History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 88

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1260

USA > Vermont > Windsor County > History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 88

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chester, N. H., June 30, 1880; William Isaac, born in Richford, Vt., May 29, 1883 ; Thomas Benjamin, born and died in Richford, Vt., No- vember 24, 1888. (d) Frances Elizabeth, born in Red Wing, Minn., September 22, 1858, married, December 12, 1878, Frank Hallett Fisher, of Burlington, Vt., who was for three years cashier of the Howard Na- tional Bank, and is now special eastern agent of the Northwestern Guar- anty Loan Company of Minneapolis. Their children are, Wilson Hatch Fisher, born September 12, 1879; Louis Edwin Fisher, born Novem- ber 6, 1880; John Marcus Fisher, born November 12, 1882, died Aug- ust 16, 1883; Josephine Forbes Fisher, born July 24, 1884, died Janu- ary 3, 1888, and Florence Martha Fisher, born November 24, 1888.

(3) Charlotte Eloise, born January 30, 1834, married July 9, 1863, Rev. Henry A. Hazen, and died in Auburndale, Mass., February 8, 1881 ; buried in Christian Street burial-ground, Hartford, Vt. Mr. Ha- zen was born in Hartford December 27, 1832, graduated fron Kimball Union Academy, Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Semi nary ; was pastor of Congregational churches in Plymouth, Lyme and Pittsfield, N. H., and in Billerica, Mass, and since 1880 has resided in Auburndale, Mass., in the service of the A. B. C. F. M. until 1883 ; secretary of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, and editor of the Year Book from 1883 ; trustee of Kimball Union Academy and of the Howe School of Billerica ; secretary of An- dover Alumni Association, 1880-90, of the New Hampshire General Association, 1872-74, and of the Massachusetts General Association since 1888; editor of the General Catalogue of Andover Theological Seminary, 1880, and author of History of Billerica with Genealogies, 1882. Their children were, (a) Mary, born in Plymouth, N. H., No- vember 23, 1864, died September 30, 1865 ; (b) Emily, born August 5, 1866, graduated from Smith College in 1889, and now teacher in the Mary Burnham School, Northampton, Mass .; (c) Charlotte, born in Lyme, N. H., November 6, 1868.

(4) Ellen Shepherd, born March 13, 1836, married in Windsor, Vt., September 29, 1857, to Samuel Willard Foster. Mr. Foster was born in Frost village, Quebec, educated at the academy in Concord, Mass., and the University of Vermont, studied law with the Hon. H. Bailey Terrill, of Stanstead, and the Hon. Judge Secotte, of St. Hyacinthe,

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Quebec, and was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada February 6, 1854. They reside at Knowlton, Quebec. Their children, all born at Knowlton, are (a) George Greene, born January 28, 1860, educated at McGill College, Montreal, is a member of the law firm of Archibald & Foster, Montreal, Canada ; (b) Samuel Baxter, born December 5, 1861, graduated at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, married Minnie M., daughter of Nathanial Norton of Chicago, Ill., October 8, 1885, is a lawyer and the attorney for the Grand Trunk Railway in Chicago, Ill., where he resides; their children are Samuel Norton, born August 8, 1888, and George Getty, born February 14, 1889 ; (c) Ellen Gertrude, born November 19, 1864, married, June 3, 1886, Gardner Stevens, eldest son of Hon. G. G. Stevens of Waterloo, Quebec, where they now reside, and their children are Gertrude Foster, born April 26, 1887; Harold Gardner, born March 14, 1889; Ellen Greene, born October 25, 1890.

(5) Mary Harriet, boin February 20, 1838, married, October 8, 1861, Gilman Henry Tucker. She died in Boston, Mass., January 28, 1869; buried in the Tucker lot in Raymond, N. H. Mr. Tucker was gradu- ated, as were his wife and her sisters, Anna and Ellen, from Kimball Union Academy. He graduated at Dartmouth College and read law, but became agent or manager of the school-book department of Charles Scribner & Co., in Boston, 1866-78; in New York, 1878-83 ; secretary Publishers' Association, 1883-90, of American Book Company, 1890-, and has been since 1887 president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of New York.

Dr. George B. Green died May 31, 1866. He is well remembered in Windsor as a large-hearted, generous man, very hospitable, with ready sympathy for all in distress and trouble, and sure to express his sympa- thy by acts of benevolence. He was a true and firm friend, very de- cided in his opinions, and fearless in expressing them. He was especially kind and indulgeut to his children, who were left at an early age without a mother's care. He gave to all of them a good education, and trained them to habits of virtue and usefulness. He was interested in a variety of things, medicine, horticulture, farming, the raising of fruit, landscape gardening, as well as in plans for the improvement of the village in which he lived. At one time he owned a large amount of real estate in Windsor, and he was always very pleased to do his part in aiding public

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improvements. He was devoted to his church, the Old South, and a regular and devout attendant upon its services. In his will he provided that the church should share equally with each of his children in his estate.

W TARDNER, GEORGE, was born in Windsor, Vt., August 14, 1815, the eldest in a family of twelve children of Allen and Mi- nerva (Bingham) Wardner. (For genealogy see article under the name of Wardner in this work). He received his early education at the acad- emy in Randolph, Vt., and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., 1831-33. He soon after entered the University of Vermont, studied law with Giles F. Yates of Schenectady, N. Y., the late Jonathan H. Hubbard in Windsor, Vt., and Ketchum & Fessenden, New York city, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1839. After prac- ticing law for a few years in New York city, he returned to Windsor and engaged in the mercantile business from 1846 to 1851. He repre- sented the town in the Legislature in 1852. In 1861 he traveled in Europe on business and pleasure combined, and again in 1863 and '64. After his return he resided in Boston several years, but during the later years of his life made his home in Windsor. He married, Septem- ber 28, 1879, Ann Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Dr. George B. and Mary Hatch (Jones) Green, who was born in Windsor, Vt., August 28, 1830, and now resides at the old Green homestead, which her husband purchased in 1882. After a lingering illness of eighteen months, which he bore with great patience and fortitude, he died at his residence in Windsor, Agust 28, 1885, in the hope of a blessed immortality, and was buried in his wife's family lot in the old South Church cemetery. He had a brilliant intellect and cultivated mind, a remarkable memory, was fluent and entertaining in conversation, kind-hearted, generous and exceedingly sensitive, a good son, brother and husband, and a true friend.

ILL, JAMES SEEL, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, November 26, 1828, and was the eldest child in a family of six sons of Thomas and Elizabeth (Seel) Gill. His father was a man of wealth, his business being that of master dyer, but in consequence of the financial

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HISTORY OF WINDSOR COUNTY.

panic in 1837, he lost his property. In 1844 he removed his family to America, and settled in Northampton, Mass. James S. attended a private school in England, and about three years after his father's failure, he com- menced to learn the dyer's trade, and continued the apprenticeship after the family removed to Northampton. At the age of seventeen he took charge of the dye house at the Thomas Bottomly Mill, Leicester, Mass., and was afterwards employed by James Roy & Co., of West Troy, N. Y .; C. L. Harding & Co., of Oxford, Mass .; and Edward Harris, of Woon- socket, R. I On account of his health he gave up his trade, and en- gaged in the mercantile business in Leicester and Holliston, Mass He carried on business at these places and was engaged in other enterprises till 1863, when he was again engaged as dyer by C. L. Harding & Co., who were at that time running the Burlington Woolen Mills located at Winooski, Vt. In 1868, he became a member of the firm of George W. Harding & Co., Ludlow, Vt., then operating the Ludlow Woolen Mills, and in 1878 he purchased the entire plant, and continued to run the busi- iness alone till September 1, 1885, when other parties became interested with him. Mr. Gill has always been a Republican in politics. In 1849 he married Miss Rachel M. Wood. An adopted daughter, Florence Harding, died in 1886. They have no other children.

T UTTLE, COLONEL OSCAR STRATTON, was born in Weathers- field, Vt., August 23, 1832, and was the second son and third child in a family of six children of Augustus and Phila (Tolles) Tuttle. His father was born in Cavendish, Vt , May 25, 1796, and was the second son of Jedediah and Lydia (Porter) Tuttle. Oscar passed his boyhood on his father's farm, attending the district school. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk in a general store at Woodstock, and afterwards at Per- kinsville, and subsequently went to Boston, where he remained till 1854 or 1855, when he came to Springfield, Vt., and was employed by Selden Cook. He remained in Mr. Cook's employ till 1857, when he opened with his brother, Augustus, a general store in Cavendish village, under the firm name of A. & O. S. Tuttle. Soon after removing to Cavendish he became interested in the Vermont State Militia, and became a mem- ber of the Cavendish Light Infantry. On July 31, 1858, he was commis- sioned by Governor Ryland Fletcher, second lieutenant of this company,

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which was then attached to the Twenty-fifth Regiment of the State Militia. He received a commission dated June 11, 1860, from Governor Hiland Hall, as first lieutenant in this company, which was then attached to the Second Vermont Regiment. Governor Erastus Fairbanks, under date of December 25, 1860, commissioned him captain, the company be- ing then known as Company E, Second Vermont Regiment. On the breaking out of the late war Colonel Tuttle raised a company of volunteers, which was attached to the First Vermont Regiment. He was present at the battle of Big Bethel, and on the termination of his term of enlistment he re-enlisted and was commissioned by Governor Fairbanks, Septem- ber 25, 1861, major of the Sixth Vermont Regiment, which was a part of the First Vermont Brigade. On September 19, 1862, he received a com- mission from Governor Frederick Holbrook as lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment, and under date of December 18, 1862, as colonel. He took part in most of the battles fought in the Virginia campaign, was in the seven days' fight before Richmond, at Crampton Pass, Antietam, Fredericksburg, etc. Owing to ill-health Colonel Tuttle was obliged to resign his command, and was discharged from the United States service March 18, 1863. On leaving the army he returned to Cavendish. During his term of service he had retained his interest in the firm of A. & O. S. Tuttle, but in the fall of 1863 they removed to Holyoke, Mass., and confined their business to dry goods. After a few years the firm was dissolved, Colonel Tuttle continuing alone untill his death. In politics a Republican, the Colonel never sought political honors. He was appointed by President Johnson, January 3, 1867, Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Tenth District of Massachusetts, which posi- tion he held during that and the Grant administration. He was one of the board of fire engineers for the city of Holyoke, and was for a num- ber of years chief engineer of the fire department. Colonel Tuttle was a thirty-second degree Mason, and was a member of the Springfield Com- mandery of Knights Templar, and was one of the founders of the New England Mutual Relief Association, and was for many years clerk of that organization. He was one of the trustees of the Holyoke Savings Bank, and also member of the Kilpatrick Post, G. A. R., of Holyoke. He was careful, thorough, methodical, and honorable in his business relations. As a citizen he was always ready to aid the right and discourage dishon-

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esty in politics or public business. He married, June 1, 1858, Ellen M., daughter of Selden and Mary (Batchelder) Cook. The issue of this mar- riage was one child, Edward Oscar, born in Holyoke, Mass., January 16, 1865. He attended the public schools of his native city, and graduated in 1886 from the Boston Technological Institute. He is at present en- gaged in the banking business at Minneapolis, Minn. Colonel Tuttle died at Holyoke, December 15, 1881.

W ATSON, HON. EDWIN CHENEY, was born in Worcester, May 26, 1818. He was the oldest of eight children of Oliver and Esther (Brown) Watson. His ancestors first settled in Connecticut, but subsequently moved to Massachusetts, where his father was born at Old Brookfield, October 8, 1785. Oliver Watson came to Montpelier about 1816, and subsequently settled in Worcester, of which town he was one of the pioneers. He soon after married Esther, daughter of Amasa and Sibyl (Stoddard) Brown-who was born in Medway, Mass., March II, 1794-May 29, 1817, which marriage was the first one in town. Their children, besides the subject of this sketch, all of whom were born in Worcester, were Sibyl E., born April 21, 1820, who married Nelson H. Caswell, July 4, 1843, and resides at Chelsea; Caroline B., born Novem- ber 26, 1822, who married Alvin Colby, March 27, 1842, and Joseph A. Hadley June 26, 1876, and died at St. Johnsbury, September 13, 1889; Amasa B., born February 27, 1826, who married Martha Brooks, of Mus- kegon, Mich , October 7, 1856, served in the Union Army and was mus- tered out as major, and died at Grand Rapids, Mich., of which city he was at one time mayor, September 18, 1888; Oliver L., born May I, 1828, who married Nancy C. Darling, of Worcester, August 19, 1852, and Delia A. Peake, of Orange, October 18, 1880, and is a retired phy- sician residing at Montpelier; Lucinda L., who was born September 4, 1830, and died March 29, 1852; Olive O., born November 27, 1832, who married James Rice, since Secretary of State in Colorado, Novem- ber 13, 1854, and died August 29, 1860; and Algernon Sidney, who was born February 6, 1838, and died July 9, 1880.

But meager educational advantages were afforded the youth of his native town in those days, and Edwin C. obtained only a limited com- mon school education, but a correct training supplementing a good

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native ability made him a successful man of business and public affairs. At the age of eighteen years he went to Leominster, Mass., to work, but his uncle, Hon. Milton Brown, of Worcester, having been elected by the Legislature superintendent of the Vermont State Prison, in 1837, he came to Windsor and served as a guard, and subsequently as warden or keeper, during the four years of Mr. Brown's incum- bency as superintendent. In Mr. Brown's family at Windsor he met Miss Sophia, daughter of Captain Seth and Anna (Chase) Johnson, of Cornish, N. H., whom he subsequently married, January 1, 1844. They settled in Worcester and Mr. Watson engaged in farming at first, but later in the milling and tanning business. Eight children were born to them, as follows : Charles A., born October 3, 1844, married Emma J. Hathaway of Calais. He served in the Union army in Company C, Thirteenth Regiment, and Company E, Seventeenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers, and was mustered out of the service as second lieutenant, and is now engaged in the carriage and granite business at Woodbury ; Emily F. was born January 16, 1847, and died August 29, 1861 ; Henry A., born June 21, 1849, graduated from the Bryant & Stratton Business College, Boston, and from the medical department of the Uni- versity of Vermont in 1874, he practiced his profession at Rindge and Henniker, N. H., and White River Junction, Vt., married Clara A. Teele, of Winchendon, Mass., and died January 4, 1888; Lucinda S., born March 5, 1852, married Frank W. Cameron, of Hartford, and died April 12, 1888; George A. was born August 27, 1854, and died Au- gust 11, 1856; Alfred E., born August 6, 1857, was educated at Kimball Union and St. Johnsbury Academies in the class of 1879, and at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1883, and while in college was managing editor and business manager of The Dart- mouth, was secretary of civil and military affairs of Vermont for the biennial term 1884-86, and in the latter year, when the new Board of Railroad Commissioners was constituted, was appointed its clerk, which position he still holds, was assistant town clerk of Hartford in 1884 and 1885, and Director of the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company for Windsor county, 1886-90, is a member of the school board at Hart- ford where he resides, is the accredited representative of the New England Associated Press for this section of the State, correspondent

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of the Boston Globe, and has recently been elected treasurer of the White River Savings Bank at White River Junction, and married Mary Maud Carr, of New York city, granddaughter of John Anderson the to- bacconist, July 3, 1883 ; Olive R., born August 20, 1860, was educated at St. Johnsbury Academy and at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, and resides with her brother, Alfred E., at Hartford ; Ed- die Ellsworth, born January 10, 1863, died May 16, 1863.

In 1859 and 1860, Edwin C. Watson was elected Assistant Judge of Washington County court, and in 1861 and 1862 represented the town of Worcester in the General Assembly, being the first one born in town to represent it in the Legislature. He entered the employ of Van Or- num, Braley & Co., latterly known as French, Watson & Co., of Hartford, Vt., manufacturers of agricultural implements, in 1861, and at the time of his death was the senior member of the firm, owning a half interest. He married for his second wife, November 24, 1864, Mrs. Mary L. Hayward, daughter of Horace H. and Sally (Kemp) Collier, of Worcester, by whom he had three children, viz .: Edwin E., who was born October 10, 1867, and died February 27, 1868 ; George H., who was born December 12, 1869, was educated at Burlington Business College, and resides with his mother at Montpelier ; Lettie A., who was born May 13, 1873, and died August 18, 1873.

In March, 1867, Judge Watson moved his family to Hartford, where he resided until his death of cancer of the stomach, after an illness of about a year, December 20, 1885. While living in Hartford he held all of the more important town offices which he would accept, and repre- sented the town in the General Assembly in 1874. At the time of his death he was prominently mentioned for State Senator from Windsor county in 1886. He was also director of the Vermont Mutual Fire In- surance Company for Windsor county several years. Judge Watson, politically, was a Whig, and later a stalwart Republican, and his religious preference was Methodist.

B ILLINGS, HON. FREDERICK, the son of Oel Billings and Sophia Wetherbe, the fourth child of a family of nine children-six sons and three daughters -all of whom lived to adult age The Billings family is an old one, dating back to the time of Henry III., and num- bering among its more distinguished members a Lord Chief Justice of

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England. Mr. Billings' great-grandfather, Samuel Billings, of New London, Conn , was killed in the defense of Fort Griswold, in 1781; and his grandfather, John Billings, was also a soldier in the War of the Rev- olution. The latter married Nancy, the daughter of Governor Jonas Galusha of Vermont, and they had ten children, of whom Oel Billings, the father of Frederick, was one. Frederick Billings was born in Royal- ton, Vt., September 27, 1823. When he was twelve years old he re- moved with his father to Woodstock, which was thereafter the family home. He fitted for college at Meriden, N. H., and at the age of seven- teen entered the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in August, 1844. Among his classmates in college were Bishop W. B. W. Howe of South Carolina, Judge C. L. Benedict of New York, the late Rev. M. M. Colburn and the late Hon. William Collamer of Woodstock. Young Billings was a brilliant scholar, and his wit and flow of spirits made him a favorite in college and social circles. After leaving college he studied law in the office of Hon. O. P. Chandler of Woodstock, and was admitted to the Windsor County Bar in 1848. He was appointed secretary of civil and military affairs by Governor Horace Eaton in 1846, and held that office during Governor Eaton's two terms as governor. In 1848 the California "gold fever" broke out and Mr. Billings' attention was especially directed to the new Eldorado by his brother-in-law, Cap- tain B. Simmons, who was a ship captain and had made repeated voy- ages to the Pacific coast, and in February, 1849, in company with Cap- tain and Mrs. Simmons, he went to San Francisco by the Isthmus route. Mrs. Simmons contracted Panama fever on the way and died four days after her arrival, and Captain Simmons died in San Francisco a year later. Mr. Billings opened the first law office in San Francisco and at once made his mark. It was at a time and in a place where success in his profession meant wealth and influence, and he rapidly acquired both. He became a partner in the leading law firm of San Francisco, that of Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Park, of which General Halleck, subse- quently for a time general in chief of the Union armies, and Trenor W. Park were members. The law firm was dissolved in 1861, on Mr. Billing's going to England in company with General Fremont upon business con- nected with the General's great Mariposa estate. Mr. Billings was an influential and earnest actor in the exciting events of the formative per-

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iod in the history of California, and active in the various movements for the establishment of law, order and the institutions of education, religion and civil government, through which the new State became a stable Christian commonwealth. He was especially active in defeating the conspirators who endeavored to detach California from the Union at the outbreak of the civil war, and in company with Starr King he made a tour of the State, in behalf of the National cause, everywhere electrifying the audiences which assembled to hear them by his patriotic appeals. Although he was an unusually impressive speaker and peculiarly fitted for a public career, Mr. Billings never cared to enter political life. He accepted the responsible position of attorney-general of California, but held no other political office, although often pressed to take nominations for such offices during his residence in San Francisco. After the re-elec- tion of President Lincoln, and while he was reconstructing his cabinet for his second term, the California delegation in Congress urged upon him the propriety of giving California a representative in the new cabinet, and unanimously recommended Mr. Billings for the place. Only two days before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, he gave assurance to a mem- ber of the delegation that their request would be complied with. After Mr. Lincoln's death, the Legislature of California, then in session, unani- mously passed a resolution requesting President Johnson to appoint Mr. Billings to his cabinet as a representative of the Pacific coast. These facts attest the high estimation in which Mr. Billings was held by the people of California at the time when he left that State to settle down in his old home in Vermont.

He remained a bachelor up to his thirty-ninth year. In March, 1862, he was married in New York to Julia, daughter of Dr. Eleazar Parmly, of that city. Soon after this event he closed up his business in San Francisco, and after a period spent in foreign travel, he returned in 1864 to Woodstock to make his home there. In 1869 he purchased the Marsh estate comprising the homestead of the late Charles Marsh, father of George P. Marsh, which occupied the most beautiful and conspicuous site in that beautiful village. Mr. Billings twice almost wholly recon- structed the mansion, and in the words of the historian of the town of Woodstock "he went on in making additions and improvements, till at length in the extent of territory, in the variety and orderly arrangement

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of the various parts of this wide domain and in the convenience and ele- gance of the buildings erected thereon, his home on the hill came to re- semble one of the baronial estates of the old world, and is not surpassed in these respects, and in beauty of situation, by any similar establishment in New England." He became president of the Woodstock National Bank about this time, and took an active interest in business, and politi- cal and public affairs, both in Vermont and in the city of New York, where he had a handsome residence and spent his winters. In 1872 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Vermont. It was the first convention held after the adoption of the biennial system and other changes in the constitution of our State. Mr. Billings was less known then than afterwards, and owing to various causes and complica- tions attending the peculiar condition of Vermont politics, he failed, by only a vote or two, of the nomination. He accepted the situation in a manly and eloquent speech in the convention, at the close of which, had it been then possible to reverse the action of the body, he would have been nominated by acclamation. At no subsequent time would he con - sent to be a candidate for civil office. He, however, did not lose his in- terest in State and National politics, and in 1880 he was chosen as a del- egate to the Republican National Convention, and presented the name of George F. Edmunds as the choice of the Republicans of Vermont for president in one of the finest and most striking speeches of that memor- able convention. He was a prominent member of the Union League Club of New York City, and was known in New York and elsewhere as one of the strong supporters of the Republican party with voice and vote and purse. He was also a member of the Lawyers, Century and Down Town Clubs, of New York, and a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce. After the failure of Mr. Jay Cook in 1873, and the appar- ent collapse of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company Mr. Billings be- came interested in that great enterprise. He made extensive purchases of its stock and securities, then greatly depressed; he brought fresh cap- ital to the coffers of the company, and became its president; the work of construction was resumed with vigor, the vast tracts of land granted by Congress were marketed, and the road was finally pushed through to completion. Shortly before the occurrence of this event, Mr. Billings disposed of enough of his interest in the company to the combination

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History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 88

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1260

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1260