Marlborough, Mass., now Hudson, in 1800. He bought a mill property
there, consisting of a saw, grist, and wire-drawing mill. In 1806 he
built a cotton-mill, and operated it until the close of the war in 1815.
It required in those days immense enterprise and energy to project and
carry on such a work as a cotton-factory. The machinery was procured
from Rhode Island. The ginning-machine had not yet come into general
use. The cotton, when received, was distributed among the farmers, to
have the seeds picked out one by one by their families. It was carded
and spun by water power, at the mill. It was then sent out again among
the farmers to be woven into cloth. Phineas Sawyer was a man of great
independence of character, self-reliant, and full of courage. These
qualities, so conspicuous in his business affairs, shone out with
undiminished power in his religious life. He lived at a time in
Massachusetts when Methodism was regarded with special disfavor. But Mr.
Sawyer, believing that the Methodists were right, believed so with all
his heart, and the petty persecutions to which his faith was subjected
only intensified his zeal and loyalty. His house was the home for all
traveling Methodists, and the place where they gathered for religious
worship. He was well versed in the best Methodist literature of his
times. He stands forth in the annals of his church as one of the
foremost men, for sagacity, boldness, and piety, in the Needham circuit.
He had for his wife a worthy helpmeet, Hannah Whitney, of Harvard. She
was as ardently attached to Methodism as was her husband, and bore her
full share of service and sacrifice for it in its days of weakness and
persecution. The sudden death of her husband, which took place in 1820,
left Mrs. Sawyer to provide for the support of twelve children, the
youngest, Jonathan, being then two years old. This truly noble woman,
with but little means, faced the difficulties before her with an
unflinching spirit of faith and hopefulness. It required superlative
fortitude, finest sagacity, and sternest self-sacrifice to have enabled
this mother to successfully rear these twelve children, give to them a
good education, and establish all of them in respectable positions in
the world. She continued to live in Marlborough some nine years, leasing
the mill property. In 1829 she went to Lowell, where she lived twenty
years, dying there in 1849, greatly respected by all who knew her, and
held in honor and affection by her many children.
7. JONATHAN SAWYER, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest child
of Phineas. He was born at Marlborough, Mass., in 1817. He went with his
mother and other members of the family when he was twelve years old, to
Lowell, where for the next few years he attended school. He was a member
of the first class that entered the high school of that city, having
among his mates Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Gov. E. A. Straw, and G. V.
Fox, assistant secretary of the navy during the civil war. Bishop Thomas
M. Clark was the principal of this school. On account of a severe
sickness, young Sawyer at sixteen years of age left school, and while
recruiting his health made a visit to his brother, Alfred Ira Sawyer,
who, after some experience as a dyer at Amesbury and Great Falls, had
come in 1824 to Dover, N. H., where he was operating a grist-mill, a
custom carding and cloth-dressing mill, converting this last into a
flannel-mill. Jonathan remained in Dover two years, going to school and
working for his brother. In the fall of 1835 he returned to Lowell. His
mother, for the purpose of conferring upon her son a more complete
education, sent him to the great Methodist school at Wilbraham, which at
that time was a most flourishing preparatory school for the Wesleyan
University at Middletown, Conn. Here he remained two terms, when, at
nineteen years of age, returning to Lowell, he went into a woolen
establishment as a dyer. Afterwards he went into this business on his
own account, and continued in it until 1839.
During the latter part of this time he was not so engrossed in his
business but that he found time to make frequent visits to New Ipswich,
where Miss Martha Perkins, of Barnard, Vt., was attending school. In
1839 they were married, and went to Watertown, N.Y., where Mr. Sawyer
became the superintendent of the Hamilton Woolen Company. After two and
a half years, Mr. Sawyer went into business for the manufacture of
satinets. In 1850, his brother Alfred having died at Dover, N. H., the
year before, and the children being too young to carry on the business,
Mr. Jonathan Sawyer assumed its control in connection with his brother
Zenas. Two years later Zenas retired, and Francis A. Sawyer, who had
been a prominent builder in Boston, became a partner with Jonathan, the
object being to continue the manufacture of woolen flannels. In 1858 the
property below known as the "Moses mill," another flannel manufactory,
was purchased. This mill was enlarged in 1860 to four sets of machinery,
again in 1863 to eight, and in 1880 and 1882 to sixteen sets. The old
machinery is now completely replaced by new. The old mill, started in
1832, was in 1872 replaced by the present substantial structure, which
contains fourteen sets of machinery, with preparing and finishing
machinery for thirty sets in both mills.
Since 1866 the attention of these noted manufacturers has been entirely
devoted to the manufacture of fine fancy cassimere cloths and suitings.
Already they have established for these goods a foremost place in their
class. At the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia, a medal and
diploma were awarded the Sawyer goods, for their "high intrinsic merit."
The business has, since 1873, been carried on as a corporation, having a
capital of six hundred thousand dollars. The corporation consists of the
old firm of F. A.[7] and J. Sawyer, and Charles H. Sawyer, the present
agent of the establishment. In 1866 this company made a bold innovation
on the method that was so long in vogue among manufacturers, of
consigning their goods to commission houses. The undertaking upon which
this company entered, of selling their own goods, was met with great
opposition; but their boldness and foresight have already been justified
by the success which they have made, and the adoption of their methods
by other manufacturers. This establishment can now look back upon a
half-century of remarkable history. The unmarred reputation for
strictest integrity which these managers have won, their far-reaching
enterprise, and the unsurpassed excellences of their fabrics, have
enabled them to prosperously pass through all the financial depressions
and panics which so many times have swept over the country during this
long period.
Mr. Jonathan Sawyer, with his vigor of mind and body still unimpaired,
lives in his elegant mansion, which looks out upon a magnificent picture
of wood and vale and mountain range, and down upon the busy scene of his
many years of tireless industry. He loves his home, in the adornment of
which his fine taste finds full play. When free from business he is
always there. He loves his books, and his conversation shows an unusual
breadth of reading in science, history, and politics. He is possessed of
a strong, clear intellect, a calm, dispassionate judgment, and
sympathies which always bring him to the side of the wronged and the
suffering. At a time when anti-slavery sentiments were unpopular, Mr.
Sawyer was free in their utterance, and was among the first to form the
Free-soil party. Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr.
Sawyer has been among its strongest supporters. He has persistently
declined the many offices of honor and profit which those acquainted
with his large intelligence and sagacity and stainless honesty have
sought to confer upon him. He is abundantly content to exercise his
business powers in developing still more the great manufactory, and his
affections upon his large household and his chosen friends, and his
public spirit in helping every worthy cause and person in the community.
The children of Mr. Sawyer, all of whom have grown up to maturity, are
Charles Henry, Mary Elizabeth, Francis Asbury, Roswell Douglas, Martha
Frances, Alice May, Frederic Jonathan.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Francis A. Sawyer died June 16, 1881.
[Illustration: ASA CROSBY MD AND SONS]
DR. ASA CROSBY AND SONS.
BY S. P. HADLEY.
In giving a notice of Judge Crosby of Lowell, Mass., as originally
contemplated, at his request and with the consent of the publisher, I am
desired to give it in the character of a family notice, or rather of the
father and sons, now all deceased except the judge.
DR. ASA CROSBY, the father, was born in Amherst (now Milford), N. H.,
July 15, 1765, and died at Hanover, N. H., April 12, 1836. He married
Betsey Hoit, daughter of Judge Nathan Hoit, an officer in the
Revolutionary war, and judge of the court of common pleas. He was in the
sixth generation from Simon of Cambridge, Mass., who arrived in the
"Susan and Ellyn" in 1635, the direct line being Simon, Simon, Josiah,
Josiah, and Josiah his father, born in Billerica, Mass., November 24,
1730. Sarah Fitch, his mother, was born in Bedford, Mass., March 25,
1732. The Crosby families mostly inhabited Billerica, Mass., where many
of the descendants still reside, although some lived in the ancient town
of Braintree, Mass., and others on Cape Cod. His father settled in
Amherst, N. H., where he died October 15, 1763. His mother lived until
September 16, 1825. The following notice of Dr. Crosby, written by Prof.
R. D. Mussey of Dartmouth College, is taken from the _Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal_, Vol. XIV.:--
"Dr. Asa Crosby was an uncommon man. At the age of twenty-one he
commenced practice in Strafford county, N. H., and continued in
full practice forty-six years. He was a distinguished member of
the profession, both in physic and surgery; and in the latter
branch he performed some very important and difficult
operations. Indeed, for many years he was the principal operator
for an extensive district of country. He was one of those
self-taught men, whose force of intellect breaks through the
most appalling obstacles, and rises unaided to skill and
reputation. Although deprived of a systematic course of
professional instruction, having commenced practice before
medical schools were established in New England, he provided
himself with a good library, and spent his leisure hours, and
even moments, among his books. He drew around him young men as
pupils, between twenty and thirty of whom may be reckoned as
educated by him; and, what is much to his credit, many of them
are now distinguished men.
"Dr. Crosby was for many years a member of the Church of Christ,
and died in the full hope of a better life.
"The medical profession in New Hampshire is not a little
indebted to Dr. Crosby, inasmuch as he was one of the few who
interested themselves in procuring the charter of the State
Medical Society, of which he was an active and zealous member
for thirty years. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was
conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1811."
JOSIAH CROSBY, M. D.
DR. JOSIAH CROSBY, third son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N.
H., February 1, 1794, and died in Manchester, N. H., January 7, 1875. He
married Olive Light Avery, daughter of Daniel Avery, a merchant and
manufacturer of Gilford, N. H., February 9, 1829. He studied his
profession with his father, and the distinguished Prof. Nathan Smith of
Dartmouth College. His early practice was in Concord, N. H., and Lowell,
Mass., but his professional life-work was in Manchester, N. H., from
1844 to his death. The following extracts are taken from an obituary
notice of him read before the New Hampshire Medical Society by Dr. W. W.
Wilkins, of Manchester:--
"Here (Manchester, N. H.,) for thirty years he was the unrivaled
head of the profession. Here he originated the method of making
extensions of fractured limbs by the use of adhesive strips,
which gave him a high reputation with surgeons in Europe as well
as at home; and, later, he invented the 'invalid bed' which has
so tenderly held the patient, without a strain or jar, while the
bed-clothes could be changed or wounds cared for, or, by
dropping a belt or two, prevent local pressure and irritation.
The skillful physician, the christian gentleman, and
sympathizing friend were combinations of character in him rarely
excelled.
"Those who have known Dr. Josiah Crosby, who have had the
privilege of his acquaintance, been honored by his confidence,
and felt the influence of his pure example, will feel more
deeply than any words of mine express, the loss we have met in
his death. Few men love their life-work as he did. The practice
of medicine to him was no mere trade, no secondary means of
obtaining something else that outranked it, but the chosen
calling of his life, to which in his young manhood he gave not
only his rare mental endowments, but the rich treasures of his
heart; and with the weight of eighty years resting upon him, it
was his greatest comfort that he could still labor in his chosen
profession.
"His habits of study, that had been early formed, followed him
into old age. New theories and discoveries in medical science
were carefully criticised; the medical journals, to which he was
a liberal subscriber, were read; and he was better posted in
regard to the medical literature of the day than a majority of
the young men in the profession.
"He exerted a strong influence on the profession itself. The
quiet dignity of his character was felt by all who came in
contact with him. No unguarded words passed his lips in regard
to members of the profession that were absent that would not
have been as freely expressed in their presence.
"The same elements of character made him a superior surgeon. His
operations were complete. He had abundant resources, and, if the
ordinary methods of treatment failed, was ever ready to supply
their place by extraordinary methods. His contributions to
medical science were of a character that reflected the highest
honor upon him as a physician and skillful surgeon, and placed
him in no mean rank as a benefactor of his race.
"He never indulged in sports, or frequented watering-places. His
church, his home, and his professional duties filled to the full
his days and years, and too many sleepless nights. His
sympathies for the sick, his great benevolence, his love of
neighbor as of himself, formed the mainspring of his life
labors.
"We have known him in his strength, and we shall always
recollect him as the strong, self-reliant, active physician. We
are more than grateful for his record. Life is the sum total of
so many days and years, to which may be added the little real
good one has been permitted to accomplish in a lifetime. Looking
back over these fifty years, can we compute the worth of such a
life?"
His widow still lives, as also his son, Dr. George A. Crosby, of
Manchester, an eminent physician and surgeon.
JUDGE NATHAN CROSBY.
NATHAN CROSBY, fourth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N.
H., February 12, 1798; was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820: read
law with Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, and Asa Freeman, of Dover,
N. H., and was admitted to the bar in Strafford county in 1823. He
practiced law a dozen years, mostly in Gilmanton, N. H., and Amesbury
and Newburyport, Mass., until 1838, when he removed to Boston, at the
call of the Massachusetts Temperance Union, to conduct two important
features of the temperance cause,--the acceptance of the teetotal pledge
for the ardent-spirits pledge, and prohibition for license, and to
organize societies based upon those principles throughout the
commonwealth. He was also editor of the _Massachusetts Temperance
Journal_, the _Cold Water Army_ and _Temperance Almanac_, and various
other publications.
Subsequently, in 1843, he removed to Lowell, and was employed by the
manufacturing companies of that city to purchase the large lakes in New
Hampshire whose waters supply the Merrimack river, and secured for the
companies one hundred thousand acres of water. Before this service was
fully accomplished, he received the appointment of standing justice of
the police court of Lowell, upon the resignation of the late Hon. Joseph
Locke, who had held the office thirteen years. Judge Crosby was
qualified May 19, 1846. This position he still holds. He has rarely
failed of holding the civil terms of the court during his entire period
of service. In the discharge of the duties of a local magistrate,--a
position peculiarly trying, placed, as those duties are, so near the
people in all their differences, controversies, temptations, follies,
and depravities,--he has been at all times humane, conscientious,
incorruptible, and just, aiming to do right.
In all works of philanthropy and reform, no one has a kinder heart, or a
more willing or generous hand. His frequent appeals to the public,
through the press, upon the temperance issues of the day have been
characterized by great power, earnestness, and practical wisdom, and
have been widely read and approved. He has never held political office,
but has been in the ranks of the Federal, Whig, and Republican parties.
He was the first man in the country to give one hundred dollars for the
sanitary relief of Union soldiers in the late rebellion, and to form a
soldiers' relief association, of which he was president during the war.
He was the first college graduate from the town of his birth, and the
last of four of his class who received the degree of Doctor of Laws.
His literary productions consist of "Obituary Notices for 1857 and
1858," in two volumes, "First Half Century of Dartmouth College,"
eulogies upon Judge Wilde and Hon. Tappan Wentworth, "Notices of
Distinguished Men of Essex County, Mass.," the last being especially
illustrative of Choate, Cushing, and Rantoul, and letters and appeals to
the citizens of Lowell upon the temperance issues of 1880 and 1881. He
has a nervous, but animated and entertaining style. His "First Half
Century of Dartmouth College" is a model in its way, while his "Crosby
Family," a genealogical work, is not the dry and uninteresting reading
such literature usually is, but is entertaining, even to the general
reader, for its reminiscences of individuals, and its pleasant pictures
of old times in New Hampshire.
He has always cherished a deep interest in Dartmouth College, and to no
slight extent has, by personal effort, brought about events which have
been of substantial benefit to that ancient seat of learning.
Judge Crosby has been twice married. His first wife, Rebecca Marquand
Moody, was a daughter of Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, by whom he
had nine children, of which number five are now living, namely, Frances
Coffin, wife of Dr. Henry A. Martin, of Boston; Hon. Stephen Moody
Crosby, of Boston; Maria Stocker, wife of the late Maj. Alexander McD.
Lyon, of Erie, Penn.; Ellen Grant, wife of N. G. Norcross, Esq., of
Lowell, and Susan Coffin, wife of Charles Francis, son of James B.
Francis, of Lowell, the distinguished engineer. His daughter, Rebecca
Marquand, widow of the late Z. B. Caverly, United States _charge
d'affaires_ at Peru, a highly accomplished and widely esteemed lady,
was, with her daughter, lost on the "Schiller," a German steamer, off
the English coast, in the spring of 1875,--a disaster which, at the
time, created profound sorrow throughout the country. He married, May
19, 1870, Matilda, daughter of James Pickens, of Boston, and widow of
Dr. J. W. Fearing, of Providence, R. I., who still lives.
Personally, the judge is a fine exemplification of the good results of
temperance, self-care, and habitual good humor; and one meeting him for
the first time, and noting his firm step and erect carriage, would
hardly think him older than a man of sixty.
DIXI CROSBY, M. D.
DR. DIXI CROSBY, fifth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich,
February 8, 1800, and died at Hanover, September 26, 1873. He married
Mary Jane Moody, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, a
distinguished lawyer, July 2, 1827. His academical preparation for his
profession was quite limited; but being quick to learn, and with
uncommon powers of memory, he made rapid progress in the study and
practice of his profession and early became a prominent surgeon and
physician, practicing in Gilmanton and Laconia till called to fill the
chair of surgery in the Dartmouth Medical College, as successor of
Professor R. D. Muzzey. He was placed at the head of the Medical
College, in 1838, and held the place with great ability and distinction
until nearly the time of his death.
His son, Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, a young man of remarkable distinction,
who died August 9, 1877, succeeded him. Another and older son is an
eminent physician in Concord, N. H.
"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was
in no modern sense a _specialist_. His professional labors
covered the whole range of medicine. His professorship included
obstetrics as well as surgery, and his practice in this
department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese
extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Of the special
operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in
detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a
new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal
dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and
three-quarters of the clavicle, at a single operation, for the
first time in the history of surgery. He was the first to open
abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations without
ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr.
Crosby was not what may be called a _rapid_ operator. "An
operation, gentlemen," he often said to his clinical students,
"is _soon_ enough done when it is _well_ enough done." And with
him it was never done otherwise than _well_.
At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the
provost-marshal's office at a great sacrifice for many months,
attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors
accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his
constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New
Hampshire winters and by his unremitting labor. At length,
having reached man's limit of threescore years and ten, he
withdrew from active practice, and in 1870 resigned his chair in
the college.
Dr. Crosby furnishes a beautiful and rare instance of a
completed life. He early fixed his aim,--he reached it; he did
all he attempted, and he did it well. '_Nihil tetigit, quod non
ornavit._'
To those of us who had been most intimately associated with our
departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels,
and his generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy
shock. But he still lives in the remembrance of his
distinguished services, in the unfading affection and gratitude
of his pupils, and in the many hearts whose burdens he has
lifted. Verily, '_Extinctus amabitur idem!_'"--_Obituary notice
of Dr. J. W. Barstow._
PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY.
PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY, ninth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich,
October 13, 1810, died in Salem, Mass., April 17, 1874. He married for
his first wife, Abigail Grant Jones Cutler, daughter of Joseph and Abi
C. Grant (Jones) Cutler, of Newburyport, Mass., August 27, 1834, who
died in Paris, France, March 25, 1837. He married, for his second wife,
Martha Kingman, daughter of Joseph Kingman, Esq., of West Bridgewater,
Mass., a teacher in the Normal School, Salem, Mass. He was childless.