History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 84

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 84
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 84

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Oliver Leonard Briggs, the oldest son of Amasa and Sally (Leonard) Briggs, was born in Westmoreland, N. H., September 18, 1832. His early life, until he was eighteen, was passed at home, laboring upon the farm, and enjoy- ing the usual privileges of country common schools, and a few terms at High School. He was not strong physically, and unsuited to farm labor, and this fact, together with a laud- able ambition to go from home and make for himself a place in the world of industry, in- duced him at this time, (1850) to go to Bos- ton, and he commenced his successful business life. He, at first, accepted a position as clerk for his uncle, Philander S. Briggs, a West In- dia goods merchant ; he served him faithfully for a few years and then entered the store of James B. Dorr, on Tremont Street, as book- keeper, where he remained for some time, dili- gently attending to his duties, and living in a quiet manner, in order to accumulate something from his salary towards a capital of the future, and all this time his keen and inquiring mind was seeking to devise some way to enable him to enlarge his opportunities. At length he es- tablished himself in the wholesale and retail book trade, and in the meantime, believing that " Knowledge is wealth," or one of the ways to it, he supplemented his education by studying French and book-keeping, and graduated from

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Comer's Commercial College with a good rec- ord. He carried on this business successfully for about six years, when he moved to the southi part of the city, and engaged in the manufac- ture of croquet sets, parlor billiards, and simi- lar games for children, for several years, and was financially successful. In 1870 he con- ceived the idea of going to Jacksonville, Fla., for the purpose of manufacturing fur- niture, but illness prevented him from carry- ing his plan into execution. In 1871, his health being re-established, he enlarged his plant, and commenced making full-size billiard tables. Their superiority being fully estab- lished, he has prosperously continued his en- terprise, and his tables are now found in private residences and popular resorts throughout the country, and Mr. Briggs has devised many me- chanieal contrivanees to keep pace with modern improvements, among others the attachment of an improved cushion, which he patented in October, 1871.

Mr. Briggs married Mary S. Stone, a lady of culture and refinement. [She is the daughter of Rev. Cyrus and Abigail (Kimball) Stone. Mr. Stone was a native of Marlborough, N. H., a missionary in Bombay, India, and a writer of note. Mrs. Stone was a teacher there under the auspices of the American Board, and their daughter was born in India.] Mr. and Mrs. Briggs have one son, Frederick Huntington, aged nineteen years, who is now pursuing a collegiate course at Brown University, at Provi- dence R. I.

Mr. Briggs is now in the full vigor of his manhood, enjoying the competency which he has acquired by his own unaided exertions, and he recalls with satisfaction his patient in- dustry and persevering energy in starting from an humble beginning upon a special line of manufacturing, through which he has gained so large a success as a business man. His prae- tical intelligence and common sense have been broadened by extensive travel in both continents, quickened by contact with men and rounded

by constant use. In all respects, Mr. Briggs is a type of the bright, active, sagacious and honorable American, and his prosperity is due to his long-continued and well-directed applica- tion to business, and determination to have his products the best of their kind.

HENRY ESTY.

The Esty family is an old and respected one in the town of Westmoreland, having been resi- dents there for over a century. The name is variously spelled in old records, such as Estey, Eastey, Easty and Esty. The family is not a numerous one. Jeffrey Esty, the first Ameri- can ancestor of those bearing that name, settled in Salem, Mass., prior to 1637, and Edward Eastey, of Sutton, Mass., married Mehitabel, daughter of Stephen and Nancy (Dodge) Marsh, some time after 1750. Of their children, Ed- ward and Stewart Esty appear as the only ones mentioned in the records. We cannot fix the identity of these, by any documentary evidence, as connected with the Westmoreland Estys, but the latter branch originated in Sutton, and the similarity of the names would apparently be more than a mere coincidence. Be that as it may, we find that Steward Esty emigrated from Sutton, Mass., to Westmoreland, N. H., about a hundred years ago. Steward Esty passed his early life in Sutton, and when a lad, while plowing, he heard the firing at the battle of Bunker Hill. He worked for a few years at his trade of carpenter in Hudson, N. Y., and afterward came to Westmoreland, N. H., and made a home for himself and his wife, Mary (Brown) Esty, and settled on what is now known as the David Esty farm. He combined farm- ing with his carpentering, and was a successful and prosperous man. His brother Edward went to Maine and settled there. William made his residence in Brownington, Vt. David came to Westmoreland, was a farmer, resided in the town, and there died. Steward and Mary (Brown) Esty had five children,-John (who

Henry

Albert Thompson

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WESTMORELAND.

was drowned when about fourteen years of age) ; Mary (married Niles Aldrich, of Westmore- land, and had four children) ; Nathaniel (married Lois Woodward, of Westmoreland ; they had three children,-Betsy, deceased, Ed- ward and Emily, still living in Westmoreland) ; Clarissa (married Willard Bill, of Gilsum ; of their two children, one died in infancy, the other, Willard, is a resident of Westmoreland) ; Henry.

Henry Esty, the youngest child of Steward and Mary (Brown) Esty, was born in West- moreland June 18, 1806. He was a studious boy, and diligently improved the meagre oppor- tunities for education the common schools offered, and while in his teens he taught school, and then availed himself of the money acquired for more extended instruction, and at the age of twenty he took charge of a school in Surry, N. H. He afterward taught in Brattleborough, Vt., and two winters in the north part of West- moreland, and was a teacher in Keene when the superintending committee was Colonel Wil- son, Aaron Hall and the well-known and be- loved minister, Dr. Barstow.

At the time of Henry's marriage his father made a division of his real estate among his child- ren, and, as was the custom in those days (for men of means to so arrange their property that some especial provision should be made for their future) he gave to Henry twenty-five acres ad- ditional, with the proviso that he should be the child of his old age, and Henry lived with his father until the death of the latter, in April, 1841.

Mr. Esty married in 1835, Mary Ann Chamber- lain, of Pomfret, Vt. ; they had no children. She died in Westmoreland in 1852. He after- ward married Mrs. Julia A. Hubbard, of Wind- sor, Vt., who had two children,-Julia, who died at the age of nineteen, and Charles, now living in Minneapolis, Minn. Mrs. Julia A. Esty died several years since. Mr. Esty has been a large real estate owner in Westmoreland, and once owned the land now comprising the village of East Westmoreland, and all the houses have been built within his recollection. At the

time of the building of the Cheshire Railroad Mr. Estey lived on the line of the road, and his house was rented as a depot, and destroyed by fire, probably occasioned by sparks from an en- gine, and it was only after three years' litigation that he obtained damages. He then purchased part of the old Wilbur place, remodeled the house, and it has since been his residence. His history of the building of the bridge across the Connecticut River, and of the Cheshire road, also the difficulties attending the establishment of the East Westmoreland post-office, is very interesting and worthy of record. He was bondsman for the first postmaster, Mr. Wight, and appointed to the same office after Mr. Wight retired, although he did not attend to its duties personally.

Mr. Esty is a man of great strength of charac- ter, keenness of understanding, business fore- sight, an original thinker, a fluent conversation- alist, well read and at home in the topics of the times. He has acquainted himself with the writings of Theodore Parker and others of the same thought. Although not a believer in any creed, he has always contributed to the sup- port of a church. His faith is that of the Spirit- ualists, believing that there is a medium of com- munication existing, however imperfectly de- veloped at present, between the spirits of those who have crossed the dark river and those remaining on the shores of time.

ALBERT THOMPSON.

Of the numerous emigrants who came to Plymouth, Mass., in the " good ship Ann " was John Thomson, who was born in the north of Wales in the year 1616, and came to America in the third embarkation from England, and ar- rived at Plymouth early in the month of May, 1622, being at that time in the sixth year of his age. The first knowledge we have of the name, with any certainty, is from the ancient record of heraldry. Then the name was familiarly known in England, Scotland and Ireland, and

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

each family spelled the name differently and selected a different badge of heraldry. The celebrated poet, James Thomson, was of this family, and Charles Thomson, the seere- tary of the Continental Congress in Revolu- tionary times. The north of Wales being contiguous to Scotland, probably John Thomson was a descendant of the Scottish family. The letter p was not introduced into the name by his descendants until a century and a half had rolled away.

John Thomson learned the trade of a carpenter, and tradition says he built the first framed meet- ing-house in Plymouth, Mass. He married Mary Cook, the daughter of Francis Cook, one of the first emigrants, in 1620. He afterwards lived in Sandwich and was a farmer, then moved to that part of Plymouth now Halifax and subsequently built a log house in Middleborough, where he lived until his house was burned by the Indians. At the time of the Indian attacks he had a genera1 commission as lieutenant-commandant, not only in the field, but of garrison and all posts of danger. In the year 1677 he creeted a frame house near where the former house was de- stroyed, and made a garrison of it. This house was the residence of the fifth generation. It was taken down in 1838, having been occupied one hundred and sixty years. Mr. and Mrs. Thomson were zealous, God-fearing people and were regular attendants of divine service. Their hour of rising, especially on Sunday morning, was four o'clock. The distance to church was thirteen miles, and it is recorded that his wife, on two Sabbaths in June, after breakfast took her child of six months old in her arms and walked to Plymouth, attended service and re- turned home the same day. The long, useful and industrious life of the Thomson patriarch closed June 16, 1696, when nearly eighty years old. He was buried in the first burying- ground in Middleborough. Mary, his wife, died March 21, 1714, in the eighty-eighth year of her age. They had twelve children. The line of descent to Albert is, John (1), Jacob (2),

Caleb (3), Caleb (4), Caleb (5), Nathaniel (6), Albert (7). Caleb (5) was a great ship-builder and dealer in lumber in Plymouth, Mass. He mar- ried Mary Perkins. He died February 9, 1821. She died December 9, 1816. They had fifteen children,-Gaius, Sylvia, Jonah, Ansel, Na- than, Abigail, Serena, Alfred, Mary, Eliza, Caleb, Nathaniel (6), Joanna, Sabina and Fred- erie. Nathaniel was the twelfth child of Caleb and Mary (Perkins) Thompson. He settled in Swanzey, N. H., and became a farmer. He also carried on a saw-mill and dealt largely in lumber. He married, September 13, 1818, Annie Field. They had several children,- Ambrose, born May 30, 1819, and died July 3, 1829 ; Julia Ann, born September 18, 1821, died March 23, 1822; Julia Ann, born March 10, 1823, died May 21, 1849 ; Frederick M., born May 19, 1826, died February 1, 1859; Eliza, born June 28, 1831, died December 25, 1850; Andrew J., born November 28, 1828, died May 24, 1829; Mary E., born April 20, 1834 (now Mrs. Britton); Albert (6) ; Lavina, born March 31, 1839 (Mrs. Charles F. Graves, resides in Fon du Lac, Wis).

Albert Thompson, son of Nathaniel and Annie (Field) Thompson, was born in Swanzey, N. H., October 18, 1836. His early years were passed at home. He diligently and care- fully improved the educational advantages the schools of his native town afforded. His turn of mind being favorable to business enterprise and activity, at the age of fifteen he left Swanzey and went to Keene, where he remained for about eight years, a portion of which time he was engaged in the business of furnishing wood for the Cheshire Railroad, on his own account, and has handled a large amount of the wood supplied that road for about twenty-eight years. In 1860 he came to Westmoreland, and since that time has been closely identified with that town. In April, 1859, he married Carrie, daughter of Foster Wight, the first postmaster of East Westmoreland. They have had five children,-Abbie M., born September 1, 1860,

Shuball White

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WESTMORELAND.

died February 2, 1884; Omer G. and Olan A. (twins), born November 1, 1864 (Olan A. died August 31, 1865) ; Irving W., born August 9, 1874; and Clifton A., born January 31, 1877.

Mr. Thompson built the store and the house where he now resides in 1867, for his brother-in- law, C. M. Wight, who carried on business for about two years, when Mr. Wight, foreseeing a more successful future for his labors in the West, went to Nori, Mich., where he has been very prosperous, and Mr. Thompson de- voted his attention and energy to the trade at home, and the results have been favorable. Other enterprises have also felt the impulse of his ability. He has been active in the lumber- ing business, alone and in company with his brother-in-law, Chandler Britton, for several years. It was mainly through his efforts that the "Centennial Hall" was built in East West- moreland, in 1876, and he has always been ready to advance any movement which could promote the progress and further the interests of his adopted town. In every good work of public enterprise or of private charity he has never been found wanting to contribute his full share and more. In all respects he is a type of the active, sagacious and honorable American business man and possesses in a large degree all those qualities that constitute a most worthy citizen. Intelligent, conscientious, kind-hearted, obliging and industrious, Mr. Thompson enjoys the esteem and confidence of the community, and is one of Westmoreland's representative men.

SHUBAEL WHITE.

The White family are among the oldest in New England. The first ancestor was William White, who, with his wife, Susanna, was among that band of strong-hearted, valiant, zealous Puritans, united by a common bond of religious faith, who left their homes in England to brave the hardships and trials of an unknown coun- try in order there to find " Freedom to worship

God !" They landed at Plymouth, Mass., in the winter of 1620, where Peregrine, the son of William and Susanna, was born, on board the " Mayflower," after her arrival. His name was given him on account of the wanderings of the Pilgrims. William White was "a pious and active minister in Dorchester, England," and his descendants are generally known as in- fluential members of society, law-abiding eiti- zens, prosperous, esteemed for their temperance, honesty and probity. The line to Shubael, the representative of the name in Westmoreland, is William (1), Peregrine (2), Daniel (3), John (+), Cornelius (5), Moses (6), Calvin (7), Shubael (8). Peregrine was one of the grantees of the town of Abington, Mass. The family are found afterwards in South Brookfield, Mass .; and John (4) was killed there by the Indians while making hay on the meadow near where the burying-ground is now ; Cornelius (5) was one of the grantees of the town of Westmoreland in 1752; Moses (6), son of Cornelius, came from Brookfield, Mass., to Westmoreland, N. H., and was one of the first settlers of the town. He married, December 25, 1766, Dinah Stone. They had eleven children, - Sarah, born Noven- ber 16, 1767; Calvin, born July 29, 1774; Hannah, born October 3, 1777 ; Dinah, born November 14, 1779; Samuel, born February 28, 1782; Cynthia, born June 1, 1786; Orpha, born June 30, 1789 ; Eunice, born August 31, 1791; John, born June 12, 1796; Bethuel; Sol- omon.

Moses White was a farmer and respected citizen, a deacon of the church and performed his duties faithfully. His wife died October 26, 1811, aged sixty-three years, and he mar- ried a second wife. He died March 6, 1829, aged eighty-six years. Calvin (7), son of Dea- con Moses and Dinah (Stone) White, was born in Westmoreland, July 29, 1774. He married Sarah Richardson, of Chesterfield, N. H. They had eight children,-Gilman, born January 19, 1799, married Harriet Butterfield ; Persis, born November 15, 1801, died December 20, 1802;

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Mary, born January 18, 1805, married Francis Russell ; Silas, born November 20, 1806, mar- ried Phoebe Thayer; Shubael; Betsy, born August 4, 1811, unmarried, died aged seventy- two years; Alfred, born October 17, 1813, married Sarah Liteh ; Eunice, born November 23, 1816, married Caleb W. Jaquith. Calvin White was a mechanic and made the old-fash- ioned mould-board wooden ploughs. He was an intelligent man, and held several minor town offices. He died April 11, 1843, aged sixty-nine; his wife survived him ten years, dying September 21, 1853, aged seventy-four.

Shubael (8), son of Calvin and Sarah (Rich- ardson) White, was born in Westmoreland, May 27, 1809. During his early years he had the experience that the children of a family of humble circumstances of that day usually had-labor on the farm and limited school op- portunities. He learned the carpenter's trade, and remained in Westmoreland until he was of age. He passed the next five or six years in various places, and in 1836 he went to Keene. The same year he married, in Boston, Betsey Heustis, daughter of Simon Heustis, an old resident of Westmoreland. They had one child, William H., who is now a judge of Police Court at Junction City, Kan.

He married, for second wife, Nancy L. Wilder, daughter of David Wilder, a native of Lancaster, Mass. She died February 26, 1883. They had two children,-Henry, born October 19, 1840, was one of the victims of the great Rebellion, dying in service December 19, 1861, aged twenty-one years, and Charles M., born May 16, 1850.

Mr. White is a man of quiet and imob- trusive manners, kind, cheerful and social in his disposition, faithful to duty and to the performance of trusts. He has served as over- scer of the poor for over eleven years, as col- lector of taxes for four years, and has held several minor town offices. At the time of the Civil War, when the first call came for seventy- five thousand men, Mr. White, although past

middle age, responded promptly, and enlisted, as drum-major, in the Second New Hampshire Regiment, and also served in the same capacity in the Sixth and Fourteenth Regiments, and received his honorable discharge. Politically, he is a strong Republican. His religious belief is that of the Congregational Church, and he has been a consistent member of that body for many years, and is a worthy descendant of his " Mayflower " ancestor.

DANIEL W. PATTEN.

Genealogical history is customary in Europe to show the titles to honor and estate; but in this country, where wealth and distinction depend almost exclusively upon one's own exertions and merits, it is a subject of necessity, mingled, however, with satisfaction, when we can trace our ancestors back through different generations to the first one who emigrated to America, and know that they were good and honorable men, whatever their station in life.

John Patten came from Ireland, where he was born, to America in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Norton, Mass., and married Abigail Makepeace. (The house they occupied is still standing in Norton, in a good state of preservation.) He possessed the strong, rugged nature of his nationality, together with patient endurance, and when, at the close of the Revolutionary War, money had so depre- ciated in value that his small means were almost lost, his brave heart was not easily discouraged, and, with diligence and perseverance, he, with his four sons, worked early and late until they had paid for the farm, and Mr. Patten could start square with the world. He was by trade a nail-maker. His life in America was passed in Norton, where he died. His children were William, Samuel, Daniel, John, Abigail, Sarah, Lucy and Susan, who married a Jenks, and settled in Vermont. William, Abigail and Sarah never married. Lucy married Solomon Field. Daniel married ; had three daughters,

Daniel Vr Patten

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WESTMORELAND.

Phobe, Abigail, and Harriet ; Phœbe married Summer Knapp; they had ten children. Abigail married Mason Stone, and had five children. Harriet married Daniel S. Cobb; had three children. Samuel married, family unknown. John, the first of the Patton family to settle in Westmoreland, was born in Norton, Mass., in 1755, and died in Westmoreland, aged sixty years. Hle was a blacksmith by trade, and a hard-working man. He married Jerusha Wood. Their children were Abigail (died young), Asa, Samson, Daniel, John, William and Sarah (who did not attain maturity). Asa married Cyntha Field and left Westmoreland, and made his home in Coventry, Vt., where he died. Samson moved to Maine, married and left numerous descendants. John married Nancy M. Smith, always resided in Norton, and died there. William married Elfrida Aldrich, of Westmoreland, and passed part of his life in Pomfret, Vt., but returned to Westmoreland, and was a resident there at the time of his death. Daniel, son of John and Jerusha (Wood) Patten, was born in Westmoreland, January 18, 1794. His early life and educa- tion was the usual one of the sons of farmers and mechanics. He learned the trade of a car- penter and pursued his vocation with diligence, and was a successful business man. A good citizen, but applied himself closely to his own affairs, and never sought publicity or office. He married, in 1820, Cyrena Shelley, daughter of Barnabas and Lydia (Cole) Shelley, of West- moreland, born February 24, 1797. They had two children, Daniel W. and George E., born March 21, 1828. Mrs. Patten died January 12, 1835. He married, second, Myra Hutchin, born May 13, 1803, and died January 25, 1859, leaving a daughter, Elmyra C., who lived to be twenty-three years old. For his third wife, Mr. Patten married Sally French, of West- moreland ; she was born February 24, 1809, and died September 15, 1868.

Daniel Warren Patten, the oldest son of Daniel and Cyrena (Shelley) Patten, was born

in Westmoreland, February 24, 1822, and with the exception of four years' residence in Hins- dale, has always lived in his native town. Like multitudes of men, he passed his youth and early manhood assisting his father on the farm, besides working at his trade of carpentering. His school facilities were necessarily limited, but by close application he became a proficient scholar especially in mathematics. In nine cases out of ten, the men who have achieved distinction in politics or in the various lines of business activity have passed their early days in the shop or on a farm.

Mr. Patten married, June 4, 1845, Elizabeth Howe Heustis, born February 1, 1822, daugh- ter of Gilbert T. and Martha (Hodges) Heustis, of Westmoreland ; she was a descendant, on her mother's side, of Samuel Howe, one of the first settlers of the town, and a granddaughter of Aristides and Prudence (Baxter) Heustis, of Surry, N. H. They have two children,-Ella E. (who married Albourne F. Abbott, of West- moreland, now living in Boston), and Martha C., who is with her parents.

In 1849, Mr. Patten, desirous of advancing his business interests, went to Hinsdale, where he carried on the sash and blind manufacturing for four years; he then returned to Westmore- land, and continued in the same line of work until 1856, when the flood carried away his shop containing stock and machinery; but, with the same spirit of perseverance which char- acterized his great-grandfather, he rebuilt and engaged in the business of planing and dressing lumber, and added to this the manufacture of wooden pails for some four or five years. He also engaged in civil engineering, and for twenty- five years has been employed in all parts of the county, and especially in his native town, where he has a comfortable home and a farm to which he gives his personal attention.

His active interest and participation in mili- tary organizations is shown by his several com- missions, which were given as follows: Ensign in the Westmoreland Light Infantry by Gov-

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 84

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200