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. IV, Part 66

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: 878

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. IV > Part 66

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(II) Eben, son of Ralph and Hannah (Hilton) Hilton, was born at Wells, Maine. He was a stone mason by trade, which line of work he fol- lowed all his life in his native town. He had charge of the stone work at the time the Boston & Maine railroad was extended from South Berwick to Portland, Maine. He married Mary Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Samuel and Louise Taylor. They had six children: Frank W., Lizzie M., Her- bert, Lamont, who is mentioned below; Herbert and Arthur E. Eben Hilton died July 26, 1873, at Wells, Maine.

(III) Lamont, third son and fourth child of Eben and Mary E. (Taylor) Hilton, was born February 7, 1864, at Wells, Maine. He was edu- cated in the common schools of his native town, and at the age of twelve worked for two years at farming on Durrell's Island. On January 4, 1878, he was engaged with the Davis Shoe Company, of Kennebunk, Maine, where he remained three years. From here he migrated to Massachusetts, going first to Lynn, where he was engaged with the F. W. Breed shoe factory, and afterwards to Cam- bridge, where he remained a short time with the Thatcher-Stone Provision Company. He then went back to Lynn and remained one year with the Keene

Brothers, shoe manufacturers. For the next dozen years he was engaged in railroad work. He be- gan at Chelsea, Massachusetts, where he was crossing agent for the Eastern Railroad, and then went to Portland, Maine, where he was switchman in the yard. He was afterward promoted to freight brakeman from Portland to Boston, which position he held for five years. He then worked in the grocery business at Wells, Maine, for a short time, and on June 27, 1889, entered the Boston & Maine service as passenger brakeman. He kept this place for one year, or till he was promoted to baggage master, and assigned to the run from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Portland, Maine. He held this position for three years, when he was transferred to the Gloucester, Massachusetts, branch, taking charge of the line from Boston to Rockport during the summer season. He was afterward sent to the run from Boston to Portland, Maine, in the capacity of passenger brakeman. .

April 2, 1895, Mr. Hilton started on a new line of work. That day he entered the Portsmouth Po- lice force as patrolman. On January 10, 1898, he was promoted to be captain of the night watch, but on account of the close confinement he resigned and went back to the duties of patrolman. In No- vember, 1903, he resigned from the police force and engaged in a general insurance business, repre- senting the Connecticut General Life, the Indemnity of New York, and the United States of New York and Delaware. Mr. Hilton has continued in this business ever since. In April, 1905, he was elected city treasurer of Portsmouth, and on January I, 1907, was elected city clerk. He is a staunch Re- publican. Mr. Hilton is very prominent in fra- ternal organizations. He belongs to the Piscataqua Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, passing through the chairs in 1896; also to Osgood Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1901 he took the Grand Lodge degree at Woodville, New Hampshire, and was appointed district deputy grand master of the Portsmouth district, compris- ing the lodges in Portsmouth, Exeter, Hampton, Newfields and Newton. In October, 1902, he was appointed grand marshal of the Grand Lodge by Grand Master Frank L. Way. In October, 1903, he was elected grand warden, in 1904 elected deputy grand master, and in October, 1905, was elected grand master. In October, 1906, he was elected grand representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge for a term of two years. He is a member of Union Rebekah Lodge, No. 3, Strawberry Bank Encamp- ment, No. 5, Canton Center, No. 12. He has taken many Masonic degrees. He belongs to the Saint Andrew's Lodge of Masons, the Ineffable Grand Lodge of Perfection, fourteenth degree, to the Grand Council, Princes of Jerusalem, sixteenth de- gree, to the New Hampshire Chapter of Rose Croix, eighteenth degree, to Edward A. Raymond Con- sistory, thirty-second degree. Mr. Hilton is a mem- ber of the United Order of American Mechanics, Portsmouth Council, No. 8, of Alpha Council, No. 3, Royal Arcanum, and of the Boston & Maine Re- lief Association. Lamont Hilton married Mary Alice Perkins, daughter of William and Lizzie Perkins, of Portsmouth. They have no children.

This is among the early Massachu- FARNUM setts names which have been conspic- uous in the settlement and develop- ment of New Hampshire, especially at Concord and vicinity. While most of its bearers have been tillers of the soil, they have ever been identified with the work

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of the church and other moral agencies, and still adhere to the standards of their Puritan ancestors. By many the name is now spelled Farnham.

(I) Ralph Farnum was born in 1603, and sailed from Southampton, England, with his wife Alice, in the brig "James," arriving at Boston, Massachu- setts, June 5, 1635, after a voyage of fifty-eight days. He was among the proprietors of Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, in 1635. His wife was born about 1606, and they brought with them four children, a daugh- ter being born of them here. Their names were as follows : Mary, born 1626; Thomas, 1631 ; Ralph, 1633; Ephraim and Sarah.

(II) Ralph (2), born 1633, son of Ralph (I) and Alice Farnum, is said by tradition (which is open to question) to have been a native of Wales. He settled in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was a grand juryman in 1679, and was the ancestor of a numerous posterity. He was married October 26, 1658, to Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Holt, an- other pioneer of Andover. She was born March 30, 1636, in Newbury, Massachusetts. He died January 8, 1692, in Andover. His children were: Sarah, Ralph, John, Henry, Hannah, Thomas, Ephraim and James. (Ephraim and descendants receive extended mention in this article).

(III) Ralph (3), son of Ralph (2) and Eliza- beth (Holt) Farnham, was born, probably in An- dover, Massachusetts, where his parents lived, on June 1, 1662. October 9, 1685. he married Sarah Sterling, and they had ten children: Sarah, Henry, Ralph (4) (mentioned below), Daniel, Abigail, Wil- liam, Nathaniel, Barachias, Benjamin and Joseph. Of these children, Abigail, the second daughter and fifth child, was married in January, 1714, to James Abbott, of Andover, who became one of the first settlers of Pennycook, now Concord, New Hamp- shire. (See Abbott, III).

(IV) Ralph (4), second son and third child of Ralph (3) and Sarah (Sterling) Farnham, was born May 25, 1689, at Andover, Massachusetts, but removed when a young man to York, Maine. In 1712-13 by a vote in the York town-meeting he was granted thirty acres of land. Ralph (4) Farnham married at York, Elizabeth Austin, daughter of Cap- tain Matthew Austin, and they had eleven children : Joseph, born June 20, 1713; Ralph, Mary, Matthew, Elizabeth, David, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Paul (men- tioned below), Betty and John, born May 26, 1735. Of this family, Betty, the youngest daughter, mar- ried Berg, son of Richard Jacques, the soldier who shot Rolle, the Jesuit priest, who incited the Indians to massacre.

(V) Paul, seventh son and ninth child of Ralph (4) and Elizabeth (Austin) Farnham, was born April 20, 1730, at York, Maine. He lived for a time in Lebanon, that state, and afterwards removed to Acton, Maine, where his death occurred in 1820 at the age of ninety years.

(VI) Ralph (5), son of Paul Farnham, was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in July, 1756, and afterwards moved to Acton, Maine. He married Mehitabel Bean, and they had seven children, among them John, mentioned below. Ralph (5) Farnham was the last survivor of the battle of Bunker Hill, and as such was introduced to the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII, on the latter's visit to Boston in 1860. Returning to his home in Acton, Mr. Farn- ham lived but a short time longer, dying in Decem- ber, 1860, at the remarkable age of one hundred and four years and five months.

(VII) John, son of Ralph (5) and Mehitabel (Bean) Farnham, was born in Acton, Maine, near the close of the eighteenth century. He married

Fannie Wood, and they had five children : Asa, 'Ezra. James, William and John.

(VIII) Ezra, son of John and Fannie (Wood) Farnham, was born at Acton, Maine, October 10, 1831. After working a few years at the shoemaker's trade he became proprietor of the stage route from Acton Corner, Maine, to South Milton, New Hamp- shire, which he conducted till the railway was com- pleted. For twenty years afterward he manager a line of teams and stages from Milton Mills to Union, the southern village of the town of Wake- field, in this state. Mr. Farnham was a Republican in politics, and attended the Methodist Church. On June 3, 1855, Ezra Farnham married Harriet A. Hubbard, daughter of Ezekiel and Abigail (Nason) Hubbard, who was born in Acton, Maine. They had one child, John Frank, whose sketch follows. Ezra Farnham died July 26, 1884.

(IX) J. Frank, only child of Ezra and Harriet A. (Hubbard) Farnham, was born in Acton, Maine, April 20, 1860. When but five years of age his parents moved to Milton, New Hampshire, where he attended the schools common and the high school, subsequently taking a course

the New Hampshire Institute, this state. He worked for his father a few years, and in 1884 went to Union, New Hampshire, where he opened a hardware store which he con- ducted for five years. He then bought the entire interest in the excelsior manufacturing plant, one half of which he had previously owned, and in this factory he has since conducted an extensive and pro- fitable business. Mr. Farnham is a prominent Repub- lican in politics, and has filled many offices in the town, county and state. He served as treasurer of Carroll county for two terms, 1895-96-97-98, and in. 1898 was elected to the New Hampshire legisla- ture where he was one of the committee on ap- propriations and engrossed bills. In 1900, he was chosen state senator and served on the judiciary and railroad committees, and as chairman of the committee on claims and manufacturing. He is prominent in Masonic circles, having reached the thirty-second degree Ancient Arabic Scottish Rite. He belongs to and is past master of Unity Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Union, Co- lumbian Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Farming- ton, this state, Palestine Commandery, Knights Templar, of Rochester, New Hampshire, and has served as deputy grand master of the sixth Masonic district. On November 1, 1877, J. Frank Farnham married Ora E. Cutts, daughter of William F. and Abbie (Sanborn) Cutts, who was born at Milton, New Hampshire. They had two children : Fred H., born at Milton Mills, New Hampshire, December 13, 1878, bookkeeper for Stone & Webster, of Boston; resides in Malden, Massachusetts ; married Eva T. Burnham, of Dover. Hazel A., born at Union, this state. December 1, 1897.

(III) Ephraim, fifth son and seventh child of Ralph and Elizabeth (Holt) Farnum, lived and died in Andover. He was married March 20, 1700, to Priscilla Holt, who was probably his cousin, a daughter of Nicholas (2) Holt of Andover. Five of their sons were among the first settlers of Con- cord, originally called Penny Cook, but the last re- mained only a short time. Their names were: Ephraim, Joseph, Zebediah, Josiah and James. (Joseph, the second, and descendants receive further notice in this article).

(IV) Ephraim (2), eldest child of Ephraim (I) and Priscilla (Holt) Farnum. was one of the pro- prietors of Penny Cook, and drew lot No. 15. He was an inhabitant and had a house built in 1731,

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as shown by the original report. November 7, 1739, it was "voted, that there shall be a good and suffi- cient garrison built around the Rev. Timothy Walker's dwelling house, as soon as may be conveniently, at the town's cost," and Ephraim Farnum and others were appointed to build it. In 1746 he was one of ten ap- pointed to the garrison around the house of Henry Lovejoy, in the "West Parrish Village," and March 21, 1747, in garrison around the house of Jeremiah Stickney in Rumford, now Concord. His second settlement was on Rattlesnake Plain, so called, about two miles from the old North meeting house, on the road to Boscawen. His name occurs often in the early records of the proprietors, and he was chosen deacon of the church, August, 1731. How long he served is unknown. He was selectman in 1734. He owned a mulatto boy named Cæsar, who was found in his pig trough when a babe. Mr. Farnum's death occurred in 1775, when he was about eighty years old. He married Molly Ingalls, and they had two sons, Ephraim and Benjamin.

(V) Benjamin, second son and child of Ephraim (2) and Molly (Ingalls) Farnum, was born March 21, 1739, and lived on the south half of the paternal farm, while his brother Ephraim (3) took the home- stead and north part of the farm. He married Anna Merrill, and they had fifteen children: Mary, John, Anna, Benjamin, Ephraim, Haynes, Jonathan ( died young), Nathaniel, Lydia, Jonathan, Nancy, Abiel, Abigail, Jeremialı and Sarah.

(VI) Ephraim (4), fifth child and third son of Benjamin and Anna (Merrill) Farnum, was born on the old homestead, April 5, 1770, and died at the age of ninety-four years. He succeeded his father in the ownership of the farm, living there all his life. He was an industrious, hardworking man and gave all his attention to the farm. He married Sarah Brown, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, and they had eight children: Nancy, Joseph B., Susannah, Ben- jamin, Lydia, Luther and George and Harriet (twins).

(VII) Deacon Benjamin, fourth child and second son of Ephraim (4) and Sarah (Brown) Farnum, was born June 1, 1804, on his father's farm, and died January 14, 1892. He attended school in West Con- cord, obtained a fair education and his life was spent on the ancestral acres. His farm contained three hundred acres, of which two hundred were wood- land and the remainder intervale and pasture, and he made a specialty of raising fine stock, and always kept thirty or forty head of cattle. In 1845 he built the largest of the buildings now on the place. He was a Republican and was an alderman of Concord one term. He was appointed deacon of the First Church, (Congregational) of Concord, in 1844, and served as such till his death. He married Emily, daughter of Moses and Rhoda (Carter) Farnum, born July 15, 1803, died in 1885. Their children were: George Edwin, born January 25, 1834, died young; Rhoda Carter, June 30, 1836, died at the age of twenty years; Charles Henry and Cyrus R., men- tioned further below; Lewis C., September 28, 1846, married Jane Tiffany and resides in McGregor, Iowa; George Edwin, October 28, 1851, married Josephine Jacobs, and resides in Ames, Iowa.

The lineage of Emily Farnum (wife of Deacon Benjamin) is as follows: (5) Ephraim (3), elder son of Ephraim (2) and Molly (Ingalls) Farnum, was born September 21, 1733. probably in Concord, and succeeded his father on the homestead, dividing the farm with his brother and retaining the paternal residence. He married Judith Hall, of Bradford, Massachusetts, and their children were : Naomi, John, Judith, Sarah, Moses, Esther and Susannah.

(6) Moses, second son and fifth child of Eph- raim (3) and Judith (Hall) Farnum, was born Oc- tober 20, 1769, in Concord, and married Rhoda Carter, daughter of Ezra and Phebe (Whittemore) Carter of West Concord. (See Carter, VI). After her death he married her younger sister Esther, and each bore him three children, namely : Hannah C., Emily, Samuel, Moses H., Lavina and Jennett.

(7) Emily, second daughter and child of Moses and Rhoda (Carter) Farnum, born July 15, 1803, became the wife of Deacon Benjamin Farnum, her second cousin, as above related.

(7) Moses Hall Farnum, fourth child of Moses and eldest child of his second wife, Esther Carter, was born February 3, 1811, in West Concord, and married Judith A. Kilburn in June, 1843. She died February 28, 1868. She was a daughter of Enoch and Betsey (Morse) Kilburn of Boscawen.

He filled most of the town offices, before there city charter, and has served in the council and board of alderman of the city. He is still living in the house on the site of the one in which he was born, and in possession of his faculties, a most interesting man to meet, having exercised an intelligent observation of events during his long life. The house in which he was born, partly built by his grandfather and partly by his father (in which the latter was born), was burned about 1870, and he built the present house upon the same site. He has four children, namely: Franklin Burke, Ann Elizabeth (see Charles H. Farnum, VIII), Edward Everett and Ralph Perley. The last is a son of the second wife, Ann (Hale), widow of Asa L. Pervier, and daughter of Isaac Hale of Franklin, New Hamp- shire.

(8) Annie L. (Elizabeth), only daughter and second child of Moses H. and Judith A. (Kilburn) Farnum, born April 15, 1849, is the wife of Charles Henry Farnum, subject of the following paragraph.

(VIII) Charles Henry, third child and second son of Deacon Benjamin and Emily (Farnum) Farnum, was born December 30, 1837, on the ancient Farnum homestead, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born, near Rattlesnake hill, and opposite the village of East Concord. He attended the public schools of West Concord and Concord, and an academy at New London, New Hampshire, leaving school at the age of twenty years. He aided in tilling the paternal acres until he was twenty-three years old, and started out to. see something of the world and establish himself in life. In 1860 he went to California, and spent three years in farming at Navata, in that state. For the next five years he was located at Austin, Nevada, where he operated a saw mill and engaged in freiglit- ing. Having attained considerable success he felt that he might enjoy a short vacation in visiting the scenes of his childhood. His father being some- what advanced in years, persuaded him to remain, and he has since been engaged in tilling the home farm, which embraces three hundred acres. It is one of the finest in the Merrimac valley, embracing a large tract of intervale, where a straight furrow of over half a mile may be turned, something typical of the western plains. Like his father, he keeps from forty to fifty head of cattle, including some fine oxen, and a dairy of usually twenty cows. Mr. Farnum is a genial and intelligent gentleman, who has observed men and things in visits to many in- teresting places, and takes a broad view of the world and its people. By travel and reading he has become well informed on topics of human interest, and is able to carry on his part in conversation with other cosmopolitans. He keeps abreast of the times, and

Benjamin Fammimon

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entertains settled opinions on leading questions. A sincere Republican, he supports consistently the policy of his party, and has served as a member of the city council. He supports religious work, as exemplified by the West Concord Congregational Church. Mr. Farnum was married, November 20, 1870. to Annie L. Farnum, daughter of Moses H. and Judith A. (Kilburn) Farnum, of West Concord. She was born in the second house north of her present home, and has spent most of her life in the immediate neighborhood. One daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Farnum died in babyhood. Surrounded by congenial friends and relatives, they are spending in quiet contentment and enjoyment of the fruits of early industry, a most happy existence.

(VIII) Cyrus Rogers, fourth child and third son of Deacon Benjamin and Emily (Farnum) Farnum, was born in West Concord, July 21, 1842. At the age of eighteen he left school and enlisted, Noven- ber 22, 1861, in Company F, Second Regiment, United States Sharpshooters, and served until No- vember 26, 1864. He was absent from home three years, and took part in the battles of Antietam, the second Bull Run, the Wilderness, and several en- gagements of less magnitude. Returning to the Granite State he helped to till his father's acres one year, and then, thirsting for the sort of adventure the West then abundantly afforded, he went to Nevada and engaged in freighting between Austin and other points in that vicinity, across the land of mountains and deserts, at that time often infested with hostile bands of savages. After three and a half years in that wild country he returned to Con- cord, and in 1869 engaged in the transportation of granite from the quarries on Rattlesnake Hill to the railroad. In 1870 he built a large set of buildings on two acres of the paternal farm where he now lives. Soon after he bought a farm of fifty acres and began to till the soil. Since that time he has acquired forty acres of intervale in Concord and one hundred and twenty-five acres of pasture in Brad- ford, and has a well tilled and stocked establishment, and carries on mixed farming. For the past eight years he has been road agent of the West Concord district. His political affiliations are with the Repub- lican party. He is a member of Davis Post No. 44, G. A. R., and worships at the West Parish Congre- gational Church. Mr. Farnum was married, Jan- uary 4, 1871, to Caroline Elizabeth Clough, born October 26, 1845, daughter of Moses and Esther Kimball (Farnum) Clough, of West Concord. Moses Clough, son of Abel and Alice (Ferrin) Clough was once station agent at West Concord. Mr. and Mrs. Farnum have a daughter and son. Fannie Moore, the elder, born October 28, 1871, married John Dimond, and died August 2, 1903. She had three children-Edna Cornelia, Carl S. and Blanche Farnum. Carl Sumner, born December 26, 1902, now lives with his maternal grandparents. Benja- min H. Farnum, second child of Cyrus R., born November 3, 1875, is unmarried and lives with his parents.

(IV) Joseph, second son and child of Ephraim (1) Farnum, born in Andover, Massachusetts, re- moved to Penacook when a young man and settled about half a mile north of the east end of Long Pond, where he was the first settler, and where he died November 1, 1792. He had a farm of two hundred acres, and his home was one of the four on Rattlesnake Plain, which stood near the present track of the Concord & Claremount railroad, on the road from West Concord to Hopkinton. He was one of those assigned to duty in 1746 in the garrison iv-34

around the house of Henry Lovejoy, in the West Parish village. March 21, 1747, he was assigned to duty in the garrison around the house of Timothy Walker. He held numerous offices. He was hogreeve in 1737 and 1739; field-driver, 1742; fenceviewer, 1746; surveyor of highways, 1770-71-80-82; tything- man, 1773-74; and was elected selectman at the first "legal meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of Concord," held on January 21, 1766. June 23, 1785, Captain Joseph Farnum was appointed one of a "committee to lay out Main street," Concord. He is mentioned as one of those who, like Rev. Timothy Walker, maintained the ancient style of dress, including a cocked hat, after it had generally gone out of use. Captain Joseph Farnum is also mentioned as among "the ancient men who sat in the 'old man's seat'" in the church. He married Zer- viah Hoit, daughter of Abner and Mary ( Blaisdell ) Hoit (see Hoit, IV), and they had ten children : Joseph, Stephen, Betsey, Daniel, Abner, Affia, Zer- viah, Mary, Susan and Jacob.

(V) Stephen, second son and child of Joseph and Zerviah (Hoit) Farnum, was born in Rumford (now Concord) August 24, 1742, and resided on the home farm. He was tythingman 1780; surveyor of highways six years, between 1784 and 1800; petit juror, 1792; and constable, 1794. Stephen Farnum, and John his cousin, killed a bear at Horse Hill. While the bear was engaged in defending himself against the dog, Stephen clenched him by the ears and John beat his brains out with a pitch-pine knot. He married Martha Hall, and they were the parents of six children: David, Stephen, Phebe, Isaac. Simeon and Judith. ( Mention of Isaac and Simeon appears in this article).

(VI) Stephen (2), second son and child of Ste- phen (1) and Martha ( Hall) Farnum, was born September 20, 1771, and was among the first settlers of Rumford, Maine. He married Susan Jackman, of Boscawen, and had the following children: Reu- ben, Simeon, George, Stephen, Anson, Lucinda, Susan and Patty. The last named became the wife of Cap- tain Abiel C. Carter. (See Carter, VIII).

(VI) Isaac, third son and fourth child of Stephen and Martha (Hall) Farnum, was born December I, 1778, and died January 26, 1875, aged ninety-six. He was a successful farmer and a man of influence in Concord. He was a Whig and later a Republican, and was selectman in 1822-23. He bought the machinery for a clock for sixty dollars, which he paid for in wood delivered in Concord at one dollar a cord, cut in sled or eight-foot lengths, which he hauled on a wooden shod sled. Farnum, his brother, made the case of the clock, which is still doing faithful service in the family. A pitch-pipe used by Isaac Farnum in connection with church singing is in possession of his grandson. Isaac

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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. IV, Part 66

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: 878

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: 878