Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. II, Part 123

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 874

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. II > Part 123

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(V) John Davidson, youngest child and only son of John and Anna ( Davidson) Armstrong, was born at Windham, New Hampshire, October 8, 1813. He was a farmer in Bedford, New Hamp- shire, and later moved to Amherst in the same state. He was twice married. His first wife was Sarah, daughter of Thomas Atwood, of Bedford. She died in August, 1849, leaving two sons: Wil- liam H., the elder, was born November 29, 1840, and married, May 5, 1861, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Armstrong, of Windham. They lived on the old family home at that place. John A. Arm- strong, the younger son, horn October 28, 1842, was a member of Company K, Third New Hampshire Volunteers, and was killed at Drewry's Bluff, Vir- ginia. Jolin D. . Armstrong married for his second wife, Jane M. Wells, of Bedford. They had five children born in Bedford: George D., whose sketch follows; Edward F., born December 20, 1852, lives at Milford. New Hampshire, and married L. Cool- idge and have one son, Percy; Sarah J., born De- cember 17, 1854, married, May 1, 1874, Frank E. Kendall, and lives in Milford, New Hampshire; Clara Alma, born April 16, 1859, died July 24, 1861 ; Elmer E., born December 1, 1863, lives in Milford, New Hampshire, married Maud Spinny, January 15, 1907.

(VI) George Davidson, eldest son and child of John Davidson and Jane M. (Wells) Armstrong, was born at Bedford, New Hampshire, August 6, 1851. In youth he had few educational advantages.

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Early in life he worked out as a farmer until he had accumulated enough to purchase the farm which be now owns in Milford. It contains eighty-five acres. He has made a specialty of fruit raising, and has a fine apple orchard from which he markets five or six hundred barrels of apples yearly. He also has a large dairy. He attends the Congrega- tional Church, and belongs to the Masonic order. On April 29, 1890, he married Mary Haseltine, who was born November 13, 1857, daughter of James G. and Mary Jane (Hinds) Haseltine, of Sandwich, New Hampshire. They have two children: John D., born November 25, 1893; and Edna Jane, born June 27, 1897. Mrs. Armstrong is a member of the Congregational Church.

This is one of the early English

BRIGHAM names transplanted to America and belongs to that class of names which Lidicate a place, usually a place of residence. The termination "ham," signifying home, takes its pres- ent form through the modifications which have been so common in English words. especially in names. This name has been borne by conspicuous citizens throughout the United States, and is still numbered among those identified with social, moral and material progress.

(I) Thomas Brigham sailed from London, April 13. 1635, on the ship "Susan and Ellen," Edward Payne, master, and settled shortly thereafter in Watertown, Massachusetts, where he was made a freeman April 18, 1636. Hle settled in that part of Watertown which is now Cambridge, and resided at what is now the easterly corner of Brattle and Ash streets, Cambridge. He was constable of Cam- bridge in 1637, and selectman in 1640-47. At the time of his leaving England he was thirty-two years of age, which indicates his birth about 1603, and he dicd December 8, 1653, at Cambridge. He married Nancy Hurd, who survived him. She mar- ried (second), March 1, 1656, Edward Rice, Sr., of Sudbury, who died in 1663, in Marlboro, Massachu- setts. She married (third) William Hunt, of Con- cord, Massachusetts, whom she survived, and died December 28, 1693, in Marlboro. At the time of her second marriage she took her children to Sud- bury, and they subsequently removed with her to Marlboro. Thomas Brigham's children were : Mary, dicd young; Thomas, John, Mary, Hannah and Samuel.

(11) Thomas (2), eldest son and second child of Thomas (1) and Nancy (Hurd) Brigham, was born in 1641, and went with his mother to Sudbury. and subsequently to Marlboro, where he bought a town right and settled in the southwestern part of that town. lle was a freeman in 1600. Immed- iately after King Philip's war he built a house in Marlboro, which was still standing in 1867. He was a prominent man in that town. He married, De- cember 27, 1665, Mary Rice, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Moore) Rice. She died and he subse- quently married Mrs. Susannah Morse, of Water- town. He died November 25, 1717. at the age of

seventy-six years. His children were. Thomas. Nathan, Jonathan, David, died young; David, Ger- shom L., Nathan and Mary.

(III) Captain Nathan, second son and child of Thomas (2) and Mary (Rice) Brigham, was born June 17, 1671, in Marlboro, where he died Febru- ary 16, 1746. He was commander of the local militia, and held numerous offices in the town. He married (first) Elizabeth Howe, who died March 29, 1733. aged sixty-nine years. She was found dead kneeling by her chair in the house. He married (second ) Mehitable Parke. His children were: Nathan, Thomas, Tabitha, Elizabeth, Sarah, Zip- porah, Hannah and Ephraim.

(IV) Nathan (2), eldest child of Nathan (1) and Elizabeth (Howe) Brigham, was born Novem- ber 28, 1693, in Marlboro, and died in that town, September 15, 1784. He was a lieutenant of the militia, and when the town was divided his estate was found to be in Southboro. He married Dinah Rice.

(V) Deacon Edmond, son of Nathan (2) and Dinah (Rice) Brigham, was born August 12, 1733, in Marlboro, where he resided and died June 29, 1806.

(VI) Edmund, son of Deacon Edmond Brigham, was born October 19, 1758, in Marlboro, and died April 22, 1841, in Templeton. He married Mary Martin, born November 24, 1762, and died May 2, 1835, in Templeton.

(VII) John, son of Edmund and Mary (Martin) Brigham, was born June 7, 1782, in Westboro, Mas- sachusetts, and died February 20, 1863, in Whiting- ham, Vermont. He was a prosperous farmer in Whitingham, settling there in 1808 on the farm where J. G. Faulkner now resides, which he cleared from the wilderness and where he spent the re- mainder of his days. He was married four times. His first wife being Rebecca Smith, of Phillipston, Massachusetts. She died leaving six children : Martin F., Harriet, Sally M., Rebecca E., John A., Frances. Another child born of this marriage died in infancy. His second wife, Huldalı (Wheeler) Brigham, of Halifax, Vermont, bore him three chil- dren: Lewis, who died in infancy; Emmeline M., wife of Edwin Legate, of Guilford, Vermont, and Hosea Wheeler Brigham, the immediate subject of these memoirs. He had no offspring by his third and fourth wives.

(VIII) Hosea Wheeler, youngest of the children of John and Huldah ( Wheeler) Brigham, was born May 30, 1837, in Whitingham, Vermont, where he passed most of his life, until 1862, engaged in farm- ing. His primary education was supplied by the public schools, and he continued his studies at Barre Academy, Vermont. In 1862 he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and there made his home for the ensuing nine years. He entered the office of Asa French, of Boston, in 1869, and completed his legal studies under H. N. Hix, of Sadawga, Vermont, and was admitted to the Windham county bar in 1872. Ile began the practice of his profession at Sadawga, where he continued until 1881, being

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admitted in the meantime to practice in the supreme and United States circuit courts. In ISSI he re- moved to Winchester, New Hampshire, and was admitted to the New Hampshire courts. He has since resided in Winchester, and enjoyed a lucra- tive practice. He is a Republican in political prin- ciple, and has taken an active part in public affairs wherever located. He was a member of the New Hampshire constitutional convention in 1889, and of the state legislature in 1893-94. From 1872 to IS78 he served, by appointment of President U. S. Grant, as postmaster at Sadawga, Vermont, where he also officiated as justice of the peace and chancellor. In Winchester from 1884 to ISSS and from 1894 to 1906 he was a member of the board of education, and served as chairman of that body for a number of years. Since 1893 he has been town clerk of Winchester, and county commissioner since 1904, 110W ( 1907) serving in his second term. He is prom- inent in the Masonic Order, being a member of lodge, chapter, council and encampment, and enjoys the confidence, esteem and friendship of his contem- poraries and constituents.

PETTS This surname is of infrequent occur- rence in the records of New England, as the number of early settlers bearing it was very limited. The name in Townsend records is sometimes written Patt and Patts, but later the name is uniformly written Petts.

(I) John Petts was one of the earliest settlers of Townsend, Massachusetts. It is probable that his wife was the first female white resident of the town, and it is conceded that their son Jonathan was the first white child born there.

(II) Jonathan, son of John and Mary Petts, was born January 5, 1728, in Townsend, where he was a farmer. He married, June 27, 1753, Sarah Hasley, daughter of James and Eunice (Jewett) Hasley.

(III) Jonathan (2), son of Jonathan (1) and Sarah (Hasley) Petts, was born in Townsend. He was a soldier in the Revolution, and served at the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1779, in Captain James Hosley's company, and was in the siege of Boston, 1775, and at Bunker Hill in Captain Henry Farwell's Company. In the history of Townsend his name is erroneously printed Nathan Patt. He married, in Townsend, February 12, 1783, and the same year removed from Townsend to Stoddard, New Hamp- shire. His wife was Rebecca Towne, who was born July 25, 1763, daughter of Colonel Ezra Towne, of New Ipswich. Colonel Towne was a captain three years in the Revolution, and later colonel of a regiment of militia.

(IV) David, son of Jonathan Petts, was born in Stoddard, February 7, 1788, and lived in Stoddard, Weston, Vermont, and in Nelson, New Hampshire, where he died. He married Clarissa Parker, who was born in Nelson, July 14, 1793, daughter of Jo- siah and Eunice (Pierce) Parker. She died in Nelson, August 8, 1871. Three of their thirteen children died in infancy. The ten children were:

David Towne, Lyman Parker, Eunice Pierce, Louisa Malvina, Frederic Augustus, Lawrensa, Clarissa Sabrina, George Shepard, Albert Livingston and Lucy Orinda.

(V) David Towne, oldest child of David and Clarissa (Parker) Petts, was born in Weston, Ver- mont, November 26, ISIo, and died in December, 1856, aged forty-six years. He farmed to some extent in Nelson, where for ten or twelve years he was a cattle drover. He removed to Stoddard where he conducted a hotel for six years, and then removed to Marlow and carried on a hotel there for about a year and a half before his death. He married, in Stoddard, New Hampshire, Phebe Stevens, who was born May 3, 1812. Their children were: Ferdinand, Lyman G., and George A.

(VI) Ferdinand, eldest of the three sons of David T. and Phebe (Stevens) Petts, was born in Nelson, New Hampshire, February 28, 1834. He was educated in the common schools of Nelson and Stoddard. After leaving school he worked on a farm summers and in the glass factory in Stoddard winters until he was twenty years of age. At twenty-one he purchased the Marlow Hotel, which he conducted for five years. After carrying on the Central House at Ashburnham, Massachusetts, for the same length of time, he removed to Keene, New Hampshire, and was engaged in the grocery busi- ness for three years. He then engaged in the to- bacco business at Keene. He married (first), Susan Hunt. He married (second), January 7, 1865, Ellen Louise Howard. The children by the first wife were: Lillian, David, and Sanford and Harry (twins). Don I. is the only child of the second wife.

Hamlett or Hamblett, is one of

HAMBLETT the names found at a compara- tively early date in New England records, and there seems to have been but one immi- grant ancestor of this name in New England in the seventeenth century, following the settlement at Plymouth.

(I) William Hamblett was born about 1614. He was first of record in Cambridge or Waterbury, Massachusetts, removing from the latter place to Billerica, and receiving there a grant of a single share, in 1656, at the settlement of the town. His house lot was fifty-six acres, "lying at ye north- east corner of Bare hill, and on ye south of ho- grooten Meadow," &c. This place he exchanged in 1679 with Caleb Farley. of Woburn. and removed to that town. He was one of the early Baptists, and letters from him are quoted by Backus. In a conveyance of land to James Converse, May 1, 1686, he is described as a carpenter. He became a free- man in 1651. He married Sarah, widow of James Hubbard, who died aged ninety. Their children were: Jacob, Rebecca. both baptized at Cambridge ; Sarah and Thomas.

(II) Jacob, eldest child of William and Sarah Hamblett, resided in Billerica, and was the ancestor. of all of those of the name residing in New Hamp-

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shire. He married, July 22, 1668, Hannah Parker, who died April 26. of the following year. He mar- ried (second), December 21, 1669, Mary, daughter of Thomas Dutton, of Billerica (see Dutton, I). She died of smallpox, July 9. 1678. He subse- quently removed to Woburn. where he married Mary, widow of Abraham Jaquith. His children, born from 1670 to 1689, were: Mary, Sarah, Hannah, Rebecca, William, died young; Jacob. died young ; Joseph. William, Jacob, Henry and Abigail.

(III) There is nothing appearing on record to establish which one of the sons of Jacob Hamblett was the father of the one next mentioned.

(IV) John Hamblett married. in Dunstable, February 13, 1772. Elizabeth Perham. After his marriage he resided in Dracut, Massachusetts, where he died October 21, 1819. His wife survived him nearly seven years. dying July 3, 1826. They had two sons, born in Dracut, namely: Thaddeus and Peter.

(V) Peter, son of John and Elizabeth (Per- hanı) Hamblett, was born February 2, 1775, in Dracut, and died there December 26. 1846, aged seventy-one years. He married, August 27, 1805, Polly Goodhue, born December 18. 1778, in Dracut, daughter of Moses and Lydia (Fox) Goodhue. Their children were: Galen, Mary, Carrie Good- hue, Ozni Perham and Eleanor.

(VI) Galen, eldest child of Peter and Polly (Goodhue) Hamblett, was born June 22, 1806, in Dracut, and died in Mason, New Hampshire, April 6, 1884. He was a mason by trade, and after leav- ing Dracut resided in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Milford and Mason, New Hampshire. He resided in Milford some years following 1852. He married. October 11, 1831, Sarah C., daughter of John and Ann (Cochran) Ames. She was born in Dixmont. Maine, April 21, 1807, and died in Milford, May 16, 1877. Their children were: Sarah Jane, Edward G., Orren Ames, Gorham, John D. and Albert A. Sarah Jane was born in Dracut. November 23, 1834. She married, February 20, 1859. Samuel F. Living- ston, of Mount Vernon. where she resided from the time of her marriage till her death, November 16, 1877. Edward Galen was born in Dracut. April 12, 1836; is a merchant tailor, and resides in Milford, New Hampshire, where he settled in 1852. Orren A. is mentioned below. Gorham was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, February 15, 1840, and died in Lowell, in August, 1842. John D. was born in Lowell, August 2. 1842, and died there October 8, 1842. Albert A. was born in Lowell. April 11, 1844, and died there November 4, 1846.

(VII) Orren Ames, third child and second son of Galen and Sarah C. (Ames) Hamblett, was born in Dracut. Massachusetts, April 20. 1838. Ile ac- companied his father on his removal to Milford, in 1852, and resided in Milford until 1883, when he re- moved to Mason, where he lived eight years, and then removed to Washington, D. C., where he re- sided until 1906. and then returned to Mason. He enlisted as a private in Company C. Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, April 19. 1861,

for three years, and was mustered into the United States service July 16 following ; he was the first volunteer from Milford, New Hampshire. After doing duty about eleven months he was discharged for his disability. June 25. 1862. He learned the tailor's trade with his brother, Edward G., and worked at that fourteen years. In 1883 he settled on a farm in Mason. He served as a member of the capital police force in Washington, D. C., fifteen years and six months. He has been active in public life and filled various offices. In the town of Ma- son he served as moderator several years, has been town treasurer, was representative in the New Hampshire legislature in 1889. and sergeant-at-arms of the senate in 1891, and now (1907) is selectman, member of school board. and trustee of Boynton school fund. He was captain of the Wadley Guards of Milford several years, and was a popular officer. He is a member of the Fifth Congregational Church of Washington, D. C. He is a Thirty-second de- gree Mason.

He married (first). December 15, 1862, M. Lizzie Wood, born in Milford, June 7. 1842, daughter of Abijah and Mary A. (Hood) Wood. She died in Washington. D. C., October 9, 1891. He married (second), February 6, 1894. Harriet V. Ames, born in Dracut, Massachusetts March 21, 1857, daughter of John and Almira ( Hamblett) Ames. and a de- seendant of John Alden, the Puritan. The children by the first wife were: Lillian Beatrice, born in Milford, June 30, 1870, married, October 15, 1896, Orlando W. Goodwin. and now resides in Leomin- ster. Massachusetts. Bertha Ashton, born in Mil- ford, June 5, 1875. died May 25. 1880. Lura Valen- tine, born in Mason, February 14, 1884. Susie Ethelyn. born in Mason, January 12, 1886. The children of the second wife are: Marian Edith. born in Washington, D. C., June 18, 1896. Mildred Ames, born in Washington, November S. 189S. John Alden. born in Washington, D. C., September 22, 1900. Priscilla Molines, born in Washington, D. C., January 12, 1902.

BROWNRIGG From middle English sources the name was originally Brown- ridge, meaning at the Brown- ridge. At the time of Cromwell one branch of this family went to Ireland, where it soon became promi- nent. No information whatever relative to this sur- name can be gleaned on this side of the ocean. Its orthography would indicate a Tentonic origin, either ancient Saxon or later German. It was transplanted into the maritime provinces by an immigrant from England.

(I) William Brownrigg came from Cumber- land. England, to Truro, Nova Scotia. He had been engaged in the merchant marine in England.

(II) William, son of William Brownrigg (1), was born in Truro. Nova Scotia. He founded a shoe manufacturing business and later a retail shoe business in Pictou, and this was subsequently taken over by his sor William. He married Johanna Kit- chin, a native of England. and their children were:

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William, see forward; Johanna, died unmarried. (III) William. son of William (2) and Jo- hanna (Kitchin) Brownrigg, was in early life a shoemaker in Picton, Nova Scotia, and later en- gaged in manufacturing. From Pictou he went to the northwest territory, where he became a sur- veyor, and also dealt quite extensively in real es- tate. He married Lydia Cary, a native of Palermo, Maine, and a resident of South China. Maine, daughter of Henry Cary. Of this union there were eleven children, six of whom are living.

(IV) Albert Edward Brownrigg, M. D., son of William (3) and Lydia (Cary) Brownrigg, was born in Pictou, September 28, 1872. From the pub- lic schools of his native town he entered the Picton Academy. and having pursued the regular course of study at that institution he devoted a year to teach- ing. He next attended the Truro (Nova Scotia) Normal School, where he received the Governor General's Medal of that year, and after being grad- uated he joined the force of instructors. At length deciding to enter the medical profession, he began his preparations at Dalhousie University, Halifax, continued them at the Baltimore ( Maryland) Med- ical College, being graduated as prizeman with the class of 1897, and supplemented these studies with a post-graduate course at the New York Polyclinic Medical School. A season of several months at- tendance at the Newton Nervine and at the Boston Insane Hospital resulted in his determination to devote his professional efforts exclusively to the treatment of mental and nervous diseases, and for the purpose of still further perfecting his prepara- tions for that special line of work he pursued a postgraduate course in neurology and kindred sub- jects at the Harvard Medical School. being the only one of a class of thirty-seven postgraduate students of that year to obtain the coveted degree, which was conferred upon him Cum Laude. Accepting the post of assistant physician at the New Hamp- shire State Hospital for the Insane at Concord, New Hampshire, under Dr. Bancroft, he remained at that institution until 1901, when he was induced to undertake the management of the Highland Spring Sanitarium at Nashua, and two years later he pur- chased the property of the company which, up to that time, had owned and controlled it. This re- treat. which is devoted exclusively to the treatment of nervous and mental diseases of a mild and cur- able nature, has accommodations for fifteen patients, and its location, furnishings, medical equipment and other attractions are unsurpassed by any other private sanitarium of a similar character in New England. Aside from his ability as a neurologist, Dr. Brownrigg is an expert analytical chemist, and in his finely equipped laboratory at the sanitarium he performs a large amount of analytical work for the physicians of Nashua and vicinity. He is a member of the American Medico-Psychological As- sociation ; New England Psychological Association ; Boston Society of Neurology and Psychiatry; New Hampshire Medical Society ; Massachusetts Medical Society; Nashua Medical Society, of which he is

president at the present time (1907) ; American Medical Association ; White Mountain Lodge, No. 5. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Concord; and the Guards Club, Nashua. Dr. Brownrigg mar- ried Amelia F. Davison, daughter of Edward D. and Deziah (Mack) Davison, of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and has one son: Albert Edward, Jr., born in Nashua, New Hampshire, March 5, 1903.

DEAN It is the opinion of some writers that the name of Dean was originally derived from the Latin word Decanus, a term applied to a Roman military officer of minor rank commanding a force of ten men, and its English equivalent, Dean, was long ago adopted as an ec- clesiastical title. It is also time honored as the title of a collegiate official. It has probably existed as a patronymic in England from the time of King Al- fred the Great, tenth century, who was the first British sovereign to encourage the adoption of sur- names. The first of the name in America were Rachel Dean, probably a widow. and Stephen Dean. both of whom arrived at Plymouth in the "Fortune," November, 1621. Stephen erected and operated the first grist mill in the Plymouth colony. In 1637 two immigrants of this name, John and Walter Dean, brothers, came from Chard, a place of some im- portance located about twelve miles from Taunton, county of Somerset. Information at hand states that they were the sons of William Dean. They landed at Boston. and after spending a year in Dorchester, proceeded to Taunton, Massachusetts, where they were admitted freemen December 4, 1638. John Dean, who was born about the year 1600 and died in 1660, directed in his will that "in case heer be no settled ministry in Taunton, my administra- tors shall have full power to sell either the whole or a part of these my housings and lands, so as my children and posteritie may remove elsewhere, where they may enjoy God and His Ordnances." The Christian name of his wife was Alice, and she sur- vived him. Among his children were: John, Thomas, Grace, Isaac, Nathaniel and Elizabeth.

(I) Deacon Walter Dean, son of William, and the American progenitor of the branch of the Dean family now in hand. was born in Chard between the years 1615 and 1617. He settled in Taunton, as previously stated, and died there about the year 1693. He was prominently identified with the early civil and religious affairs of Taunton, serving as a select- man for eight years and holding other town offices. He was a tanner. He married Eleanor Strong, daughter of Richard Strong, of Taunton, England, and a sister of Elder John Strong, whom she ac- companied to America in the "Mary and John" in 1630. Those of his children found in the Taunton records were: Joseph. Ezra, Benjamin and Abigail. (II) Benjamin, third son and child of Deacon Walter and Eleanor (Strong) Dean, was married January 6, 16SI, to Sarah Williams, daughter of Samuel and Jane (Gilbert) Williams, of Taunton, and granddaughter of Richard and Frances (Digh- ton) Williams. Her father was the builder of the

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second meeting house in Taunton. The children of this union were: Naomi, who died young; Hannah. Israel, Mary, Damaris, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mehitabel, Benjamin, Lydia and Isaiah. The father died be- tween February 2. 1723, and April 14, 1725.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. II, Part 123

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 874

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 874