TIMOTHY EDWARDS
To make more clear, if possible, the persistence of intellectual
activity and moral virtue, let us study samples of the family. Take for
instance the eldest son, Timothy. He was a member of and leader in the
famous Massachusetts council of war in the Revolution, a colonel in the
militia, and a judge. His descendants have been leaders in Binghamton,
Pittsburg, Indianapolis, Bangor, St. Louis, Northampton, New Bedford,
San Francisco, New York, New Haven, and many other cities and towns in
New England, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. From his
descendants a Connecticut town, Chaplin, is named; Newark, Ohio, had a
long-time principal, Jonathan E. Chaplin; Andover Theological Seminary
had one of its most famous treasurers, Samuel Farrar; the American board
of missions had one of its grandest leaders and secretaries, Dr. Elias
Cornelius; the American Baptist Missionary Union had one of its eminent
secretaries, Dr. Solomon Peck; the American Missionary Association had
as its great treasurer, W.E. Whiting; the famous young ladies' seminary
of Lenox, Mass., had for thirty years its great principal, Elizabeth
Sedgwick; Boston had a prominent lawyer, a graduate of Harvard, William
Minot; St. Louis had a leading lawyer, William D. Sedgwick; Antietam had
in the list of killed the gallant Major Sedgwick; San Francisco recorded
among her distinguished sons the long-time superintendent of the Pacific
mail steamship company; the United States navy counted as one of her
able officers a surgeon, Dr. George Hopkins; Amherst had as her most
famous instructor Professor W.S. Tyler, D.D., LL.D., at the head of the
Greek department for half a century; she also has the present brilliant
professor of biology, John M. Tyler; Sheridan had as a brilliant colonel
in the grand ride of the Shenandoah Colonel M.W. Tyler; invention claims
the discoverer of the Turbine wheel, W.W. Tyler; Knox College has
claimed as a leader at one time, as has Smith at another, Professor
Henry H. Tyler.
A detailed study of the family of the eldest son is suggestive.
He was the sixth child, born in Northampton, 1738, when the father
was thirty-five and the mother twenty-eight. He was but twenty years
old when the father and mother died and the care of the family devolved
upon him. He had graduated from Princeton the previous year but the
responsibility of a large family prevented his entering upon
professional life. Two years after the death of his father he married
and removed to Elizabethtown, N.J., where he resided for ten years. In
1770 he returned to Stockbridge, Mass. Berkshire county was still on the
frontier and was sparsely settled. The store which Mr. Edwards opened
in 1770 was the first in the county. The settlers raised wheat on the
newly cleared land. This Mr. Edwards bought and sent to New York,
bringing back goods in return. In five years he became the most
prosperous man in the county, buying and clearing a very large farm on
which he employed as many as fifty men in the busy season.
The outbreak of the Revolutionary struggle was a most inopportune time
for Timothy Edwards; but for that he would have become one of the
wealthiest men of his day. All business was suspended and he gave
himself to his country's cause with intense devotion. He was at once
appointed on a commission with General Schuyler to treat with the
Indians; was appointed commissary to look after the supply of the army
with provisions. From 1777 to 1780 he was a leader in the Legislature of
Massachusetts; was elected to the Continental Congress with John Hancock
and John Adams; was a colonel in the Massachusetts militia and a judge
of probate. When the war broke out Timothy Edwards was worth $20,000,
which he had accumulated in addition to all his other burdens. When the
war closed he had nothing, and was $3,000 in debt to New York merchants.
To understand what sacrifices he made it must be understood that when
the government was in great straits he took $5,000 of money that was as
good as gold and let the government have it, taking in return money that
was of slight value. He also took fifty tons of flour to Springfield
and let the government have it for paper money at par. There were no
greater heroes in the Revolutionary war than such men as Timothy
Edwards. He was nearly fifty years old when the war closed and he
found himself the father of thirteen children and without property or
business. Full of courage and enterprise he succeeded in supporting his
family in comfort and in regaining a substantial property before his
death, which occurred in the midst of the next war, October 27, 1813.
It was not an easy thing to educate children in those times. When the
Revolutionary war broke out his oldest child was but thirteen, and when
it ended he had ten children under twenty-one. There were only three
books in the schools at Stockbridge during the war, Dilworth's Spelling
Book and Arithmetic and the Book of Psalms. From these the children of
Timothy Edwards received their education and that it was a good training
subsequent events show.
The first born, a daughter, married Benjamin Chaplin, Jr., a graduate of
Yale (1778), and for her second husband Capt. Dan Tyler, of Brookline,
Ct., a graduate of Harvard. Her second child, Edward, became Register
of Probate. Jonathan, the second born, had several children who became
prominent in professional and business life. Phoebe married Rev. Asahel
Hooker, an eminent graduate of Yale, and for her second husband Rev.
Samuel Farrer, a graduate of Harvard, and for many years treasurer and
financial agent of Andover Theological Seminary. Her children were noted
men and women, graduates of Yale and Dartmouth, clergymen, theological
professors, secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and
secretary American Baptist Missionary Union, prominent teachers and
authors.
Rhoda Edwards, another of Timothy's daughters, married Col. Josiah
Dwight, of Springfield. Among their fifteen children and their
descendants are the founder of a famous young ladies' school at Lenox;
an author of "Spanish Conquest of America," and five other considerable
works; clerk of supreme court of Massachusetts; a Boston lawyer,
graduate of Harvard; an eminent linguist and graduate of Harvard; music
teacher in New York City, educated in Germany; St. Louis lawyer,
graduate of Harvard college and law school, who studied in Germany;
major in Civil war, wounded at Antietam; hospital nurse in Civil war;
graduate of Yale; graduate of Cambridge, Eng., and author of "Five Years
in an English University;" a graduate of Amherst and Andover, and
missionary in Southern India; lawyer in Springfield; eminent teacher at
Northampton; leading physician at Northampton; leading physician at New
Bedford; supt. Pacific Mail Steamship Company; merchant in New York;
insurance manager, New York; author of "Greece and Roman Mythology," and
five other important works; supt. Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton R.R.; a
New York lawyer and graduate of Yale; author of "History of Virginia,"
and two other works; graduate Dartmouth and Andover; assistant surgeon
U.S. Navy; and an officer in Civil war, who fought in thirty battles.
Mary Edwards, another daughter of Timothy, married Mason Whiting,
District Attorney of New York, and member of New York Legislature. In
this family of eight children and their descendants are an authoress; a
colonel in Civil war; treasurer American Missionary Association; Rev.
W.S. Tyler, D.D., LL.D., a graduate of Amherst and Andover, professor
of Greek for fifty years at Amherst; Col. Mason Whiting Tyler, graduate
of Amherst, gallant soldier in Civil war; Wm. W. Tyler, graduate of
Amherst, manufacturer of famous Turbine Water Wheels; Henry Mather
Tyler, graduate of Amherst, professor of Greek at Knox College, pastor
at Galesburg, Fitchburg and Worcester, and professor of Greek at Smith
College; John Mason Tyler, graduate of Amherst and Union Theological
Seminary, studied at Gothenburg and Leipsic, professor of Biology at
Amherst and eminent lecturer.
To William Edwards, another son of Timothy, oldest son of Jonathan
Edwards, an entire chapter will be given.