USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > Two sermons preached in the First Congregational church in Milton, on the 15th and 22d of June, 1862, and suggested by the centennial celebration, on the 11th of June, 1862 > Part 4
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THE VOSE FAMILY.
"Aunt Sarah," the widow alluded to on p. 13, was Sarah [Bent] Vose, widow of Elijah Vose, and numbering among her descendants, until the present war, every one connected with Milton who has been most distinguished for military ability. Besides her four sons already mentioned as engaged in our Revolutionary war, her grandson, Josiah Howe Vose was a Colonel in the U. S. Army. His eldest son, Josiah H. Vose, received an appointment as Lieut. in the U. S. A. in 1838 ; but his constitution, naturally delicate, was unequal to the hardships and exposures to which he was subjected in the Flor-
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ida war. A sick leave was obtained, and, in the 25th year of his age, he died in New York, June 20, 1841, just eighteen hours after his arrival there. Char- lotte C., daughter of Col. Josiah H. Vose, married T. O. Barnwell, of the U. S. A., and died at Fort Towson, Choctaw Nation, Sept. 9, 1836, aged 23. Her sister, Elizabeth, married George P. Field, then Lieut., afterwards a Cap- tai in the U. S. A. He was born at Black Rock, near Buffalo, Nov. 11, 1813. He entered the Military Academy, at West Point, in 1829, and on graduating was attached to the Infantry. He was engaged in the war with the Seminoles, and afterwards in the Mexican war. He distinguish- ed himself in the battles of the Rio Grande, and fell at Monterey, at the head of his company, while gallantly engaged with the enemy. Captain Field was not only a brave officer, but a thoughtful, religious-minded, Christian man. Ili; only son, Josiah Howe Vose Field, has just entered on the last year of his course in the West Point Military Academy. Col. J. HI. Vose's sister Naomi married Joseph Heath, of Roxbury, son of the distinguished. Gen. William Heath ; and his sister, Nancy, married Elisha Sumner, and became the mother of Edwin Vose Sumner, now Major General of Volunteers, and Brigadier General by Brevet in the U. S. A.
Col. Joseph Vose, "Aunt Sarah's " son, was born in 1738, and, Nov. 5, 1761, married Sarah Howe, daughter of Josiah Howe, a shoemaker, who mov- ed from Dorchester to Milton when Sarah was two years old, and lived in the old house next to the burying ground. Joseph Vose was a butcher, engaging in the business when a very young man. He carried his meat to market every day, going early in the morning and returning late at night, so that sometimes he did not see liis children from Sunday to Sunday. He built what is now the Vose house, on the old Vose place, but a few rods distant from the spot where "Annt Sarah " lived, her house being much nearer the brook. Joseph was the Colonel, and Elijah the Lieut. Colonel, of the Ist Mass. Reg., and both distin- guished themselves in Washington's army in New Jersey. Moses and Bill served in a more humble capacity, but with a zeal and fidelity which demand our gratitude and respect.
Col. Elijah had two children, Hon. Elijah Vose, of Boston, whose son, Hon. Henry Vose, is now a Judge in our Superior Court, and Ruth, the wife of Eben Breed, of Charlestown. Col. Joseph Vose, who died in 1816, aged 77, had eleven children. Sarah was married to Dr. George Osgood, of Andover, Mass. Margaret was married to Ezekiel Savage, then of Boston. Solomon died at Augusta, Maine, in 1809. Dolly and Nancy were twins ; the former married Davis Summer, and the latter married his brother, Elisha Sunmer. Naomi married Joseph Heath, of Roxbury, son of Gen'l Heath. Joseph died unmarried, in August 1825. Isaac was a merchant in New Orleans, and died in Boston. Elijah died when a child. Elizabeth Eliot is now living. Colonel Josiah H. Vore, the youngest son, was born in Milton, Ang. 8, 1784, and died in New Orleans, at the U. S. Barracks, July 15, 1845. Ile " was on parade, engaged in drilling his regiment, when he became suddenly indisposed, and af- ter turning over his connand to the next senior officer, retired to his quarters,
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which he had just reached when he fell dead upon the floor. He was 61 years of age, and had been more than 33 years in the service of his country ; having been commissioned as a Captain of Infantry in 1812, and passed with honor through every grade from that to his present rank." Both as an able officer and as an upright, kind-hearted man, he was esteemed and trusted while he lived, and died lamented and beloved.
The first of the Vose family in Milton, so far as I can learn, was Robert, who, in 1654, purchased the estate now owned by the heirs of Col. Josiah H. Vose. He died Oct. 16, 1683, aged 84. His son Edward died Jan. 29, 1716, aged 80. A portion of the land which he had from his father, near the south foot of Brush Hill, is now owned by his descendants, in the family of the late Jesse Vose, senior. Nathaniel, son of Edward, was born Nov. 17, 1672, and died October, 1753. At the age of 24 he married Mary Belcher, by whom he had six children : Mary, 1697, (she died young, ) Nath'l, jr., 1699, Jerusha, 1702, admitted into Church Dec. 30, 1716, (she married Andrew Mckay,) Merriam (admitted into Church January 10, 1725, and married Moses Billings), Elijah, 1707, (baptized Jan. 4, 1708,) Millatiah, baptized June 25, 1710, (she married Henry Crane. ) The last name is Millatiah in the Milton Ch. records, but Mehitabel in the family records.
Elijah was the husband of "Aunt Sarah," and his father, Capt. Nathaniel, seems to have been considered the patriarch of the family by all his descend- ants. Nath'l and his wife, Mary, were admitted into Church, Dec. 4, 1698. He died Oct., 1753. According to a paper, kindly put into my hands by a mem- ber of the family, "He was a New England Puritan in faith and practice, using great self-denial, and educating his children in the most rigid manner of his sect. He ministered daily at the family altar, and continued to do so dur- ing the twilight of his life, which was passed in the family of his younger son. Early upon the Sabbath morning, would he summons his daughter to the holy duties of the day by loudly proclaiming at their doors that the holy women were early at the sepulchre. But upon other mornings, he left them to their rest. Among the last recollections of his favorite grandson, Col. Joseph Vose, was the 17th chapter of Jeremiah, which he used to repeat to his children as being the favorite morning lesson for the Sabbath ; he having learned it some seventy years before, while sitting on the cricket at his grandfather's feet, listening to the family exercise. From his frequent reading and quoting from the Scriptures, he was often called " the walking Bible." As a tiller of the soil, he was so successful that his name has been handed down to the present generation as ' Farmer Voxe.' "
No one in our day would be so well entitled to this last name as Mr. Jesse Vose, of Brush Hill, who died Feb. 15, 1962. " I considered him," said a most competent judge, " the best farmer in Milton." But this was only one of his claims to respect. He united in himself many of the best qualities of his family. He was intelligent and faithful, modest and reserved. He was con- stant in his attendance on public worship, and yet a man of deeds more than of professions. As a son. a husband and a father, few have been more trusted and
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loved. As a neighbor, he was more ready to do a kind act than to talk about it ; and no one's advice was more sought and valued by those who needed it. The words most fitly describing him were : " What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love merey, and to walk humbly with thy God !"
AGED PERSONS IN MILTON.
The person here alluded to on p. 22, was Mr. James Tucker, who died June 14, 1851. He was a Brush Hill farmer, an honest, clear-headed man, and one of the best representatives of his class. There was a shrewdness in his way of viewing things and a quaintness in his turn of expression, which gave an air of originality to his conversation, and made it always interesting. There was something very touching in his devotion to the memory of his wife, with whom he had lived so many years.
His cousin, Rev. Ebenezer Tucker, who died at the house of his son-in-law, Mr. Timothy Tucker, Jan. 14, 1848, aged 85, was graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1783. Ile was a minister in Gerry, now Phillipston, till his failing health obliged him to give up his profession. After residing elsewhere more than sixty years, he came back to his native place, to spend his last days with his daughter and her family. Hle soon began to fail in body and mind till both seemed ahnost gone. But a little while before he died, believing that his hour had come, he called the family round him, and gave them his dying charge, talking to them nearly an hour and a half with great clearness and force ou their Christian duties ; when he sunk back again into his previous oblivious state, only at intervals having consciousness enough to express his desire to go home and be at rest.
Deacon Edward Capen, who died October 19, 1860, aged 85, lived near these men, and was connected with them by marriage He was a modest, kind-hearted, faithful man, and retained his strength of body and mind in a re- markable degree, down to his last illness. During the last year of his life, he not unfrequently walked to church, a distance of two miles, and back again when the services were ended.
Nearly opposite to Deacon Capen, Simon Ferry and his wife, Rhoda, lived together nearly fifty-four years -sensible, affectionate, thoughtful people. " My mind," he once said to me, with his characteristic modesty, " is simple in knowledge." But he had evidently thought much, especially on religious subjects, and his singleness of purpose had certainly led him further into the truth than some men of superior intellects ever go He died Nov. 10, 1857, aged 78, and she, Nov. 18, 1860, aged 73. She was married before she was seventeen.
Among the aged, though not the most aged men of Milton, when I came here in Jan. 1846, was the Hon. John Ruggles. He was an upright, intelligent man, decided in his opinions, and spoke like one who was accustomed, as he had been, to have his opinions respected. He was born in Milton, Feb. 10, 1773, in the house now occupied by Mr. John Myers, and died Dec. 19, 1846. His wife, who died Sept. 6 1857, was Betsy Wadsworth, and was born in Dan -.
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vers, July 4, 1777. She used to say, playfully, that her birth-day had always been celebrated throughout the land. They were married in Danvers, Nov. 5, 1803, by her father, Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, and were the parents of three children, the oldest of whom, Mary Wadsworth, died in infancy. There have been in Mr. Ruggles's family five successive generations of only sons, all bearing the name of John Ruggles, and the youngest, who now bears it, is the eighth John Ruggles in lineal succession. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles were di- rect descendants of Deacon John Wadsworth, younger brother of Rev. Berja- min Wadsworth, who was graduated at Harvard College in 1690, and President of the College from 1725 to 1737. Mrs. Ruggles's father, Rev. Benj. Wads- worth, was born in Milton, July 18, 1750, graduated at H. C. in 1769, ordain- ed Minister of the first parish in Danvers Dec. 23, 1772, made D. D. at II. C., 1816, and died January 18, 1826, having been the minister of his parish more than fifty-three years. He was a man greatly respected by his brethren in the . ininistry.
Mr. Ruggles's father was chosen Town Treasurer of Milton in 1785, which office he held by annual election till his death, Feb. 25, 1821,-thirty-six years, lacking a few days. He was chosen Town Clerk in 1786, and continued in that office ti !! March, 1807,-21 years. Mr. Ruggles himself was chosen Se- lectman in March, 1805, and remained in the office till March, 1826-twenty- one years ; and from 1811, fifteen years he was chairman of the board. He was also chairman of the board of Selectmen from 1830 to 1835,-making the whole number of years he held the office twenty-six, twenty of which he was chairman. He was one of the Assessors twenty-five years, and chairman nine- teen. He was first chosen Town Clerk in 1814, and held that office till 1835, twenty-one years, when he declined further service in town offices. " It is a notable circumstance," says Mr. Jason Reed, our present Town Clerk, " that for precisely fifty years continuously, Mr. Ruggles and his father held impor- tant town offices ; for forty-two of these years they together held the office of Town Clerk, and for twenty-three years important town offices at the same time." Mr. Ruggles was representative to the Massachusetts General Court seven years, and State Senator five years, from 1820 te 1824.
Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles lived together more than forty-one years. I think the last word he was heard to utter was " Eternity," as if he were already looking into its mysterious and awful depths. His wife, who survived him nearly elev- en years, was of a sensitive, delicate nature, and very humble in her religious feelings. She was a woman of strong personal attachments, and faithfully and wisely fulfilled the duties of a Christian wife and mother.
RUGGLES.
1. Thomas came from England and settled in Roxbury with his son,
2. John, then about 12 years of age.
3. John,
of Roxbury.
4. John,
5. Capt John and Katherine ( Williams).
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6. Capt. John and Mary (Wadsworth) ; he removed to Milton.
7. Hon. John and Betsy ( Wadsworth).
8. Betsy (Ruggles) Davenport and John ; the former married Francis W. Davenport, of Milton, the Davenports being early settlers of that town ; the latter married Mary L. Gardner, daughter of IIon. S. P. Gardner, of Bolton. .
9. Mary Gardner and John.
WADSWORTH.
1. Christopher, one of the early Plymouth Pilgrims, settled at Duxbury, with Miles Standish ; had by wife Grace, Joseph, John, Samuel and Mary.
2. Capt Samuel, born at Duxbury abont 1630, married Abigail, daughter of James Lindall, of Marshfield ; appears at Milton, 1656 ; killed at Sud- bury, 1676.
3. Dea. John, born 1674, died 1733-4, and Eliz. (Vose) ; they had eleven children.
4. Deacon Benjamin, born 1707, died 1771, and Esther (Tucker) ; they had ten children. Their honse was standing a few years since at " Scotch Woods."
5 Rev. Benj. and Mary (Hobson). Also, Mary, married to Captain Jehu Ruggles.
6. Betsy, married to Hon John Ruggles.
The six oldest inhabitants of Milton whose funerals I have attended, were : Miss Sally Tucker who died Nov. 29, 1849, aged 93,
Mrs. Rebecca Howe who died Oct. 4, 1858, aged 86, Miss Mary Crane who died Jan. 10, 1860, aged 95, Miss Mary Vose who died Feb. 18, 1860, aged 86,
Mrs. Mary Taylor who died March 16, 1860, aged 89,
Mrs. Sally Penniman who died Nov. 14, 1860, aged 86.
All of these, it will be noticed, were women ; and half the number, including the two oldest, had never been married. With the exception of Miss Crane, whose mind had been clouded for some years before her death, and, perhaps, Miss Vose, they all retained their faculties to the last, and kept up their inter- est, not only in the generations that had passed away, but in the living world around them. Four of the six died in the same year.
THE FAMILY OF RUFUS PIERCE.
The allusion p. 23 is to the family of Rufus Pierce, son of William and Eu- nice (Bent) Pierce. He was born in 1751; and married Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Josiah Howe and sister of Sarah (Howe), wife of Colonel Joseph Vose. Josiah Howe was engaged in the shoe-making business, on what was then considered a large scale. He died October 3, 1792, aged 73 When our Revolutionary war with England broke out, he became very much depressed, and, like some faint-hearted or despondent persous now, he could see no pros-
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perous issue out of the sad and troubled times in which he lived. His son, Jo- siah Howe, removed to Templeton, and was the father of Josiah Howe, M. D., a physician of considerable distinction and ability in Westminster. The chil- dren of Rufus and Elizabeth Pierce were, Elizabeth, born Oct. 19, 1775, mar- ried, Nov. 30, 1817, William Briggs, and still living in the house built and occupied by her father, -Lemuel, born Feb. 9, 1778, -Sarah, born July 16, 1780, married, March 10, 1803, Samuel Littlefield,-Margaret, born April 29, 1783, married Jeremiah 'T'. Fenno, died August 14, 1857,-Eunice, now Mrs. Lord, born Feb. 24, 1787 ;- Nancy, born July 13, 1790, married Gideon F. Thayer, the eminent teacher, died Nov. 21, 1854,-Mary, born Dec. 5, 1795, married Zipheon Thayer, died May 14, 1837,-Rufus, born March 31, 1798, now living in Illinois, -- and Martha, born July 16, 1801, married Abel Wy- man, and died April 1836 Mary was the person of whom Dr. Channing spoke.
ANN BENT.
Miss Ann Bent's grandfather was Alexander Middleton, a Scotchman who lived in Boston. He left four daughters : Mary Middleton, who married James Lovell, son of .. Master Lovelt." She was Mirs Henry Ware's grandmother. She had several sons, only one daughter, Mary, who married Mr. Mark Pick- ard. Gen. Mansfield Lovell, of New Orleans, is her great grand-son. Ann Middleton married Rufus Bent, who was born in Milton, one of four brothers- Joseph, Lemuel, William and Rufus. Their only sister was Eunice, who mar- ried William Pierce, and was the grandmother of Mrs. Elizabeth Briggs. Ru- fus and Ann Bent lived in Milton and Boston. They had seven children,- two sons, who died at sea, and five daughters. He died at his daughter's in Canton, in 1807, and his wife, at a daughter's in Dorchester Upper Mills in 1805. Prudence Middleton married Dr. Joseph Whipple, who lived in Boston. Ann Bent, the eldest of the five sisters, was born in Milton and died in Canton, (where she is buried, ) in 1856, aged eighty-eight years and three months. Her parents were poor, and she went, when quite young, to live with Madam Price, an English lady who lived in Hopkinton. Mrs. Price was very kind to her, and she retained her friendship through life. She was there several years. She returned to Milton, took a school, lived in Judge Robbins's family, who liv- ed in what is now the Churchill house, on Milton Hill for three years. His three eldest children attended her school. She was very much attached to the whole family, and retained their esteem and friendship during her life. In 1795 she found a more lucrative position in Boston. She took the store, 56 Marl- boro' Street, where W. 11. Allen's store in Washington Street now is. Messrs. Gregory and Pickard ( Mr. P. was Mrs. Ware's father, ) stocked it with rich goods which they imported for her to sell on commission. Two of her sisters went into the store with her. They boarded with Mrs. Thayer ( mother of Rev. Dr. Thayer, of Lancaster), in what is now Washington St., opposite Central Ct. Sally, the younge-t -ister, soon married Mr. Charles Barnard, who als board- ed there. Miss Bent then purchased the building adjoining her store, and ke,t
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house, with her sister Mary to assist her. Nancy Pierce (afterward Mrs. G F. Thayer), and Fanny Cushing (afterwards Mrs. Dr. Stone, of Greenfield, and mother, of Gen. C. P. Stone, now at Fort Lafayette, ) were her assistants. fler two oldest nieces, Ann Middleton Allen (now Mrs. Tracy ) and Mary Bent Kinsley, girls of ten years, living with her, she sent to school. This formed her family for many years, with a domestic, Nabby Tower, who lived with her thirty years. The two assistants married, and the two nieces took their place. When they were seventeen years old, she put them in a position to assist their large families. She then took two more nieces into her family,-Ann Kingsley and Sarah Barnard Kingsley. Her sister Prudence married Mr. Silas Kings- ley, of Canton, where she is now living, eighty-eight years old, and the last of her family.
A niece of Miss Bent, to whom I am indebted for most of these details, says of her, " The beauty and purity of my aunt's character no one knows better than myself. I lived in the most intimate relations with her for more than for- ty years. 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 her dealings and her estimation of character. She was a mother to her sisters and their children, ever thinking of their good." These were the qualities which made steadfast friends of those whose 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 the refined valued her society, and were among her cherished friends. But there was a nearer circle yet. Children were drawn towards her, and as one 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. Thus her bene- factions, performed with no selfish intent, returned into her own bosom. And those who were as dear to her as children and children's children delighted to do what they could to lighten for her the burden of increasing years, and to fill the atmosphere around her with the affections in which it was a joy for her to live. The example is one that cannot be too warmly commended.
REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF MILTON.
Louisa Goddard Wigglesworth, the person described p. 28, was the daugh- ter of Isaac and Mary [May] Davenport. Mr. Davenport was one of a family which had been in Milton, or at least in Dorchester, [See History of Dorches- ter,] almost from its earliest settlement He was born in Milton, and was for many years a merchant in Boston, the partner of John McLean. He left but two children, both daughters. Louisa was much younger than her sister and usually spent her winters in Boston. But her earliest associations bound her to Milton, where every knoll aud stream and tree was dear to her. She loved tin. place for its own sake and for her father's sake. She was a liberal benefactor to the Church. She knew something about all the old Milton families, and kept up her interest in them as long as she lived.
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She was married to Samuel Wigglesworth, M. D. in Boston, Dec. 7, 1841, Their eldest child, Samuel .Norton, was born Aug. 23, 1845. Dr. Wiggles- worth had already begun to suffer from a most painful disease. Her eye-sight had begun to fail, and she probably never saw their second son, Francis Thos., who was born on the 17th of September, 1846. Dr. Wigglesworth died the following spring, April 7, 1847. Her mother, the sister of Col. Joseph and Dea. Samuel May, of Boston, died Nov. 20, 1853, aged S4 years and 10 mos. Her son, Francis Thomas, a boy of unusual beauty and loveliness of character, died the 17th of April, 1854. Her consin, Miss Catherine Davenport, who had always made a part of her father's family, died soon after. Still she did her part faithfully and well, performing duties from which others situated as she was, even without her loss of sight. might have excused themselves and been unblamed. She took an interest in whatever occurred, and even in objects of natural scenery, which were described to her as she was passing them. She visited the White Mountains, and seemed really and heartily to catch the in- spiration of the place, and to appreciate and enjoy the views around her. But as, from year to year, one object after another of interest and affection to her became detached from life, it was easy to see that her hold on life, both bodily and mental, was growing less. In March, 1859, she came out to Milton to at- tend the funeral of Josiah Cotton, a black man whom she had known from her earliest childhood as a servant in her father's household, and the last surviving member of that household. Her health soon after began to fail, and she died in Milton, July 17, 1859. Her only remaining son, Sammuel Norton Wiggles- worth, died the 15th of November, 1861.
"There are other persons whom I should be glad to mention here,-women taken away in the prime of life, whose lives were a benefaction to the commu- nity, and whose names call up now tender and affecting memories. There was no duty too difficult to be performed by them with cheerfulness. or too humble to be made attractive by the grace which they bestowed upon it. Through their gracious and kindly interposition, in many cases, sickness lost much of its severity. Friendless women were sought out and made to feel that they were not alone in the world, or wholly shut out from its sympathy and advantages. They were steadfast and loyal in their friendships. One could hardly meet them without carrying away something which it was both refreshing and useful to remember. They loved to do a kind act for its own sake and not because of large returns that they were seeking from any philanthropical investment which they might make. No one who knew them would hesitate to apply to them for counsel or effective aid in any enterprize of mercy or beneficence that come, even by the most liberal interpretation of good neighborhood, within their sphere. They have passed away, but the scenes on which they looked are more beautiful, the places they loved are more sacred, and the work they did is more easy now because of the spirit in which they lived.
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