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 85

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 85

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with the best interests and history of Sullivan county for nearly a century and a half of years. Samuel Gunnison was a carpenter in Kittery until 1749, when he removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his wife and the second of their children died. He afterward returned to Kittery, lived several more years in that town, and in 1765 moved with his second wife and family to the town of Goshen, New Hampshire. He was one of the pioneers of the town and one of its foremost citizens until the time of his death, May 14, 1806. He married, first, February 6, 1745, Jane Fernald, who died January 20, 1750, and married, second. May 3, 1752, Alice Fernald, a sister of his first wife, and who died July 5, 1804. She was born February 21, 1725-26. The children of Samuel Gunnison were Susanna, who married Edmund Wilson; Joseph; Margaret, who married Joseph Chandler. of Goshen; Samuel; Ephraim, who died in infancy; Daniel; Ephraim and Nathaniel, twins, and Alice.

(V) Ephraim Gunnison, son of Samuel and Alice (Fernald) Gunnison, was born in Goshen, New Hampshire, July 16, 1766, and with his twin brother Nathaniel was the first of his surname to be born in that town. He was a farmer by occupation, a thorough, practical, hard-working farmer, and by his energy and thrift acquired a fair competency for his time. He lived to attain the full age of eighty- five years and for many years was a consistent mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he was a Democrat. Ephraim Gunnison died June, IS51. His wife, whom he married August 6, 1787, was Deborah Freeman, born January 24, 1764, died April, 1853. They had seven children: Eunice, who married Ebenezer Batchelder; Deborah, who mar- ried Abner Colby; Lucy, who married James Os- good; Lois, who married John Stephens; Vinal, who married Eliza Baker and had eight children ; Ebenezer ; and Margaret, who became the wife of David Hastings.

(VI) Vinal, fifth child and elder son of Ephraim and Deborah (Freeman) Gunnison, was born in Goshen, New Hampshire, March 31. 1798, and died 1858. Like his father he was a farmer, thrifty and provident, but in politics he affiliated with the Whig party, whereas his father always was a staunch Democrat. He was chosen to fill various, town offices, among the more important of which was that of selectman and also overseer of the poor. His farm lands included six hundred acres and his farm was one of the best in the town. He married, December 27, 1821, Eliza Baker, of Goshen, who survived him fifteen years and died in 1873, at the age of seventy-two years. They had eight children : John (died young), Arvin Nye, Miriam Weston. Sarah Ann (now Mrs. Brickett, of Mendota, Illi- nois), Eliza B. (Mrs. Chandler, of Salem, Oregon), John Vinal (ex-high sheriff of Sullivan county), Amos B. (dead), and Horace B. (of Phillipsville, California). (John Vinal receives extended men- tion in this article).

(VII) Arvin, second son and child of Vinal and Eliza (Baker) Gunnison, was born June 1, 1824, in Goshen. When about nineteen years of age, he went south and taught school for some years in Georgia. Subsequently he settled in New Orleans, engaged in the manufacture of cotton gins. After the outbreak of the Civil war, he manufactured arms for the Confederate armies until New Orleans was captured. At the close of the war he bought a plantation of four hundred acres in Bolivar county, Mississippi, on which has since grown up the pres- ent town of Gunnison, named in honor of this family. He resided on this plantation until his

death in March, 1882. He married, December 13, 1859, Sarah H. Putnam, who was born in Milford, New Hampshire. November 2, 1839. She is a daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Hale) Putnam, of Milford. Five children were born of this mar- riage : Samuel, Putnam, Arvin, William T., of whom later; John T., who conducts a typewriters' exchange in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The others. are deceased.

(VIII) William Towne, fourth son and child of Arvin and Sarah H. (Putnam) Gunnison, was born in Greenville, Bolivar county, Mississippi. Sep- tember 22, 1869. He prepared for college at Exeter Academy, and entered Dartmouth College in 1888. graduating with the class of 1892. Subsequently he- entered Harvard Law School, and in 1895 received. the degree of Bachelor of Law. Immediately after- ward he opened an office in Rochester, New Hamp- shire, where he has since resided, and now has a large clientage and a good business. In politics he is a Republican. In 1903 he sat in the constitutional convention as representative of Rochester. In the year 1889 he married Grace M., daughter of William and Mary A. (Colby) Horney, of Rochester, New Hampshire. They have two children: Arvin, born March 18, 1900; John V., born November 18, 1902.

(VII) John Vinal. sixth in order of birth of the sons and daughters of Vinal and Eliza (Baker) Gunnison, is a native of Goshen, New Hampshire, born February 27, 1837, and is known throughout Sullivan county as a straightforward business man and a competent public official. He was brought up. on his father's farm, the same old farm which his great-grandfather cleared and brought under culti- vation almost one hundred and fifty years ago, and which he now owns, although for nearly twenty years he has lived in Newport and engaged in other pursuits than farming. As a boy Mr. Gunnison at- tended the public school in Goshen and afterward was given a good academic education in Meriden and New London, New Hampshire. After leaving school he returned home and engaged in lumbering, farming, dealing in stock and at one time operated a saw mill. In ISSS he took up his residence in Newport and carried on business operations in var- ious directions. In 1892 he was elected high sheriff of Sullivan county, and was re-elected to that office from year to year until having reached the age limit, seventy, he was no longer eligible. For more than thirty years he has been a prominent figure in Sulli- van county and New Hampshire state politics, and always on the Republican side. In 1872-73-74 he was county commissioner, and in 1885 represented his town in the general court. He holds member- ship in various subordinate Masonic bodies and is a Kniglit Templar.

On January 16, 1867, John Vinal Gunnison mar- ried Angie Carr, born in Hillsborough, New Hamp- shire, September 12, 1846, daughter of Robert and Claora (Goodale) Carr, and granddaughter of Robert Carr, who was an early settler in Hills- borough, and one of the foremost men of that town in his time. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gunnison. Their eldest daughter, Belle G. Gunnison, born in Goshen. December 30, 1868, was educated in the schools of that town and New- port, and afterward for a time was a teacher. Later on she was appointed to a position in the Newport postoffice : she married, May 8, 1902, William H. Nourse. Their second child, Sadie H. Gunnison, was born in Goshen. June 9, 1870. She graduated from Newport High School, afterward taught school three years and then received an appointment as manager of the Newport telephone exchange. Their-

JOHN V. GUNNISON.

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third daughter, Claora A. Gunnison, was born in Goshen, December 20, 1873; and was educated in the public schools of that town and Newport and the Bradford Female Seminary at Bradford, Massachu- setts. She also became a teacher in the public schools and later was made assistant in Newport high school. She married, June 28, 1898, Rev. Sheridan Watson Bell, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose home was Xenia, Ohio. Their children are: Corinne Gunnison, Alice Vir- ginia, Clara Elizabeth. Alice M., fourth child of John V. and Angie (Carr) Gunnison. was born in Goshen, April 1I, 1877, and died May 30, 1895, while a student in Newport high school.

KITTREDGE The ancestor of the Kittredge family of this article was a pio- neer settler of Billerica, Massa- chusetts, in 1660. The family was prolific, and now its members are found in nearly all parts of the United States. Many of the name, to the present time, have been physicians, some of them becoming prominent, and are particularly well known in New England.

(I) John Kittredge was a seaman (bone setter) ; was forced to leave England because of practicing his profession. which was contrary to law. He received a grant of five acres of land in the town of Billerica, Massachusetts, September 25, 1660. John Parker is called "his Master." His house lot was "Ten acres of land on ye south-east of bare hill." He had "also four acres of meadow all which is bounded with Shawshin road, east." In July, 1663, the town "granted more to him, that instead of tenne poles of land, which he should have had upon ye township (by willm pattin's house- lot) to set a shop upon that he now shall have it added to his house-lot upon the south of it." His first grant within that part of Billerica which was afterward Tewksbury, where his descendants were located, was in December, 1661, "sixty and four acres, lying on ye east side of ailwife brook, and upon ye south side ye highway as you go to globe hill." This home lot of John Kittredge was a mile south-east of the village, and the other grant, be- yond Pattenville, near the Shawshin. He married, November 2, 1664, Mary Littlefield, who was born December 14. 1646, probably the daughter of Francis Littlefield, of Woburn. Ralph Hill calls her grand- daughter in his will. The children of this marriage were: John, James. Daniel, Jonathan, and Benoni. John Kittredge died October 18, 1676, and his widow married John French.

(II) John (2), eldest child of John (1) Kitt- redge and Mary (Littlefield) Kittredge, was born in Billerica, January 24, 1666. The record states that "Doct. John Kittredge dyed" April 27. 1714. He married, August 3. 1685, Hannah French, born Jan- mary 20. 1664, daughter of John and Hannah (Bur- ridge) French, of Billerica. She died October 9. 1745. aged eight-one. Their children were: John, James, Hannah (died young), Jacob, Hannah, Joseph, Jonathan, William, Abigail, Jane, Marah, and Francis. Jonathan was killed by the Indians in Lovewell's fight at Pigwaket, in 1725.

(III) Francis, youngest child of John (2) and Hannah (French) Kittredge, was born in Billerica. October 27, 1706. His first wife Lydia died August I, 1736; and he married, before 1740, Susanna Snow. She married. second, a Phelps, of Andover, and third, Thomas Kidder. The thirteen children of Francis Kittredge were: Francis, Josiah, Zephaniah, Lydia, Solomon, Reuben (died young), Jessoniah,

Susanna (died young), Susannah, Rebecca, Reuben, Josialı, and Abial.

(IV) Solomon, fourth son and fifth child of Francis and Lydia Kittredge, was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, June 9, 1736; and died in Amherst, New Hampshire, August 24, 1792. About 1766, he removed to that part of Amherst, New Hampshire, now called Mont Vernon. He was a blacksmith, and a man of considerable prominence in the North- west parish. He was selectman in 1777, and one of a committee of three to procure soldiers for the Continental army. He was an influential church member, and an independent thinker. He married, Ma- 14, 1755, Tabitha Ingalls, of Andover, who died May 8, 1794, aged fifty-nine years. They had twelve children, and their grandchildren were very numerous. Their children were: Solomon, Zeph- aniah, Tabitha, Josiah. Phebe, Stephen, Lydia, In- galls, Betsey, Peter, Asa, and Sally.

(V) Solomon (2), eldest child of Solomon (I) and Tabitha (Ingalls) Kittredge, was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, in 1755, and died in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. October 22, 1845, aged ninety. He removed with his father to Amherst in 1766, and at the age of twenty enlisted in the Con- tinental army. He was a member of Captain Cros- by's company, of Colonel Reed's regiment, and was present at the battle of Bunker Hill; and in 1777 was a private in Captain Bradford's company of Colonel Moses Nichol's regiment at the battle of Bennington. He was taken prisoner by the British and Indians at the "Cedars" in Canada, May 19, 1776, and shamefully treated. His clothing was mostly taken from him, but he managed to escape and reached his home in a destitute condition, hav- ing neither hat, coat nor shoes. He was a patriotic citizen and a brave soldier. He married, first, in 1777. Anna Kittredge: he married, second. April 13, 1815, Betsey Holt. The children, all by the first wife, were: Solomon. Anna, Susan, Thomas, Josiah, Jeremiah, Harriet, Hezekiah, Zephaniah, Lucy and Betsy.

(VI) Deacon Josiah. fifth child and third son of Solomon (2) and Anna (Kittredge) Kittredge, was born in Mont Vernon, 1787, and died in Mont Vernon, 1836. He married first, December 27, 1812, Hannah Mace; he married second. Nancy Cochran. She died 1829, and he married, third, September I, 1830. Relief Bachelder. He had nine children born to him: Hannah. Mary Ann, Franklin F., Ingalls, Elizabeth, Charles (died young), Charles A., Nancy, and Harriet.

(VII) Charles Alfred, eighth child and fourth son of Deacon Josiah and Nancy (Cochran) Kitt- redge, was born in Mont Vernon, August 24, 1829, and died in Nashua, December 31, 1898. His mother died when he was about six months old, and his father when he was six years old. Left an orphan. he was bound out to his uncle Fletcher, of Amherst. This uncle was a strict and stern man, and the boy found his lot an unhappy one. Winter nights he counted the stars through an opening in the roof of the room where he slept, and in the morning on waking he often found his bed covered with snow. At the age of fourteen he exercised his legal right to choose a guardian, and selected Captain Timothy Kittredge, of Mont Vernon, with whom he lived several years. He went to Lowell, Massachusetts, and worked for a baker, and on the outbreak of the great excitement over the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia he prepared to go there. In 1850 he went from New York to the Isthmus of Panama by steamer, crossed to the Pacific side on foot, and

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there took a boat for San Francisco. The ship ran short of water and was compelled to put into the Sandwich Islands for a supply. There Mr. Kitt- redge met his relative, Mrs. Stearns, daughter of Timothy Kittredge, who with her husband, were the first missionaries to the island. After arriving at San Francisco, Mr. Kittredge worked for a car- penter, and later 'was a cook in mining camps. In 1853 he returned and settled in Concord, New Hamp- shire, where he engaged in the grocery business with John Nichols. In 1864 he removed to Mont Vernon, where he carried on a meat and provision business until 1867, when he engaged in the same business at Milford. In 1872 he went to Nashua and engaged in the same business, carrying it on for sixteen years, and then retiring on account of ill health. He was a stanch Republican, and active in the coun- cils of his party. both state and local. May 15, 1853, he was married, in the First Baptist Church of Lowell, Massachusetts, to Maria E. Chase, who was born in Lowell. 1829, daughter of John Chase, who was a captain in the War of 1812, and also in the Florida war. She died November, 1899. Four children were born of this union: Charles W. (died in infancy), Adelaide M., Frank E., and Frederick L., both further mentioned below.

(VIII) Dr. Frank Everett Kittredge, third child and second son of Charles A. and Maria E. (Chase) Kittredge, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, May 8, 1862, and was educated in the common schools of Nashua. In 1882 he matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated from the medical department with the class of 1885. He at once began practice at Center Harbor, New Hampshire, where he remained until 1889. when he moved to Nashua, where he now has a large and successful business, and makes a spe- cialty of treatment of discases of the nose, throat, and ear. He is a member of the following named organizations : The American Medical Association ; the New Hampshire and Nashua Medical societies, the New England Otological Society, and the New Hampshire Surgical Club. He was one of the early presidents of the Nashua Medical Society. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of Penachuck Lodge, No. 44. Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows. For many years he has been an attendant at the Congregational Church.

He married, in Nashua, December 21, 1887. Mary Lizzie Combs, who was born in Nashua, November I, 1865, daughter of James B. and Mary Jane (Don- ovan) Combs, and granddaughter of David Combs, one of the earliest settlers of that part of Dunstable which later became Nashua, at one time being the owner of nearly all the land which constitutes what is now the south part of the city of Nashua. They have one child, Helen C., born November 10, 1898.

(VIII) Frederick Lincoln Kittredge, youngest son of Charles A. and Maria E. (Chase) Kittredge, was born in Mont Vernon, January 18, 1865. He accompanied his parents on their removal to Mil- ford, and afterward to Nashua. His education was obtained in the public schools in Nashua, where he prepared for business life. In September, 1884, when nineteen years of age. he went to Denton, Texas, where he was employed two years in the First National Bank. Returning to New Hamp- shire, he remained a short time, and then went back to Texas and went into the mercantile business. After tarrying there a year he then settled in Rochester, New York, where he engaged in pre- paring and putting up medicine in cases for family use. This business he carried on successfully for three years. In December, 1904, he became a mem-

ber of The Stationery Supply Company of Rochester, New York, dealers in papers and typewriter sup- plies, with which he has since been connected. He is an energetic and reliable business man, and a re- spected member of the Brick Presbyterian Church. He is a member of Valley Lodge, No. 109, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Hamilton Chapter, No. 62. Royal Arch Masons, and Monroe Commandery, Knights Templar, No. 12, of Rochester. He mar- ried, October 24, 1894, Marion Niven, born in Roch- ester, March 26, 1868, daughter of James M. and Mary (Robinson) Niven, of Rochester, New York. She is a member of the Brick Presbyterian Church, and Monroe Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, in both of which organizations she takes an active part.

One of the families of New England EVERETT who is distinguished for the quality of its members is that of the Ever- etts. 'A high moral tone and intellectual qualities above mediocrity have graced many of the names, and two scions of this ancient lineage-Edward Everett and Edward Everett Hale-rank among the first citizens of the Republic.

(I) Richard Everett, the immigrant ancestor of the family in America, came to New England as early as 1636, although no definite information has yet been obtained as to the time of his arrival, or from what part of England he came. From the fact that he was for several years in the employ of Wil- liam Pynchon, that Pynchon himself was connected by marriage with the Everard family of county Es- sex, England, and that Richard was a very common baptismal name in the same Everard family. it is surmised that Richard Everett was born in county Essex. Tradition says that Richard Everett first settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, and the mem- orandum of the deed shows that Richard Evered, of Dedham, owned land in Cambridge. Hence, it is inferred that he may have resided near the divid- ing line between Cambridge and Watertown, and in changing that line, his residence may have been changed from one town to the other.

In the year 1636 he was with William Pynchon, who led a party of settlers and their families to the place called by the Indians, Agawam, near Spring- field, Massachusetts. There he made his mark as one of the white witnesses to the Indian deed, con- veying the land to William Pynchon, Henry Smith and John Burr, July 15, 1636. On August 18, 1636, he attended at Watertown the first recorded meeting of the new town, called by them "Contentment," but by the general court named Dedham. In early records his name was often spelled Enered. March 20, 1637, a town meeting at Springfield ordered John Searl and Richard Everett to lay out twenty-four acres of mowing marsh for Mr. Pynchon. records of the two towns of Springfield and Dedham show that he frequently passed from one to the other, and that he was a person of much importance in each of them. The number of entries in the records concerning him is so large as to preclude any enun- eration of them. After 1643 he resided continuously in Dedham. He and his wife were received into the church in Dedham, March 6, 1646. May 6 of the same year he was admitted freeman, and from that time on served as a town officer, and on town com- mittees, frequently called upon to lay out lots and roads. The first tax found against him is for his "countrey rate," in 1648, when his house was valued / at £4: 6: 10, being the fifty-seventh in point of value, out of eighty ; and his tax was 3s., being the seventy- eight out of ninety persons assessed. In 1660 his tax

The

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was third in amount assessed, out of eighty-seven names. January 1, 1651, he was elected one of the three surveyors and constable. In 1652 and 1653 he was again constable. In 1655 he was again elected surveyor. January 1, 1661, he was elected selectman. In 1652 he served on a committee to lay out the way between Dedham and Braintree. In 1659 he was one of a committee of three to act with a similar committee from Dorchester to lay out the highway between Dedham and Dorchester, and he was also on a committee of eight to lay out two thousand acres granted by the town to the Indians at Natick. In 1664 he served on more land commit- tees.

In June, 1660, he was granted land adjoining Neponset plain, and northward thereof, or if that is already divided, at a place called "the twenty-acre plain." In March the proprietors of Woolomoni- pake (Wrentham) drew their lots. He drew lot No. 8, containing eleven and one-half acres. At a divi- sion of land at Meadfield he drew lot No. 70, which appears to have been in the present town of Norfolk. In 1669 the town bought from Philip Sagamore, all his rights in the lands within the town bounds, not yet purchased, for £17:8, and the eighty town proprie- tors were assessed this amount. Richard Everett's share was 6s 91/2d. In 1667 he collected from the town 20s for killing two wolves. Richard Everett died July 3, 1682. He made his will May 12, 1680, and it was proved July 25, 1682. His inventory amounted to £277: 15: II. He married (first), Mary, whose surname is unknown; (second), in Springfield, June 29. 1643, Mary Winch. She came to America from England at the age of fifteen, in the "Francis" of Ipswich, April, 1638, with the family of Rowland Stebbins. The children by the first wife were: John. Israel (died young), Mary, Samuel, Sarah ( died young), and James; by the second wife : Sarah, Abi- gail, Israel, Ruth and Jedediah.

(II) Captain John, eldest child of Richard and Mary (Winch) Everett, was baptized the fifteenth day of the first month, 1646, in Dedham, Massachu- setts, and died there June 17. 1715. His name ap- pears first in the town records on the tax list of 1662. In 1668 and 1674 he received small grants of land. He is named on a committee to run the line between Dedham and Dorchester in 1682-85-86-91- 94 and 97 : and in 1684-85 on a committee to buy of Josias, sachem, a right of land south of Neponset river. In 1685 he and his brother Samuel paid 7s &d for clearing the Indian title to their father's land. He was one of the committee to lay out highways in 1685-86; surveyor of highways in 1704 and 1705, and tithingman in 1700. He is first styled captain in 1693 in the town records of Dedham. During King William's war he was called into active ser- vice to command a company of men stationed in New Hampshire and Maine, to protect the inhabi- tants from the Indians. After the massacre at Oyster River (Dover). New Hampshire, in July. 1694, Captain John Everett had command of a company raised to assist in protecting the frontier from further attack by the Indians. He was stationed at Kittery, Maine. In the latter part of 1696 a petition was presented to the Massachusetts general court by Samuel Wheelwright and others, of Wells, Maine, requesting that Captain Everett and his soldiers. then stationed there, might help them rebuild their fort. This petition was granted. This probably closed his military service. His will was dated An- gust 16, 1710, and proved July 7. 1715.

He married, in Dedham, May 13, 1662, Elizabeth Pepper, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Johnson)

Pepper, of Roxbury. She was born May 25, 1645, and died April 1, 1714, at Dedham. Their children, recorded at Dedham, were : Elizabeth, Hannah, Bethia, John, William, Israel and Richard.

(I11) Deacon John (2), fourth child and eldest son of Captain John (I) and Elizabeth (Pepper) Everett, was born in Dedham, June 9, 1676, and died there March 20, 1751, aged seventy-five. He was selectman 1724-32. His name appears on the val- uation and assessment list in 1727-32-42; also in 1729 on a petition to the general court for a new parish in the south part of the town. This, the second parish of Dedham, was established in 1730, and John Everett was moderator of the first meeting. He was also appointed an assessor. June 20, 1736, he was dismissed from the First Church of Dedham to the Second Church, of which he was the first deacon. His will was dated January I. 1750, and proved April 2, 1751. He married (first), January 3, 1700, Mary Browne, who died November 27, 1748, aged about seventy. He married (second ), August 31, 1749, Mrs. Mary Bennett, of Wrentham. His children, all by the first wife, were: John, Jo- seph, Ebenezer, Eleazer (died young), Mercy, Elea- zer, Edward, Hannah, Abigail and Mary.

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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 85

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