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. III, Part 48

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: 876

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. III > Part 48

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(VI) James Paige, son of Samuel and Betsey (Starrett) Todd, was born November 24, 1822, in New Boston, on the farm purchased and partly cleared by his ancestor, Samuel Todd. Here he grew up, attending the common school winters and working on the farm the remainder of the year. He attended high school taught by David Cross, afterward Judge Cross, and also taught school winters later on. July 4, 1850, he sailed from New York for California in the steamer "Tennes- see," in company with his brother-in-law, David Gregg, and John E. and Aaron F. Loring, whose sister he later married. In all there were about one hundred passengers bound for California. The pas-

sage of eight days to Chagres, Central America. was rough. From there to Cruces it was a trip of three days up the river in a "dugout" or log boat. Then a day and a half on foot brought them to Panama. Here they took the steamer "Cherokee," and fifteen days later landed in San Francisco. Thence they ascended the San Joaquin river to Stockton, and later to Jamestown in a sailing vessel. They took up a claim on Shaw's Flats and worked the placer diggings with pick and spade and a con- trivance then well known to miners, and called a "long tom." Here they wintered, and in the spring wentt Sonora diggings and then to Columbia, Cali- fornia. In those days Califorma was the newest country en carth, and many of its denizens were the roughest men in the world, gathered from the four quarters of the globe. Gambling and crime were rampant. Mr. Todd knew one gambler who remit- ted to his family cach week $1,000. as the profits of the play for the week. He saw two Mexicans Hanged for the murder of Captain Snow, of Maine. At another time the miners, angered by the daily thefts of the Digger Indians, attacked their village on Table Mountain and killed one hundred and fitty of them. Mr. Todd did not take part in this. At Columbia he and his partners built two log cabins with cellars, which they afterward sold. Later the purchasers discovered very rich deposits of gold only four feet deeper than the cellars were dug. Mr. Todd returned via Nicaragua in the spring of 1852, and arrived in New York on May I. Returning to his home in New Hampshire he made the cultiva- tion of the homestead farm his principal occupa- tion, but was also engaged in cutting and sawing lumber, and also operated a cotton carding mill, which was burned. He has been selectman several termis, and deacon in the Presbyterian Church for thirty-five years. Mr. Todd married Desire Abigail, daughter of John and Desire ( Fuller) Loring, of New Boston. (See Loring), Their children: Mary Alice, married Moses A. Dane, of New Boston; Arthur James, see forward; George Loring, see forward: Caroline Elizabeth, married G. W. Bridges in Brookline, New Hampshire; Frank Paige, a physician, residing in Danielson, Connecticut ; John, died in infancy; Perley Aaron, at home; Emma Desire, married Walter H. Spaulding, of Peterboro, New Hampshire ; Sarah Abigail, mar- ried Edwin E. Stevens, in Boston, Massachusetts ; Blanche A., married Sidney A. Pratt. of Goffstown.

(VII) Arthur James Todd, M. D., son of Dea- con James Paige and Desire L. (Loring) Todd, was born in New Boston, December 6, 1856. His carliest years were spent on his father's farm and in attending the public schools. Later he attended the Francestown Academy, from which he gradu- ated in 1880. Following this he took the four years course at the Boston University School of Medicine, graduating June 4, 1884. He began prac- tice in Weare, with Dr. J. P. Whittle, in whose office he had previously read medicine. May I, 1885. he removed to Francestown, where he prac- ticed until January 1, 1896, when he settled in Man- chester, where he has since built up a large and lu- crative practice. Dr. Todd is a member of the New Hampshire Homoeopathic Society, was president of the State Medical Society in 1900, censor and mem- ber of the legislative committee, and member of the Board of Medical Examiners of New Hampshire. He is a member of the United Order of Pilgrim Fathers, James E. Shepard Colony, No. HIS, of which he is medical examiner and collector; a mem-

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ber of Pacific Lodge, No. 45, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. Francestown ; and of King Solo- mon Royal Arch Chapter of Milford. He was su- perintendent of schools of his native town before going to Francestown. Ile is a Presbyterian in sentiment. He married, May 7, 1885, Susan C. P. Whittle, of Weare, born September 14, 1863, in Manchester. They have two children: Laura E., born October 7, 1887; and George Whittle, born August 23, 1892.

(VII) Rev. George Loring Todd, D. D .. second son and third child of Deacon James Paige and Abigail Desire (Loring) Todd, was born in New Boston, June 19, 1859. He received his early edu- cation in the public schools, prepared for college at Francestown Academy, and served as superin- tendent of schools in his native town. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1885 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1888 received the Master's degree from the same institution. He studied theology at Auburn, New York, and was licensed and ordained by the Boston Presbytery on April 13, 1887. He labored for two summers in Pickford, Northern Michigan, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Home Missionary Board. During that time he organized a church of sixty members. and a church building was erected. He was elect- ed director and treasurer of the Bolivian National Institute at LaPas, Bolivia, and assumed charge in February, 1888. The same year he was commissioned United States vice-consul general in Bolivia. He was also cashier of the Empresa Titicaca, a large silver mining corporation. On returning to the United States he was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Brookline, New Hampshire, where he remained two and one-half years, when he was called to the Congregational Church in Merrimac, Massachusetts. He served the latter church eight years, during which period it prospered spiritually and financially, and at the close of his pastorate it numbered four hundred and thirty members. Mr. Todd formed the largest normal Bible class in the state. He made a special- ty of Old Testament history and Normal Bible study, and delivered many addresses and lectures in Massachusetts and out of the state. He was elected vice-president of the International Sunday School association in 1895. During the last year of his Merrimac pastorate he also conducted a Bible nor- mal class of two hundred and four members in Fall River, Massachusetts, and a large class in Haverhill, same state, as well as the one in his home church. He wrote the editorials for the lo- cal paper, and took an active interest in the public schools and in the general welfare of the town. He was called in 1900 to the work of the Congre- gational Home Missionary Society in Cuba, and went to Havana in October of the same year. He was appointed by General Leonard Wood to an important position in the Departinent of Hospitals and Charities under the United States government of intervention, where he served with success. On April Ist, 1902, he again took up the active work of the Home Missionary Society, at the urgent re- quest of the executive board. In September, 1903, he was appointed superintendent of the society's work in Cuba. In addition to his other duties he was served as United States commissioner in the adjustment of the war claims under the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission. He has traveled ex- tensively in the interests of his work, and has spoke from national and state platforms. He has studied

broadly in history, philosophy and law, and is more or less conversant with twelve different languages. He received the honorary title of Doctor of Divin- ity from Wheaton ( Illinois) College in 1904.

Dr. Todd was married, December 20, 1887, to Miss Alice A. Gould, of Antrim, New Hampshire, who has proven a faithful and able helper in all his work. They have seven children: Elizabeth Jacobs, born in LaPas, Bolivia, October 10, 1888; Alice Loring and Mildred Evelyn, born in Brook- line, New Hampshire, August 9, 1890 and March 22, 1892, respectively; George Loring, Jr., and James Fuller, born in Merrimac, Massachusetts, January 28, 1894, and May 10, 1895, respectively ; Emily Gould and Elena Mercedes, born in Havana, Cuba, November 17, 1902 and October 3, 1904, re- spectively.

The pedigree of the Bowdoin family

BOWDOIN may be traced to Baldwin, the chivalrous king of Jerusalem, A. D. 1143, and still farther back to Baldwin, Count of Flanders, A. D. 862. The name is familiar through many honorable associations in New England.

(1) The emigrant ancestor to America was Pierre Beaudouin, a worthy Protestant Huguenot, a popular and influential citizen, and a good physi- cian of La Rochelle, France. He was living in that city in 1685 with an income of seven hundred louis d'ors per annum. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he was obliged to hastily flee from his native land, with his wife and four chil- dren. He went first to Ireland, where he remained two years, and in 1687 came to America and landed first at Casco Bay, New Portland, where Governor Andross granted him ten acres of land at the foot of Barberry creek. After remaining two years and a half in the locality he removed to Boston. Within twenty-four hours after his de- parture the Indians made a general massacre of the settlers and destroyed the place. Pierre Beau- douin adopted at once the English mode of spelling his name, as appeared by original signatures, 1699 (Willis' "History of Portland"). The descendants of Pierre Beaudouin in several generations made this Huguenot patronymic a distinction in America. Peter Bowdoin. according to his English name, died in Boston, in 1700. His wife Elizabeth died in 1729.

(II) James Bowdoin, son of Peter, rose to first rank among the merchants of Boston. He was a member of the colonial council for several years, and an influential man in his times. On his death he left the largest estate that had ever been procured by one person in the provinces. He married first Sarah Campbell; second, Hannah Portage. He left two sons, William and James.

(Il1) James (2), son of James (I) and Han- nah ( Portage) Bowdoin, was born in Boston, Au- gust 8, 1727, and died in 1790. He graduated at Harvard College, class of 1745. He represented Massachusetts as president of the council in the first congress in 1755. and was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1785. just one hundred years after his grandfather, Peter Bowdoir, fled from France. Shay's Rebellion, which he suppressed, occurred during his administration. By the death of his father he inherited a large fortune. His son James, a graduate of Harvard and later a stilent at Oxford, returned to Boston when hostilities commenced with England, and served in the civil capacity on several occasions during the revolu-

Josiah Colony

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tion. Ile was a benefactor of Bowdoin College, named in honor of James Bowdoin, and his son made large bequests of land and money, with his father's valuable library.

(IV) William, son of James (2) and Sarah (Campbell). Bowdoin, was born in Boston, June 14, 1713, and graduated at Harvard College in 1735. He was a merchant, and owned large estates. He married Phoebe Murdock. They had three daughters, the names of only two being given: Sarah and Elizabeth. William Bowdoin died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, February 25, 1773. Many of the Bowdoin family are buried in the old Gran- ary burying ground, Boston. At the entrance of the tomb may be seen the Bowdoin family Arms.

(V) Elizabeth, daughter William and Phoebe (Murdock) Bowdoin, was born in 1740. She married Samuel Kelley, of Exeter, a son of Darby Kelley, who emigrated from Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Exeter. Samuel Kelley removed with his family to New Hampton. Among their nine children was Betsey Bowdoin Kelley, who married Nathaniel (2) Plumer (see Plumer, III).

Colony is a name prominent in the COLONY history of Cheshire county. where the ancestor of the Colonys of America settled in the beginning of the civilization of that part of the state of New Hampshire, when the savages with his aid had been finally driven from the places they so long held as their own and had terrorized when the white men at- tempted to settle them. The vigor of the ancestor seems to be the heritage of the family, and many of its members to-day are among the foremost citizens in the social, financial, manufacturing and religious circles of Cheshire county.

(I) John Colony, a native of Kilkenny, Ire- land, was born in 1730, and came to Wrentham, Massachusetts, about 1740. When the French and Indian war broke out in 1755. he enlisted and be- came a member of that famous corps of men known as Roger's and Putnam's Rangers; was at the battle of Fort Edward and served nearly throughout the war. For his military services he received a grant of land in Maine, which he exchanged for a tract on Saxton's river near the village of Graf- ton, Vermont. In 1761 or a little later he re- moved to Keene, New Hampshire. and bought the farm in the west part of the town, which still re- mains in the possession of his descendants-liis great-granddaughter, Martha Colony, and her hus- band, W. H. Woodward, now occupying the home- stead.

The name of John Connolly (Colony) is found on the "Alarm" list belonging to Keene, dated August 7. 1773: and on the test oath of March 14. 1776, showing that he supported the patriot cause. Many incidents might be narrated, illustrating the sturdy virility and daring courage of John Colony. At one time, during the French and Indian war, the enemy besieged a fort in which the settlers had taken refuge. John Colony was one of the garrison's defenders. The small chil- dren wanted milk and he volunteered to get it for them. Taking a pail in his hand and throwing his trusty flintlock over his shoulder, he called his dog and started for the cows that were grazing just beyond the enemy's pickets. Ile reached them safely and secured a pailful of milk, and set out on his return, but had not covered more than half

the distance, when the barking of his dog announced the presence of an Indian. Turning round he faced his enemy and shot him dead. The noise of the dog and gun called the enemy's attention to him, and only instant action and rapid flight could save him from certain capture and almost certain death. Seizing the pail which he had set down in prepara- tion to shoot the Indian. he made all speed, fol- lowed by the savages, and soon reached the fort and delivered his pail of milk intact, although three buckshot had penetrated his back. On a cer- tain occasion, after his settlement in Keene, he heard a bear in the night breaking down and feast- ing on the corn in his field, a little southwest of his log cabin. Taking the same musket with which he had killed the Indian, he went out and shot the bear, which proved to be a large one, whose skin he kept as a trophy of the occasion and a warm cover for his bed. John Colony was one of those hardy men of the frontier who seemed to be specially created to bear the fatigues and hardships and brave the dangers of those troublous times. He faced many enemies and passed through many vicissitudes, and yet lived to be sixty-seven years old, dying in 1797.

He married in Grafton, Vermont, in 1761. Mela- tiah Fisher, a sister of Ichabod Fisher, one of the early settlers of Keene. They had children: Han- nah, Timothy, Melatiah and Josiah.

(II) Timothy, of John and Melatiah (Fisher) Colony, born in Keene, April 5, 1764, lived on the paternal homestead, and died there August 29, 1836. at the age of seventy-two. The town records show that John and Timothy Colony and others were set off by vote of the town into a separate school district, August 27, 1792, an evi- dence of the fact that even in those early days the citizens of Keene had schools and were as anxious for the enjoyment of school privileges and conveniences as they are to-day. Timothy Colony is mentioned as a licensed tavern-keeper one hun- dred years ago. The family of Mr. Colony at- tended church at West Keene, and were usually drawn there by a certain horse which had a re- markable knowledge of Sunday observances. "One Sunday morning the horse ready harnessed, stood at the door, the family was a little behind time, and at the ringing of the bell, the animal started, and trotted to the church door, leaving the family to walk." Timothy Colony married. October 10, 1787, Sarah Dwinnell, daughter of Benjamin and Mary ( Estes) Dwinnell. She was a descendant of the parents of Rebecca (Towne) Nurse, who was hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Their children were Josiah, Polly, John, Joshua and three other children.

(Ill) Josiah, oldest child of Timothy and Sarah (Dwinnell) Colony, born in Keene, April 8, 1791, was brought up on his father's farm. He attended the common schools and there obtained his primary education, which he supplemented in the years following by a comprehensive course of reading and study, thereby making himself a man of unusual general intelligence. He was healthy, hardy and athletic and displayed a remarkable aptitude for mechanics. He was employed in early manhood in running the saw and grist mills where the Faulkner and Colony mills now stand.

In 1815 he formed a partnership with Francis Faulkner, cloth manufacturer, and under the firm name of Faulkner & Colony they bought all the mills and privileges on the Ashuelot river, at Keene,

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except those owned by Azel Wilder, west of the sawmill ( subsequently purchased by Faulkner & Colony), and established and carried on a success- ful business, which their descendants still continue. greatly enlarged. The original dam and mills where Faulkner & Colony's mills now stand were built by Elisha Briggs in 1775: afterward owned by Luther Smith, and by him sold to Hale & Kise, in 1806. The property was next owned by John McGuire (1814), and by him sold to Faulkner & Colony. This firm, although prosperous from the start, did not succeed without effort or carry on its business without losses. Early in the year 1823 fire destroyed the mills, which were immediately re- built with brick, and in September the firm adver- tised "that their new mills are so far completed that they are ready to receive Wool to Card and Cloth to Dress."

"In August. 1838, Faulkner & Colony's brick factory. built in 1823, with dyehouse and other buildings connected, was destroyed by fire. The main building was thirty-six by seventy-three feet, two stories high, and contained the grist mill, with three sets of stones, corncracker and stump mills. The sawmill occupied the west end and the clothing works the cast, with a low building running sixty or eighty feet to the south. The valuable brick hot house on the east was saved.' Loss $12.500, insured for $7.500." The firm immediately rebuilt, on a larger scale a brick mill for making flannels, heated by steam, and separately, to the west of it, their saw and grist mills. In 1859 the brick factory was enlarged. and again in 1900. The company organized in 1815 was incorporated January 19, 1889, as the Faulkner & Colony Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $100,000. Of this company Horatio Colony was the first president.

Mr. Colony was a man of action : all his facul- ties were keenly alert and he was peculiarly adapted to the line of business he followed. A man of the highest character and unspotted reputation. he merited success and achieved it. In the list of highest taxpayers of Cheshire county. in 1850, Josiah Colony comes first. The census of the year 1860 puts him third in the list of fifteen highest tax- payers. He was not only a business man and one of the main financial pillars of the town, but he was also a patriotic American, a public spirited citizen and a moral, upright church attendant. While employed at the mill in 1814. he enlisted in the company of Captain James M. Warner, of Acworth, in the regiment of Lieutenant-Colonel John Steele, of Peterhoro, of the detached militia sent to Portsmouth in September to defend that town and harbor from an attack of the British, then threatened. After a service of sixty days. when the danger was passed, he was discharged with his company. Ile never sought office, but has often held prominent places on committees where matters of general interest were concerned. He was one of the standing committee of the Keene Thief De- tecting Society in 1839, when the "pursuers" were the leading men of the town; was one of the vice- presidents of the day, May 26. 1853. on the cele- bration of the centennial anniversary of the organi- zation of the town under the New Hampshire Charter, and was one of the incorporators of St. James' Episcopal Church parish.

Mr. Colony married. in 1817. Hannah Taylor. born November 16. 1704. in Stoddard, New Hamp- shire, and died June 30, 1846, in Keene. She was a daughter of Danforth Taylor. of Stoddard. New

Hampshire. After her death he married (1853) Mrs. James (Briggs) Buell. Mr. Colony died June 5, 1867, aged seventy-six. The children by the first marriage were: Timothy, George D., Henry, Mary A., Alfred T .. John E. and Horatio; and by the second marriage, one son. Josiah D. Colony. (Ho- ratio and Alfred T. receives mention elsewhere).

(]\') Timothy. eldest son of Josiah and IIan- nah (Taylor) Colony, was born in Keene, July 19, 1818, and died October 30. 1882, aged sixty-four. After obtaining such education as the institutions of the vicinity afforded he left the paternal home- stead, and at the age of nineteen engaged in the grocery business in Westmoreland. After spend- ing two years at that place he returned to Keene. The firm of Keyes & Colony dissolved about this time (1844) and Timothy Colony became a partner in a new firm composed of himself and his Uncle Joshua, under the name of J. D. & T. Colony, which succeeded Summer, Wheeler & Company, carrying on the leading store of its kind in this section of the state. in Perry's block, on the east side of the square, where Colony's block now stands. They afterward took in Timothy Colony's brother Henry, and as J. D. Colony & Company added to their business the manufacture of window glass at the old works on the site of the present jail, the last of glass-making in Keene. They were the last occupants of the old glass factory which was burned December 21. 1855, after being an important land- mark for nearly half a century. This firm dis- solved in 1850, and Timothy Colony then became one of the proprietors and treasurer of the Cheshire Mills Corporation of Harrisville, the other sons of Josiah Colony also being interested in the enter- prise. Early in the sixties Mr. Colony retired from active participation in the management of the mills, which from the start were prosperous. The Colonys put up a handsome building with an iron front on the east side of the square, called the Colony Block. On the night of the 19th of October, 1855, the entire group of buildings between the Cheshire House and the town hall. of which this was one, was destroyed by fire. Mr. Colony was a very successful man in business and accumulated a very handsome property. In 1870 he was one of the fifteen highest taxpayers in Keene. Brought up and schooled to know the value and use of money. he succeeded where one less resourceful would have failed. One element in his success, and that not the least, was his tenacity of purpose. Once con- vinced that a certain course of action was the proper one he pursued it until the truth or falsity of his position was demonstrated. and he was hardly ever found in the wrong. He was a mom- ber of Beaver Brook Lodge. No. 36, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being one of ten candidates initiated at the date of the installment of that lodge, March 17. 1851. Immediately afterward he was ap- pointed right supporter to the noble grand.

He married. June 15, 1830. Eunice Jane Hooper, who was born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. January 1. 1820, and died June 30. 1890. Her mother's maiden name was Molly Pierce. The chil- dren of this union were: Josiah T. and George Henry.

(V) George Henry, second son and child of Timothy and Eunice Jane (Hooper) Colony, was born in Westmoreland. New Hampshire, July II, 1842. He obtained his education in the common schools at Keene and at Thetford Academy, Thet- ford, Vermont. and spent three years learning the

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trade of currier and tanner in the employ of Francis Foster, of Keene. In 1801-02, he worked in the armory at Windsor. Vermont, as a mechanic. and later in the Bay State Armory, Northampton, Massachusetts, and the United States Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. Returning to Keene he was employed in his father's grocery store about a year. Subsequently for some years he was not in any business. After the death of his father the management of his estate was divided between the two sons, who have continued that relation to the present. George II. Colony owns the Central Pharmacy in Keene, is a large real estate owner and a director in the Cheshire Mills. He married. April 7. 1875. Mary, daughter of William and Mary (Frost) Westney, of England. The children of this marriage are: Eunice J., Horace W. and George T. Colony. The daughter is deceased.

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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. III, Part 48

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: 876

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: 876