of West Royalston as a tanner. His desire for an education was so keen, however, that at 17 he began to prepare for college. He entered New Salem Academy as a student in 1845, and in an address delivered before the Alumni of New Salem Academy in 1885 he refers to that event as follows: "Just forty years ago a boy of seventeen, came out for the first time from the hills of Royal- ston - peace and honor attend that ancient town - I came a student to New Salem Academy. What a memorable under- taking that was. The sun never broke upon such a day before. I made the journey on foot behind a neighbor's wagon wherein was stored my box of valuables. The procession was not an imposing one, but in my imagination that wagon, that box and I, on that momentous errand, was the King and his retinue with chariot and banners." After a hard struggle he was able to enter Yale College in 1850, graduating four years later, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, and chosen class orator at graduation in a class of 100 mem- bers. He spent one year in Harvard Law School and then read law with a firm in Worcester. In 1857 he went to Minneapolis, where he continued his law studies in the office of Cornell & Vanderburgh, and was admitted to practice in 1858. The practice of law not being in much demand there in those days, he opened a real estate and loan office in 1860 in partnership with his brother, Harlow; this rapidly grew into a most prosperous business, adding much to the development of the growing young city. He has been an active participant all his life in almost every movement looking toward the improvement of the city materially, intellectually and morally.
He was for some time the president of the Minneapolis Anthenæum which was founded in 1860; he was one of the original promoters of the public library, and long a member
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of the board; he was on the Board of Education from 1871 to 1880. He was an alderman and president of the City Council at one time and president of the Minneapolis Exposi- tion. Was also actively connected with the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, the Board of Trade, and virtually every organized effort toward the improvement and up-building of the city in its earlier days. Religiously, he has been identified with the Unitarian Church, and was the chief contributor in the cost of the church edifice. He was married in 1861, to Miss Susan A. Damon, daughter of Col. Samuel Damon of Holden, Mass. She was born in Holden, May 7, 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Gale presented in 1887 to the town of Holden, the Damon Memo- rial Library and public school building; the cost of the gift exceeded $45,000, and in addition to the building Mr. Gale added $3000 for books. He also gave about the same time the Baptist parsonage and grounds in the west part of Royalston. The children of Samuel C. and Susan (Damon) Gale are Edward C. and Charles S., Mrs. David P. Jones, Mrs. Clarkson Lindley and Miss Marion Gale, all of Minneapolis.
Rev. Amory Gale, second son of Isaac and Tamar (Goddard) Gale, was born in the west part of Royalston, Aug. 21, 1815. His early days were spent in work on the farm, where under the benign influences of the Christian home, guided and molded by the sweet, cheerful spirit of a pious mother, he laid the foundation for the development of a grand physical, moral and intellectual manhood. At the age of sixteen he was converted, and at nineteen he was batpized into the membership of the First Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass. It was while he was working on the farm that he was led to the conviction that it was his life work to preach the gospel among the heathen. He was graduated from Worcester Academy in 1839, from Brown University in 1843 and Newton Theological Seminary in 1846. Except a little help from friends and the Educational Society, he sustained himself through the whole course by teaching and preaching. His first sermon was preached in Worcester, in August 1837. During his last year at Newton he averaged three sermons a week. While at Brown, a part of the time he walked forty miles to Worcester, then went to Royalston to preach, and as the fruit of his labor, a great revival
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followed. His first settlement after he graduated was at Ware, Mass., where he was ordained Nov. 11, 1846. He was married Feb. 10, 1847, to Miss Caroline E. Goddard.
The first ten years of his ministry were spent in Ware and Lee, Mass. Two churches and houses of worship testified to the efficiency of his work there. In the spring of 1857, he was appointed by the Home Missionary Society to visit Hudson, Wis. In June of the same year he accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minn., and remained its pastor for one year. During this year a house of worship was erected and additions were made to the church and society.
In August, 1859, Mr. Gale organized the Minnesota Baptist State Convention. He was on the first Board of Trustees, one of its incorporators and its General Missionary, laboring jointly for the Convention and the Home Missionary Society for sixteen years. At that time there were no rail- roads, and what roads there were. were very poor, and yet in those sixteen years he traveled over more than 100,000 miles - four times around the globe - behind his Indian ponies. He crossed rivers and went through mud and rain, at one time fighting the wolves while his ponies ran for miles, until at last, just as both were about exhausted, they reached a settlement in safety.
Sometimes he slept under his wagon, sometimes in tents on the prairies, or on the floor of the common sleeping room of the cabin where he was staying. He often reached his journey's end, sick and weary, and was obliged on account of asthma, to sit up all night. During these sixteen years of service his work is given as follows: Sermons, 5000; family calls, 16,000; books sold or donated, 25,000 volumes; tracts distributed, 256,000 pages; letters written, 10,720. During all this time we find but one record of vacation, and in that five weeks, he prepared and delivered the centennial address of the Baptist church of his native town.
The results of his work are found in the impression of his character on the State of Minnesota, which delights to honor him, and in the inspiration to daily life. This is the tribute which keeps fresh his memory in every gathering of state workers. His strongest characteristics were his force of character, his unconquerable persistence, and his unwavering
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faith. He never stopped to look at obstacles, but at the work. He was a preacher whom the common people heard gladly. Some one has said it was a sight not soon to be forgotten, when in schoolhouse or cabin, the hardy pioneers with rapt attention and weeping eyes, listened as in simple, humble phrase, he told the story of Christ crucified. Throughout the State he was known by the familiar name of "Father Gale." In 1874, on account of poor health, he resigned his position and started on a long anticipated journey to the Old World and the Holy Land. He reached Jerusalem much prostrated, but went on to Joppa; but on the way he suffered sunstroke and died, Nov. 25, 1874, on Thanksgiving Day. He was buried the following day in the German Cemetery at Joppa, overlooking the plains of Sharon. A plain, white, marble headstone bearing a simple inscription marks his grave.
Harlow A. Gale, youngest son of Isaac and Tamar (Goddard) Gale was born in Royalston, July 29, 1832. When three years old his father died and he was placed in the family of his mother's brother, Rev. Samuel Goddard, of Norwich, Vt., where he remained until 1845, when he re- turned to his mother's home in Royalston. He removed with his mother to Millbury, Mass., where he attended Millbury Academy and also taught in the schools of the town. He was graduated from Union College in 1856, and soon after went to Minneapolis, Minn., and became identified with some of the most important business enterprises of that city. In 1872 he bought and plotted forty acres known as Gale's First Addition, more than half of which he soon after sold at auction in one day, this being the first successful large auction sale of plotted land ever held in the city. Several years later he plotted and put on the market thirty acres embraced in Gale's Second Addition. In 1877 he built the first public market in the city, securing a franchise for fifteen years, and which he personally managed until it was destroyed by fire some years later. He then became interested with T. B. Walker in the erection and operation of a new city market, for which Mr. Gale obtained the franchise, and with which he was connected until the closing months of his life. In 1858 he was appointed Deputy Clerk, and subsequently was elected and served as County Auditor for
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three successive terms. He married Elizabeth C. Griggs, daughter of Rev. Leverett Griggs of Bristol, Conn., June 13, 1859; four children were born to them: Harlow Stearns, born June 29, 1862, married Mary Elwood Corser. They have one son and two daughters. He has a clerkship con- nected with municipal affairs, and also writes musical notes for the daily papers.
Isabel Gale, the second child, was born Aug. 28, 1865; she married Tryon, a lawyer, in 1891. They have seven children. Robert Griggs Gale, the second son, was born Oct. 18, 1870. He married Mary Alice Greene of Worcester, Mass., and they have three daughters. He completed five years of musical education at Leipsic, Germany, and is engaged in the writing and teaching of music in Minneapolis.
William Goddard Gale, the fourth and youngest child, died March 28, 1898 at Cripple Creek, Colo., where he had gone to develop business interests in the mines.
THE BARTLETT FAMILY
Nathan Bartlett, the first person by the name of Bartlett to settle in the town of Royalston, was born at Brookfield, Mass., March 17, 1744, and was a son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Thompson) Bartlett, and great-grandson of Joseph Bartlett who settled in Cambridge, Mass. in 1668. He married Esther Childs of Brookfield June 14, 1770. They moved to Royalston in 1792, and purchased from Barzillar Miller of Rutland a farm situated in the southeasterly part of Royalston and containing one hundred and four acres, for which he paid one hundred and eighty-five pounds.
The farm purchased was bounded as follows: South- easterly on land of Lieut. Silas Foster, Joseph Stockwell and the Grants, easterly on the land of said Joseph Stockwell, northerly on land of David Lyons and Silas Chase and westerly on land of Joseph Stockwell and Silas Foster.
On May 10, 1799 he purchased from the town of Royal- ston a pew on the lower floor of the East Meetinghouse numbered and marked forty-nine, together with the ground on which it stood with all the privileges belonging to same. The original deed of farm and pew in said East Meeting-
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
house are in the possession of his great-grandson Edward E. Bartlett. Nathan Bartlett and wife were blessed with a family of nine children, eight of whom were born at Brook- field and one at Royalston.
Their children were: Ira, born March 21, 1771, married Dec. 15, 1799, Sally Bacheller of Royalston; they had a family of two children; Jonas, born Jan. 2, 1773, married Hannah Bacheller, April 25, 1797, at Royalston; they had a a family of ten children; Esther, born Jan. 3, 1775, married Daniel Nichols, June 17, 1795, at Royalston, no children. Lucy, born May 26, 1778, married Thomas Bacheller Dec. 4, 1796, at Royalston; they had a family of seven children; Betsy, born Sept. 30, 1780, married Jacob Fisher of Lancaster, Mass., Jan. 30, 1823, at Royalston; they had one child; Sally, born Oct. 11, 1783, married Frederick Van Patten of Schenectady, N. Y .; they had seven or eight children; Nathan, born Sept. 8, 1786, a twin, married Mary Miller, Nov. 9, 1807, at Royalston, and they had a family of eleven children; Naomah, born Sept. 8, 1786, a twin, married Elisha Gregory of Winchendon at Royalston, Dec. 29, 1827; no children; Silas Childs, born at Royalston, Oct. 2, 1793, married Martha Cutler, Feb. 9, 1820, at Royalston, and they had a family of five children. Esther Childs, wife of Nathan Bartlett died at Royalston, Jan. 2, 1809, and he married, second, Mrs. Anna Collins of Fitzwilliam, N. H., Jan. 28, 1813. She died at Royal- ston, Aug. 1, 1817, and Nathan Bartlett died at Royalston, Oct. 25, 1821.
The children of Jonas and Hannah (Bacheller) Bartlett, all born in Royalston, were: Luke, born May 14, 1798, died Nov. 15, 1819; Hannah, born Nov. 15, 1799, died unmarried April 29, 1838; Rosilla, born Nov. 25, 1801, married Harvey Holman, Dec. 24, 1826; they had four children: Charles A., Charles Augustus, John Harvey and Luke Henry; Lorinda, born Aug. 15, 1803, married Archibald Chase, Oct. 5, 1825, and they had a family of five children; Rosilla B., Luke Swain, Ira Pierce, Harvey Holman, and Henry Eddy; Sally, born Aug. 5, 1805, died April 26, 1825; Elmer, born April 22, 1808, married Elizabeth Morse, daughter of Russell and Elizabeth (Waite) Morse, Aug. 22, 1843, at Boston, and they had two children, Emma G. and Edward E.
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JOHN N. BARTLETT
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THE BARTLETT FAMILY
Ollie, born Oct. 24, 1809, married Benjamin W. Upham, April 2, 1839, and they had three children: Rosilla M., Lucy Val Netta, and Elmer B .; Lucy, born April 22, 1814, died July 13, 1815; Benjamin B., born April 7, 1816, married Mary Morse, daughter of Russell and Elizabeth (Waite) Morse, June 15, 1843, and they had two children, Cora V. and Hubert C.
Jonas Bartlett died at Royalston, Sept. 21, 1837. Hannah Bacheller the wife of Jonas Bartlett spent nearly one-third of her life a widow and died at Royalston, Oct. 19, 1868, at the advanced age of 90 years, 11 months and 3 days. She lived to see nine of her ten children pass to the other world, and resided in the same house for over fifty-one years.
John Norton Bartlett, the youngest child of Jonas and Hannah (Bacheller) Bartlett was born at Royalston, July 28, 1819, and received his education in the public schools of Royalston. Soon after attaining the age of twenty-one he purchased from his mother and the other heirs of the family the home farm and turned his attention to farming which he made a success, and at which he accumulated quite a property. About 1870 he gave up farming to a certain extent and turned his attention to Probate work and Conveyancing, in which he had a large practice both in this town and adjoining towns. He also took a great interest in town affairs and held nearly all of the town offices such as Selectman, Assessor, Treasurer and Tax Collector. He was one of the Committee of Fifteen to make arrangements for celebrating the Hun- dreth Anniversary of the incorporation of Royalston, and was also chosen Secretary of the Historical Committee.
About 1873 he gave up the home farm and went to live with one of his neighbors, Mr. John W. Stockwell, with whom he remained until 1877 when he moved to South Royalston. He married Mrs. Rosana O. (Knight) Cross, Jan. 6, 1877. In the spring of 1887 he returned to his former home at Mr. Stockwell's, where he remained until his death in 1905. In the fall of 1894 he was stricken with a paralytic shock which prevented him from taking any active part in business or town affairs; but he never lost his interest in public local affairs, as will be seen by an article that appeared in the Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting, to be held March 6, 1899.
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Article 8. "To see if the Town of Royalston will accept a gift from John N. Bartlett on certain conditions or take any action thereon." As Mr. Bartlett's health would not allow him to be present he was represented by his nephew, Edward E. Bartlett, who read the conditions of the gift to the people then assembled, which were as follows: Royalston, Mass., March 6, 1899. To see if the Town of Royalston will accept from John N. Bartlett a gift of $20,000, to be held and applied, as a trust fund, the income of which shall be appropriated and paid over annually for the benefit and support of the poor in said town of Royalston on the follow- ing conditions forever, namely: That every year, a Committee of four or more, of whom One and Only One shall be a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor, shall be chosen by ballot by the town at a legally called town meeting, and said Committee shall have the charge of investment and oversight of said trust fund, said Overseer of the Poor to be called upon at Any and All Times by the rest of said Com- mittee for information in regard to the Expenditures and Legality of said expenditures for the poor, and said Com- mittee shall report annually in Detail the Investments and condition of the same in Print in the Annual Town Reports over their own signatures and income of the said trust fund. Said income shall be applied to the support of the poor as they are now or may be provided for by law for that purpose; and if at the end of the annual year the income shall exceed the demand for that purpose the surplus of that year, if any, shall be added to the principal to be kept intact to the addi- tion of the principal forever for that purpose. The same to be called the John N. Bartlett Fund, and these requirements and conditions shall be recorded on the Town Records for reference and guidance for the Town and Committee and Overseers of the Poor. The investment of said fund shall be made only in United States Securities, or in Bonds of the State of Massachusetts, or Bonds or Notes of Cities or Towns within the State of Massachusetts, or in Savings Banks within the State of Massachusetts, and in no case shall said Trust Fund or Interest thereof or any part thereof be invested in real estate or mortgages on real estate.
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The said gift of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) may be made to the Town within the year A. D., One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-nine.
Provided, however, that if at any time the Town should fail to comply with the requirements of said gift as stated above, or should cease to be a town, or should consolidate or annex to any other town, then this Trust Fund shall revert and be paid over to the donor and if he is not living to his legitimate heirs by right of representation.
(Witness) Edward E. Bartlett. John N. Bartlett.
Hubert Carlton Bartlett, son of Benjamin Bacheller and Mary (Morse) Bartlett, was born in Royalston, Feb. 20, 1848. His school education was acquired in the schools of Royalston, at the Academy in Westminster, Mass., and Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, N. H. His business career began in 1868, when he purchased the general store in the annex to the former parsonage and tavern building at the head of Royalston Common; he continued in the business of a general country store at this stand for four or five years. During the latter years of that time he published the only periodical ever issued from Royalston, probably, called The United States. It was issued monthly at first, and later weekly, and was semi-local in character, in spite of its national name. It was printed at Keene, N. H., and in 1873, he removed to that place, learned the "art preservative of arts" at the Cheshire Republican office, and continued the publication of his paper until 1877, when he removed to Fitchburg, Mass. Since that time he has been engaged in the printing and publishing business in Fitchburg, substantially all of the time with the Sentinel office and others, and on his own account for many years.
Mr. Bartlett was married to Ella M. Samson of Royalston, November 15, 1870. They have had two children: Grace Edith, born in Royalston Sept. 26, 1871; and Nelson Herbert, born in Fitchburg, Dec. 14, 1881.
Societies as such have never had any charm for him, and the only one of consequence of which he has been a member was a fraternal insurance organization, for which he acted as local secretary for some seventeen years. In such matters as politics, he has taken little interest until he has found
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some principle of great importance at stake, and so he has usually acted with minority parties, which must grow into popularity before they can win. For the last fifteen years or so he has stood with the Socialist party and has been selected by his associates almost as a perennial candidate for one office or another, local or state. In 1904, as Socialist candidate for Treasurer of the Commonwealth and Receiver General, he received 16,679 votes. Through the local and general press, as well as his own publications, he has cham- pioned unpopular causes, and stood for the rights of the people as against corporate monopoly and greed and medical graft.
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