USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 34
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He continued to worship with Union Church, which sub- sequently testified its appreciation and esteem by honoring him with the title of pastor emeritus, which he held until his death, Jan. 16, 1898.
REV. HENRY CUMMINGS
Rev. Henry Cummings, second son of Joshua and Hep- zibah (Hale) Cummings, was born in Royalston, Sept. 12, 1823. His parents removed to Westminster, Mass., when he was twelve years old. He attended Westminster Academy and was admitted to Amherst College on his twenty-first birthday, graduating in the class of 1847. Graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1850. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Newport, N. H., July 16, 1851, and after fifteen years, was dismissed July 25, 1866, to be installed Sept. 5, 1866, pastor at Rutland, Mass., where he served nearly eight years, when the pastoral relation was severed by council, July 1, 1874, that he might be installed four weeks later in Strafford, Vt., where he served for more than thirty years, until released by council June 6, 1905, to become pastor emeritus. His ministerial service extended over a period of more than fifty years and was marked by seasons of deep religious interest.
A notable revival in the Newport pastorate brought more than one hundred into the church on confession of faith, including in some families three generations, while in the first year of the Rutland pastorate about fifty united with the church. Of scholarly tastes and firm convictions, he proved himself an able and faithful minister of the Word.
A sound counselor and trusted friend, he won the respect of all, while many came to hold him in veneration. He married, Sept. 9, 1851, Mary A. Beaman, daughter of Ephraim
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and Mary (Roper) Beaman of Princeton, Mass., who died in Strafford, Vt., Oct. 11, 1904. Five children were born to them in Newport, N. H.
The children were: Deacon Henry B. Cummings of Strafford, Vt .; Mrs. Mary Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Thomas Gamble of Witenhope, Cape Colony; Rev. Geo. H. Cum- mings of West Boylston, Mass .; Miss Anna M. Cummings, Principal of Huguenot Seminary, Wellington, Cape Colony; and Miss Sarah Cummings, who ministered to both her parents in the Strafford home through their declining years. He died in Strafford, Vt., Feb. 21, 1913.
SOLON BRYANT
Solon Bryant, who was prominent in the wholesale notion trade of New England for more than a quarter of a century, although not born in Royalston, was closely identified with the town, his mother being a member of the well-known Pierce family, while the larger part of his boyhood was passed in the town and some of his business life. He was born in Troy, N. H., in 1835, the son of Lucian and Charlotte (Pierce) Bryant. When five or six years old his parents removed to South Royalston, where his boyhood was passed. At the age of fifteen years, he entered the employ of Lee & Wood, who conducted a general store in Templeton and did a large business for those times. When the war broke out, he served in the Commissary Department and on his return North associated himself with his stepfather, John Pierce, in the meat business.
His next venture was a store in Whitinsville, Mass., which he carried on for two years and then entered a wholesale dry goods house in Boston.
After a while he started in business for himself and for two or three years drove a large four-horse peddlers' wagon and delivered Yankee notions at the door of the merchants. In 1870, he opened, in connection with this, a wholesale warehouse on Mechanic Street in Worcester and formed a partnership with Col. D. D. Wiley under the firm name of Bryant & Wiley, which continued until Colonel Wiley with- drew from the business to enter the United States Customs
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House in Boston, when Mr. Bryant assumed the business under the firm name of Solon Bryant & Co., and under this name became prominent throughout the country. A quiet and unassuming gentleman of the old school, he was a potent factor in the building of the city of Worcester as a wholesale center. He was a charter member of Piedmont Congregational Church, and deeply interested in Y. M. C. A. work. He died in December, 1901, of heart failure.
GEORGE EDWARD MILLER
George Edward Miller, son of George F. and Melinda Miller, was born in Royalston, Sept. 2, 1838. He went to Norwalk, Conn., early in life and became associated with the banking in- terests of that place, which interests he maintained almost throughout the more than forty years that he lived there. He became identified with the Norwalk Savings Society early in his banking career and was later made Secretary and Treasurer of that institution, which position he held at the time of his death, Dec. 27, 1903. He married Fannie Miner Brooks, dau- ghter of Charles Coe Brooks, Esq., of New York City, October 18, 1864, from which union there were three children : George North Miller, deceased, and Sarah Brooks Miller and Charles Edward Miller, who are still living. Mrs. Miller died June 2, 1908.
CHAPTER XV
SONS OF ROYALSTON
ASAHEL PECK
Asahel Peck, son of Squire and Elizabeth (Goddard) Peck, was born in Royalston, Sept. 1803. His father went to Vermont and settled at Montpelier when Asahel was only three years old. Ashael's youth was passed on the farm where he developed the sturdy vigor, mental, moral and physical, that was so marked throughout his career. He was educated in the common schools and fitted at the Washington County Grammar School to enter the sophomore class of the University of Vermont in 1824. He left the University in his senior year at the invitation of the President of a French College in Canada for a course of study in the French language in the family of the latter. He studied law in the office of his oldest brother, Nahum Peck, at Hinesburg, Vt., who was one of the leading lawyers of that section, and afterwards for a year or two in the office of Bailey & Marsh at Burlington.
He was admitted to the bar in March, 1832, practiced alone for a while and afterward in partnership with Archi- bald Hyde and later with D. A. Smalley. He was a man of solid rather than brilliant part, but he made his way steadily. One writer in speaking of him said that it was "characteristic of him that he was slow in everything, but in the end he was almost always sure to be right, and that he regarded as the only point worth gaining." He was a thorough and patient student, "possessing a tenacious mem- ory he held firmly all that he had secured in years of study and could instantly bring his great store of learning to bear upon any legal question presented to him."
One critic has said that no man in New England since Judge Story has equalled him in knowledge of the common law of England and the law of equity. He and Rufus Choate were once pitted against each other in a case, and that wonderful genius of the profession, professed astonish-
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ment to find such a lawyer in Vermont, and besought him to move to Boston, where he would surely win both fame and fortune. But there were higher things in life for Peck and he persisted in staying in Vermont, whose practice he believed was the best in the Union to develop a lawyer of really great attainments. He was judge of the circuit court from 1851 to 1857 when it ceased.
In 1860 he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court under the present system and held the position continuously, though desiring toward the end to retire, until his election as Governor of Vermont in 1874.
He was nominated then in response to a strong demand from the people and against the calculations of the old line of managing politicians. Generally speaking his adminis- tration was able, sound and deeper in its impress on the opinion of the people than that of almost any governor for many years. On his retirement from the governor's chair Judge Peck retired to his farm in Jericho where he lived in the enjoyment of rural life, of which he was passionately fond, until his death May 18, 1879.
In politics Judge Peck was by nature and early affilia- tions a Democrat. But the aggressions of the Slavercracy early disgusted him, and he became a Free Soiler in 1848, being a member of the famous Buffalo Convention that nominated Van Buren and Adams, and after the formation of the Free Democracy or Liberty Party he identified him- self with it, was its candidate for Congress in the Burlington district and naturally was one of the pioneers in the for- mation of the Republican party.
Judge Peck was too great a lawyer, too large minded a man to allow the forms of law to outweigh the essentials of right and justice. He was profoundly religious, and Governor W. P. Dillingham, who was his Secretary of civil and military affairs, says that he was one of the best Bibli- cal students he ever met, and that he would sit up until nearly midnight talking of religious matters, of the lofty purity of Isaiah and of the mission of Christ. He never married.
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JAMES ORMOND WILSON
James Ormond Wilson, one of Royalston's most dis- tinguished sons, was boru April 2, 1825, a son of James and Chloe (Murdock) Wilson. He received his early edu- cation at the West Brattleboro Academy, in Vermont; the New Salem Academy and Williston Seminary at Easthampton. Graduated at Dartmouth College in 1850 receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts.
Following his graduation at Dartmouth he went to Wash- ington, D. C. and accepted a position in the Treasury De- partment where he remained until 1868. In the meantime he had studied law and was admitted to the bar of the District. He served eight years on the Board of Education, after which, in 1870, he was appointed to the position of superintendent of the schools of Washington, which he held for fifteen consecutive years. During that service he in- stituted and carried to successful fruition many reforms. To him is given much credit for the improved sanitary condition in the school buildings, the type of eight-room building now in general use being of his design. He was a leader in school progress, and introduced industrial draw- ing, manual training, domestic economy and military train- ing, and was instrumental in having these subjects adopted by many of the country's schools.
Under his direction exhibits were prepared by the district school children and sent to the international exhibitions at Vienna and Paris and elsewhere. At each of these exhibi- tions the work prepared by the Washington students was awarded the medal of highest honor.
The French government voted Mr. Wilson as superin- tendent of schools, special personal recognition for the work displayed by the students at the exhibition at Paris.
From 1870 he was connected with many educational and charitable institutions and societies. He was for some time President of the board of trustees of Garfield Hospital, and was also connected with the Industrial Home School, Columbia Historical Society, the George Washington Univer- sity, National Metropolitan Bank, Industrial Education of
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Colored Youths, the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and the American Colonization Society.
After his retirement from the School Board he was actively interested in affairs pertaining to Education.
He married Miss Sarah Hungerford. They had three daughters, Clara, Anne and Eleanor, the latter of whom, married Dr. A. L. Wilson of Lynchburg, Va. Mrs. Sarah Hungerford Wilson died in 1906. J. Ormond Wilson died April 2, 1911 on his 86th birthday anniversary, when it had been planned for one hundred and fifty teachers and officials of the Washington schools, and others, to visit him and extend their felicitations.
The Washington Evening Star said of him: "The death of J. Ormond Wilson at the moment when his host of friends were making ready to congratulate him on his eighty-sixth birthday was particularly sad. Scores of old friends, men and women who had known him for more than a century, mature men who had been his boys in the schools of the older Washington, were calling to felicitate him. Instead of a cheery welcome death's signal met them at the door. Mr. Wilson had many friends - real friends - and this fact as- serts the character of the man."
HON. GEORGE CARTER RICHARDSON
Hon. George Carter Richardson, son of Dr. Thomas and Jane (Brown) Richardson, was born in Royalston, April 27, 1808.
At the age of fifteen years he entered upon mercantile pursuits as a clerk and salesman in the large country store of Franklin Gregory in Royalston. At the age of twenty- two he became a partner with Mr. Gregory, and so continued for five years, when he established with Henry Earle a dry- good's jobbing business in Boston, the firm being Richardson & Earle. This continued about two years, when he entered into partnership with George D. Dutton. The firm thus formed continued as Dutton & Richardson and Dutton, Richardson & Co. up to 1855 during which was developed a large importing trade with England, France and Germany, Mr. Richardson visiting England to establish business re-
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lations with foreign manufacturers. From 1855 to 1864 he was associated with several different partners.
In 1864 the firm of George C. Richardson & Co. was formed to carry on the dry-goods commission business. The house did a very large business from the first, but in 1865 took an important step in accepting the business which had been carried on by A. & A. Lawrence & Co. amounting to many millions of dollars. George C. Richardson & Co. thus became practically the successors of Lawrence & Co. as agents for several of the great manufacturing corpora- tions in Lowell and elsewhere. Mr Richardson retired from the firm July 1, 1885. In 1850, he became a director of the Union Bank of which he was president a number of years from 1863. He was a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany of New York from June, 1870 until his death, and was a trustee of the Boston Provident Institution for Saving and a director in various corporations. He was a member of the Boston Board of Trade of which he was president from 1865 to 1867 and in that office by his careful study of the business interests of the country and his practical suggestions, exerted a large and beneficial influence in the commercial world.
He was one of the originators in 1868 of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters, a body which has done valuable service in the development of the cotton industry.
In 1862 he was elected Mayor of the city of Cambridge. The Cambridge Chronicle of Nov. 29, 1862 had the follow- ing to say of his nomination and the party which nominated him: "The legal voters of Cambridge have been notified to assemble on Monday next in the various wards, to give in their ballots for a Mayor, Aldermen, Councilmen, and other city and ward officers for the ensuing year. The party first in the field call themselves the Citizens. They have adopted as their motto no monopoly, and declaim against what they denominate "monopolizing corporations." Their attention is directed particularly to the question of pro- viding better and cheaper railroad accommodations.
"They held their first meeting Nov. 17, and nominated George C. Richardson, Esq. for Mayor. He required time for consideration and at an adjourned meeting, on Monday evening last, accepted the nomination. He was subsequently
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waited upon by a committee, and appeared and briefly addressed those present."
At the election George C. Richardson, Esq. received 1313 votes out of 1317, the whole number cast. The Chronicle, referring to the election said: "By the foregoing returns it will be seen that the 'No Monopoly,' party have succeeded by an overwhelming majority and we hope the effect will be to give us better railroad accommodations in Cambridge than we now have and at the lowest possible rate of fare."
This was in Civil War times and Mayor Richardson closed his inaugural address as follows: "It falls to our lot to assume the administration of affairs at a time of peculiar trial and solicitude when our city, our State, and our Nation are laboring under the burdens and suffering the calamities of a war the end and issue of which are yet beyond the reach of human vision. We need enlightenment and sustaining strength from Him who sees the end from the beginning, and who directs the affairs of mankind."
So popular was his administration that at the end of the year the citizens of Cambridge without distinction of party nominated him again for mayor by acclamation, but he declined to serve again stating that circumstances beyond his control prevented its acceptance.
Mr. Richardson was married Feb. 2, 1832, to Susan Gore Moore, daughter of Abel Moore of Boston and grand- daughter of Jonathan Hunnewell of Roxbury. She died Nov. 18, 1845. By this marriage there were four sons. Dr. Henry A. Richardson the second son, was appointed an assistant surgeon in the navy, the first appointment of this kind made from New England during the war of the Rebel- lion. He contracted a pulmonary disease, while serving in the Cambridge company, and died at home July 23, 1863. Mr. Richardson's second wife was Ellen Gregory of Guilford, Vt., daughter of Stephen Gregory, to whom he was married in 1850. There was only one child by this marriage, Arthur G. Richardson of Boston.
STEPHEN HOLMAN
Stephen Holman, son of Stephen and Hannah (Fuller) Hol- man was born in Royalston, December 28, 1820. He attended
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the old Lynn Academy, and was graduated from Williams College in 1840, and for a few years did considerable tutoring, coaching young men for law courses especially. He taught school in Fitchburg, Gardner, Athol and Phillipston, Mass. and Winchester, N. H. and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in Worcester and practised his profession for a short time in Fitchburg.
He became interested in the Lyman Mills, and removed to Holyoke, Mass. and engaged in the manufacture of paper. In 1865 he bought out the Holyoke Paper Mills, and for the next ten years he was noted as the most consistent "boomer" of Holyoke as a manufacturing center. Part of his success as a manufacturer came through his reduction of the business to a scientific basis. He was the first to introduce a scheme of accurate cost keeping. Spreading out his business interests he established the Holyoke Machine Company, with factories in Holyoke and Worcester, and became identified with various cotton factories. He was an extensive shareholder in the Bell Telephone Company. All through his life he followed the subjects, which he studied in college, at the age of ninety took pleasure in reading in German and French and gave a reading in German of Schiller's plays. He was an ardent fisherman and traveler, maintained a camp in Maine, and spent the summer of 1912 in Europe, returning to his home only a few days before his death. He was a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers.
On April 12, 1853, he was married to Miss Henrietta A. Rich- ardson of Fitchburg, who died at Worcester on March 25, 1894. Their children are: Mrs. William E. Plummer of Swampscott, Mass. and Charles Richardson Holman.
Mr. Holman died after five days' illness, on October 13, 1912, at the home of his daughter in Swampscott, Mass., death being caused by angina pectoris.
LIEUT. COLONEL CHARLES CUMMINGS
Charles Cummings, the oldest of four sons of Joshua and Hepsebah (Hale) Cummings, was born in Royalston, Feb. 6, 1821. The family removed and settled on a farm in Westmin-
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ster, Mass. about 1835. The Rev. Henry Cummings, the second son, was a prominent Congregational minister for more than fifty years; Isaac Cummings was the resident physician of the Panama Railroad Company, and Israel, twin brother of the last named who was wounded while on picket duty during the siege of Knoxville, and died there on the day of the enemy's retreat, the first contribution of the family of a life for their country.
Charles Cummings pursued his academical studies at West- minster and subsequently commenced the study of medicine with Dr. John White of that town, continuing it under the care of Dr. Silas Cummings of Fitzwilliam, N. H. He attended a course of lectures at Castleton, Vt. and another at Woodstock, Vt. His medical diploma bears date of June 16, 1847, signed by Benjamin R. Palmer. Almost immediately he began the practice of his profession at Fitzwilliam remaining there three years, when he abandoned it as wholly unsuited to his taste. In the summer of 1850 he removed to Brattleboro, Vt., where he was employed in various ways, chiefly as an accountant until 1852 when he with Charles S. Prouty published the semi-weekly Eagle for one year, then during 1853 and 1854 he was united with B. D. Harris in conducting the Brattleboro Eagle, and in February 1855 he commenced the publication of the Vermont Phoenix, of which he continued proprietor until his death.
His first editorial appeared Feb. 3, 1855 in which he pro- nounced himself as, "independent in and not of politics, sym- pathizing with the American Party; not absorbed in one idea nor disposed to ride any particular hobby."
On the 27th of June, 1857 he married Miss Elizabeth B. Raynolds of Boston, a highly educated and estimable lady. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
In 1855 he was chosen by the directors Clerk of the Vermont State Agricultural Society in which office he continued until the autumn of 1861. His election as Clerk of the House of Rep- resentatives of Vermont at Montpelier in 1858 served to make him generally known throughout the State, and his re-election at three subsequent sessions show how acceptable were his services in that position. In the Civil War he enlisted as a private in Company E, Eleventh Vermont Regiment, and was chosen First Lieutenant Aug. 14, 1862, but before the regiment
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left the state he was commissioned Major of the Twelfth Vermont Regiment of nine months men.
He was killed in action at Poplar Grove Church Sept. 30, 1864.
His military record will be found in the Military Chapter of this book.
Says one who had the longest acquaintance with him: "I can not yet realize that he is taken away, the strong staff is broken. He was my companion in the family being the nearest me in age; as the elder brother he was the leader. Ever impulsive, his impulses were of a generous nature. Gifted with a versatile genius he trained his mind and hand to a large variety of objects, and it may be said he touched nothing which he did not adorn. As a journalist he probably exerted the widest influence through the columns of the Brattleboro Eagle and the Vermont Phoenix by selected articles of rare excellence as well as by editorials of marked beauty and power."
THOMAS NORTON HART
Inscribed on the town records of Royalston is the mar- riage Jan. 25, 1821 of Daniel Hart of Reading and Margaret Norton of Royalston. She was a daughter of Major John Norton, a Revolutionary soldier. The ancestors of Daniel Hart had settled in Lynnfield, Mass.
Thomas Norton Hart, son of Daniel and Margaret (Norton), Hart, was born in Reading, Jan. 20, 1829. Although not born in Royalston, yet he may be claimed as a son of Royalston, by his ancestry and the fact that five years of his young life was spent in this town. He received a plain education such as the country schools afforded, and when a lad of 13 years went to Boston to earn his living. He found employment with Wheelock, Pratt & Co., dry goods dealers.
Two years later in 1844 he was clerk in a hat store and subsequently became partner in the firm of Philip A. Locke & Co. in Dock Square.
In 1860 Mr. Locke retired from business and Mr. Hart assumed control forming shortly after the well known firm of Hart, Taylor & Co., which was highly successful.
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Mr. Hart went out of business in 1878 with a competency. Soon after he was chosen president of the Mt. Vernon Na- tional Bank.
He was a member of the Boston Common Council from 1879 to 1881 and of the Board of Alderman in 1882, '85 and '86, Mayor of Boston in 1889 and 1890 and again in 1900, and 1901. In 1891 he was appointed Postmaster of Boston by President Harrison to succeed Gen. Corse. He has been Treasurer of the American Unitarian Association, and is a member of the Arlington Street Church. All his nominations came to him unsought, unbought and unpledged. In politics he was always a Republican, but had the support of Demo- crats and Independents.
He married April 30, 1850, Miss Elizabeth Snow of Bow- doin, Me. She died Nov. 16, 1906. Their daughter Abbie Snow Hart, born Sept. 22, 1851, an only child, is the wife of C. W. Ernst, the marriage taking place June 5, 1885. Mr. Hart's home is on Commonwealth Avenue and he has a sum- mer home in Swampscott. No great calamity has darkened this happy home, which has been a blessing to many hearts and homes, and received in return the benediction of Heaven.
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