Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol II, Part 55

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1044

USA > Vermont > Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol II > Part 55

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FRANK J. BAILEY.

Massachusetts, where he was engaged in the real estate business ; he finally located in Brattleboro, where for the past fifteen years he has success- fully conducted a general real estate trade, mak- ing a specialty of farms.

In his political affiliations Mr. Bailey is a Re- publican, and although he has never sought or held office, he takes an active interest in all the

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campaigns, at which he is a regular attendant, and for several years had charge of the cam- paign work of the Republican party in his town. Ile is a prominent member of Columbia Lodge No. 36, F. & A. M. On December 28, 1876, Mr. Bailey was united in marriage to Miss Josephine F. Field, a daughter of Elisha N. and . Maria (Knapp) Field, of Dummerston, Vermont.

EDWARD JARVIS MATHEWS.

Edward J. Mathews, who has followed farm- ing throughout the greater part of his life and is now engaged in agricultural pursuits and sheep- raising at Middlebury, was born May 5, 1827, in that town. His father, Deacon Eli Mathews, was born at Stoneham, Massachusetts, February 6, 1794, and came to Addison county, Vermont, with his father, Captain Timothy Mathews, who followed the trade of shoemaking, making shoes to order. Captain Mathews married Lois Damon, who was also born in Stoneham, Massachusetts. At the time of the Revolutionary war he joined the Colonial army and at the time of the war of 1812 he again fought for his country, raising and commanding a company from Middlebury. He was active in church work and a prominent and influential man of his community. He died Sep- tember 4, 1857, at the age of ninety-three years, and his wife survived him five years, passing away at the age of ninety-five.

Eli Mathews engaged in teaching school in early life. He also learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed in the village of Middlebury until 1848, when he purchased the place which is now owned by his son, and which was formerly the old Stowell farm. It consists of one hun- dred and thirty-eight acres of valuable land. Eli Mathews also served in the war of 1812, and was in every way loyal to his country and her wel- fare. For many years he served as a deacon in the Congregational church and by that title was widely known. He married Annis Lothrop, who was born in Easton, Massachusetts, a daughter of Isaac Lothrop, who was also born at that place and belonged to an old family there. He followed the occupation of farming, reared a family of nine children, and died in Easton at the age of sixty years. His wife lived to the age of ninety- four years.

To Eli Mathews and his wife were born two- sons, Edward J., and Charles W., who is a farm- er, residing near Middlebury. The father died October 4, 1864, and the mother passed away at the age of fifty-five years. Like him, she was. a very devoted member of the Congregational church.

Edward J. Mathews was reared in the village of Middlebury, and in the public schools he ac- quired his education. He has always carried on. general farming. In addition to this, for a period of ten years, he was clerk of the Addison county Marble Company and had charge of its affairs. The house in which he lives was erected in 1812, and is one of the landmarks of the locality, hav- ing for many decades been a silent witness of the events which have made history here. In con- nection with the cultivation of his land Mr. Mathews was engaged in raising Merino sheep for twenty years and is now conducting a large- dairy.

On the 18th of March, 1850, Mr. Mathews was united in marriage to Miss Mary Moore, a daughter of Warren Moore, a farmer and well known resident of Middlebury. She was born here, while her father's birth occurred in Sud- bury, Massachusetts, whence he came to Middle- bury, and here carried on agricultural pursuits. until his death, which occurred in 1883. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Laura Woodard, was born in Randolph, Vermont, and was a daughter of John H. Woodard, a native of Massa- chusetts, whence he went to Randolph, and his wife, Susan Woodard, became the mother of five children. all of whom are deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Warren Moore were born four children: Mrs. Mathews; Sarah, the wife of James Val- lette, of Middlebury; Ellen, the wife of Charles W. Mathews, a brother of our subject ; and James,. who died about the time of his majority. The- mother died at the age of forty-five years, in the faith of the Congregational church, to which- she belonged.

Mr. and Mrs. Mathews have one son, Charles James, whose birth occurred October 16, 1855. He pursued his education in the common schools, spending his youth under the parental roof. After completing his education he spent four years in a store at Springfield, Massachusetts, after which- he returned to Middlebury, and for four years.

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was in the store of Beckwith & Company. He then turned his attention to farming, in connection with his father, and has since devoted his energies to this work. In May, 1880, he married Jennie Brooks, a native of Middlebury and a daughter of Samuel Brooks, a painter, now deceased. Charles J. Mathews and his wife have three sons : Edward Moore, who is working on his grand- father's farm; Fred B., who is an employe in the Benedict mercantile establishment in Middlebury ; and William Mckinley, at home. C. J. Mathews was elected a selectman in 1889 and by re-election has also been continued in that office to the present time. He is a member of the Republican town committee and is a most active Republican, doing everything in his power to secure the success of his party and its candi- dates. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a past master of the blue lodge and past high priest of the chapter. He has also held office in the lodge of the Knights of Honor.

Edward J. Mathews cast his first presidential vote for Zachary Taylor in 1848, and since the organization of the Republican party has never wavered in his allegiance thereto. He has served as justice of the peace, filling the office for thirty years, and his long service is incontrovertible proof of his fidelity to duty and his impartial rulings. For many years he was also road super- visor, was a member of the board of selectmen for six years, during which time he served for five years as its chairman and declined to serve longer. He was first elected to this office in 1888, and had charge of the erection of the stone bridge over Otter creek. For ten years he served as county commissioner, until the office was abolished, and is now chairman of the town board of license commissioners.

The Mathews family are all identified with the Congregational church, in which our subject is now serving as clerk, and the influence of the family has ever been on the side of progress, improvement and the right.

ANDREW JACKSON MARSHALL.

One of the honored business men and vener- able citizens of Middlebury, Addison county, Ver- mont, is he whose name initiates this paragraph,

and who bears a name which has ever stood ex- ponent for the most sterling personal character- istics, the deepest appreciation of the rights and privileges of citizenship in our great republic, and one which has been indissolubly identified with the annals of New England from an early epoch in its history. There have been strong men and true, as one generation has followed an- other,-men loyal to our national institutions and to the duties of patriotism which find exemplifi- cation not more in the hour of dread warfare than in the "piping times of peace." Thus it is gratifying for the compilers of this work to be able to offer even a brief resume of the personal and ancestral history of Andrew Jackson Mar- shall.

The old Granite state of the Union figures as the place of Mr. Marshall's nativity, since he was born in Hollis, Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, on the 2Ist of December, 1823. His father, John Marshall, was born in Jaffrey, that state, on the Ist of March, 1785, being the son of Silas Mar- shall, the date of whose birth was February 20, 1745, while he likewise was born at Jaffrey, where his early years were passed. After attaining years of maturity he removed thence to Dunstable and still later to Hollis, that state, and in the last men- tioned place he passed the remainder of his long and signally useful life, being eighty-eight years of age at the time of his death and having de- voted practically his entire life to agricultural pursuits. Silas Marshall as a young man was married to Miss Eunice Bailey, who was born on the 24th of April, 1749, and who proved a de- voted companion and helpmeet during the long years of their wedded life, her death occurring at the age of ninety-four years. They became the parents of nine children, all of whom lived to years of maturity and all of whom are now de- ceased. The parents were members of the ortho- dox church and were folk of sterling character, making their lives prolific of good.

The first ancestor in America was John Mar- shall, who arrived in Massachusetts on the ship Hopewell in 1634, and settled in Boston. His wife's name was Sarah.

His son, John Marshall (2), born in 1632, was granted six acres of land at Billerica, Massa- chusetts, in 1656-7. His house there was still standing in 1883. He died in 1702, aged seventy

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vers. He had three waves. In 1662 he married Hannah Atkinson, of Concord, who ched in 1665. In the same year he married Mary Barrage, daughter of John Burrage, of Charlestown. She died in 1680, and in 168t he married Damaris White, a widow, of Malden. Of his nine children only two grew to maturity: John and Johanna, offspring of the second wife.

John (3), son of John and Mary ( Burrage) Marshall, was born August 2, 1671, and was mar- ried in 1695, to Unise Rogers. He died in 1713. He had seven children.

Thomas (4), son of John Marshall, born in 1706, married Ruth -, in 1727. She died in 1741, having borne him seven children. 'His secon.1 wife, whom he married in 1742, was named Mary. She died in 1770, having been the mother of eight children. He died in 1778. In 1734 he was one of sixty heads of families to form the new town of Tewkesbury, and in 1773 he was one of the highest taxpayers of that town. Silas was a son of Thomas Marshall and his second wife.

John Marshall, father of the subject of this sketch, passed his boyhood days in Jaffrey, whence he accompanied his parents on their re- moval to Dunstable and later to Hollis, while his educational advantages were such as were sup- plied by the common schools. In the last men- tioned place he continued to reside until middle life, having been there engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which line of enterprise he brought to bear that energy, sagacity and discrimination which ever foster definite success, for he overcame obstacles through his indomitable self-reliance and determination. In 1827 he removed to Pep- erell, Massachusetts, where he purchased a farm, to whose cultivation he gave his attention until his death, on the 7th of February, 1862, at the age of seventy-seven years. January 22, 1815, was solemnized the marriage of John Marshall to Miss Sally Fisk, who was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on the 21st of March, 1789, the place having at the time been known as Dunstable. There her father, Nathan Fisk, was also born, the date of his nativity having been June 13, 1764, and in that locality he passed his entire life, having been engaged in farming, and his life being prolonged to a good age. His wife, whose maiden name was Martha French, was born in

Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on the 13th of October. 1763, and she lived to attain middle life. Nathan and Martha ( French ) Fisk became the parents of seven children, of whom six lived to years of maturity, while all are now deceased. Of the four children of John and Sally (Fisk) Marshall, the latter of whom lived to the very advanced age of ninety-one years, her death occurring on the 24th of November, 1880, the two surviving her are Andrew J., the subject of this review; and Sarah Jane, who is the widow of Roswell T. Smith, and who maintains her home in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Andrew J. Marshall was but three years of age at the time of his parents' removal front Hollis to Peperell, and in the latter place he re- ceived a good common school education, while he carly began to contribute his quota to the work of the homestead farm. He continued to be identified with agriculture until he had attained the age of twenty-four years, when he removed to Nashua, New Hampshire, and there was em- ployed as station agent of the Worcester & Nashua Railroad for a period of twelve years, at the expiration of which, in 1865, he came to Middlebury, Vermont, in the capacity of station agent at this point, remaining in this office until 1897, a period of more than thirty years. This long tenure of a responsible and exacting office indicates more clearly than can any words of ours how faithful and able must have been his service and how greatly appreciated by the company by which he was employed. When he assumed charge of this station his only assistant was one clerk, and at the time of his retirement his office corps comprised four clerical assistants, while he had the entire supervision of the passenger, freight and telegraph business at this point. Previous to his retirement Mr. Marshall had, in 1882, established himself in the coal business in Middlebury, and this enterprise he has ever since successfully conducted, controlling a large and profitable business and having a representative supporting patronage. No citizen enjoys a higher measure of confidence and regard in the com- munity, and though he is well advanced in age, his years rest lightly upon him and he manifests the vigor and energy of a man much younger, giving his active supervision to his business af- fairs.

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

In politics Mr. Marshall gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and his mature judgment and marked executive ability have been called in- to play through his incumbency of various local offices. He served for a number of years as a member of the board of selectmen, was for two terms overseer of the poor and also was elected a member of the village board of trustees, on which he served for a number of years, while for the long term of twenty-one years he has been a zealous and valued member of the school board of Middlebury. His religious views are in har- mony with the tenets of the Congregational church, of which he and his family are regular attendants. For the past fifteen years Mr. Mar- shall has been affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Honor, in which he has held all the principal offices.

·On the 25th of April, 1850, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Marshall to Miss Mary B. George, who was born in the town now known as Webster, in Merrimac county, New Hamp- shire, on the 5th of August, 1830, being a daugh- ter of Austin George, who was born May 18, 1792, a son of Austin, Sr., who was born Janu- ary 2, 1756, and who died in January, 1817. Austin George, Jr., was an able physician and was for many years engaged in the practice of his profession in Jeffrey, New Hampshire, where his death occurred on the 25th of January, 1832. Dr. George married Miss Elizabeth Coffin Knight, who was born on the 12th of April, 1802, and who died on the 27th of October, 1858. She was a daughter of Caleb and Sarah (Coffin) Knight, the former of whom was born on the Ioth of July, 1757, and who died in March, 1818, while the latter was born November 7, 1759, and died October 2, 1812, their marriage having been solemnized in 1784. Dr. George and wife became the parents of three children of whom Mrs. Marshall is the only one now living. Phoebe G., born September 9, 1824, died on the 29th of May, 1855; and Elizabeth, born on the 29th of January, 1827, died on the 27th of December, 1901. Mrs. Elizabeth C. George entered into eternal rest on the 2d of October, 1858, both she and her husband having been members of the Congregational church. Mr. and Mrs. Marsh- all have two children. George, who married Miss Adell Corey, is a prominent merchant in Middle-

bury and has one son, Bertram, who was gradu- ated from Middlebury College as a member of the class of 1895, and who then took up the study of medicine. After passing two years in Washing- ton, as a student in Columbia Medical College, he went to New York city, where he became a stu- dent in the Homeopathic Medical College, com- pleting a thorough course and graduating in 1899, after which he was connected with hospital work in the city of Albany for one year, and is now engaged in the general practice of his profession in New York's capital city. The daughter is Clara Lizzie, who remains at the parental home. The family is prominent in the best social life of the community, where the friends of its mem- bers are in number as their acquaintances.

GEORGE HENRY TOWNSEND.

George Henry Townsend, granite dealer at Hardwick, is a progressive and eminently success- ful business man. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, December 30, 1867, and has sup- ported himself since eleven years old. He at- tended district schools in winter, and worked on farms in summer. For a period of eighteen months he was a chairman on the survey of the Canadian Pacific Railway. At Granby, province of Quebec, he attended an academy three years. Going to Barre, Vermont, at the age of eighteen years, he learned the carpenter trade, at which he spent two years. He then served an ap- prenticeship of two years with Milne & Wiley, at stone-cutting, which has since been his occu- pation. For about three years he conducted a business of his own at Barre, and, after spending a year at Newport, he came to Hardwick, in 1890. For a short time he was in charge of what is known as the "Columbian" shop, and continued some years as a journeyman. In 1898, he formed a partnership with Robert Mackie, for con- ducting the stone business, which continued two years, at the end of which time Mr. Townsend bought out his partner and has since continued alone, devoting himself to monumen- tal work of all kinds, making a specialty of ar- tistic carving, and has built up a wide and en- viable reputation throughout New England. He avails himself of all modern methods of cutting and manufacturing granite, using pneumatic

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look and other improved appliances for facilitate ing work, which he executes artistically and promptly. Recently he received some very large orders, one from the east being for a mausoleum that amounted to your car loads.

Mr. Townsend is a steadfast Republican in politics, but has never aspired to official honors, the demands of his business interests requiring his undivided attention. He is a member of Hardwick Lodge No. 68, I. O. O. F., in which he is right scene supporter. He is also connected with the Medern Woodmen of America and An- cient Order of Foresters, as well as Sons of Vet- crans.

Mr. Townsend was married June 1I, 1893, to Merry Christmas Averill, who was born Decem- ber 25, 1872, at Barre, Vermont, daughter of John W. and Adeline (Trow) Averill. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are the parents of two children: Lu- cille Mary, born January 1, 1895, and Howard Averill, October 18, 1896. Mr. Townsend's fa- ther, Abner Peletiah Townsend, was a native of Keene, New Hampshire, where he did business as a jeweler for some years. He served as a sol- dier in a Massachusetts regiment in the Civil war.

WILLIAM FREDERICK CLARK.

William Frederick Clark, of Glover, Ver- mont, is descended on his father's side from an- cestors who have been for several generations numbered among the most highly respected citi- zens of the town, and is a representative of a race, the founder of which in America was among the earliest settlers of the state of Mas- sachusetts. Cephas Clark, great-grandfather of William Frederick Clark, was a Baptist minister and a truly good and highly respected man. The traditions which have been handed down show that his ancestry came from England about the time Boston was settled. The family crest still used by some members of the Clark family shows that they belonged to an ancient and honor- able family. Cephas Clark, Jr., son of Cephas, was born in Keene, New Hampshire, July 17, 1784. He served in the war of 1812, in Colonel Steele's regiment, which was stationed at Ports- mouth, New Hampshire. He married, Septem- ber 26, 1805, in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, Deborah Wilbur, who was descended from a fam-

ily which traced its pedigree through the fol- lowing generations :

Samuel Wildbore (1), as the name was or- iginally spelled, came from England, either with Winthrop's company, or very shortly after, as is proved by the records of the church in Boston, which show that Samnel Wildbore and his wife joined the church in 1633. Later he went to Taunton, Massachusetts, where he acquired a valuable estate. While here he embraced the "dangerous doctirne of Cotton and Wheelwright" and was banished in 1637. He and seventeen others fled to Providence. By the advice of Roger Williams these eighteen persons purchased of the Indians the island of Aquidneck (now Rhode Island) and founded the colony there. In 1645 he returned to Massachusetts. Their children were: Samuel, Joseph, William and Shadrach. The care of his property in Rhode Island was left to Samuel and William, and that at Taunton to Joseph and Shadrach. Samuel, Jr., was one of the patentees in the Royal Charter of 1663, in Rhode Island.

Shadrach Wildbore (2), fourth son of Sam- ue! Wildbore, was born, it is probable, in Boston, Massachusetts, whither his parents had emi- grated, and removed at some time during his life to Taunton, Massachusetts. His children were; Samuel, Jr., Joseph, William, Shadrach.

Shadrach Wildbore, Jr., (3), fourth son of Shadrach, was born, probably, in Taunton, Mas- sachusetts, whence he removed, at what date is not stated, to Raynham, Massachusetts. His children were Shadrach, Meshach, Joseph (4), Jacob and Abijah. Nathaniel Wilbur (5), son of Joseph (4), and grandson of Shadrach Wil- bur, Jr., was born October 23, 1755, and was a Baptist preacher, serving for forty years as the pastor of a church in Westmoreland, New Hamp- shire. He married, October 19, 1780, Deborah Aldrich, of Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and seven children were born to them: Nathaniel ; Azel ; Joseph ; Deborah (6), who became the wife of Cephas Clark, mentioned above; Caleb; Alvah ; and Warren.

Cephas Clark lived, at different times, in Westmoreland and Keene, New Hampshire, Rutland and Glover, Vermont. He and his wife, Deborah (Wilbur) Clark, born in Westmore- land, New Hampshire, April 18, 1790, were the

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parents of the following children: Caleb Al- drich, born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, December 14, 1807, died in Glover, Vermont, July 10, 1883; Cephas Cheney, born September 30, 1809, in Rutland, Vermont, died in Glover, Vermont, October 23, 1869; Amasa Ford, also born in Rutland, Vermont, June 22, 1811, died in Wilmington, Massachusetts, September 5, 1879; Alvah Ward, born July 9, 1813, in Keene, New Hampshire, died in Glover, Vermont, in June, 1884; Deborah Wilbur, born May 31, 1815, in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, died in Greensboro, Vermont, March 13, 1882; Nathan- iel Evelyn, born in June, 1817, in Keene, New Hampshire, died in Glover, Vermont, October II, 1820; Frederick Plummer Abbott, born May 21, 1819, in Glover, Vermont, where he died February 6, 1889; Betsey Alfreda, born August 27, 1821, in Glover, Vermont, and died in the same place, in July, 1889; Abigail Richardson, born May 14, 1824, died in November, 1891, and this daughter and all the children who came after her were born in Glover, Vermont, and all, with the exception of one, died there; Nathaniel Evelyn (2), born March 10, 1826; Fanny Can- dace, born June 18, 1828, died September 8, 1860; Ezra Leonard, born August 29, 1830, died in April, 1896, in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It may be interesting to a later generation, as illustrative of life in the northern part of New England more than eighty years ago, to learn that when Cephas Clark and his family moved from Westmoreland, New Hampshire, to Glover, Vermont, in October, 1818, their household goods were transported on a two-ox sled, and their first dwelling in their new place of abode was a log house which they built after their ar- rival. A flax wheel which belonged to them at the time of this migration is now an heirloom in the Clark family. Mrs. Clark died in Glover, Vermont, July 23, 1850, and her husband passed away in the same place, August 8, 1858.

Frederick Plummer Abbott Clark, son of Cephas and Deborah (Wilbur) Clark, was born May 21, 1819, in Glover, Vermont, and died there February 6, 1889. He married Eliza Jennette King, born November 6, 1823, în Glover, Ver- mont, the history of whose family reads, in part, like a tale of adventure and romance.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol II, Part 55

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1044