James Thacher Hodge, another distinguished son of Plymouth, was
associated with North street, where he had his home for some years
with his mother and his grandfather, Dr. James Thacher. His father,
Michael Hodge of Newburyport, a graduate of Harvard in the class of
1799, married in 1814 Betsey Hayward, widow of Daniel Robert Elliott
of Savannah, Georgia, and daughter of James and Susannah (Hayward)
Thacher of Plymouth, and James Thacher Hodge, his only son, was
born in Plymouth in 1816. Mr. Hodge graduated at Harvard in 1836,
and at once applied himself to the study of chemistry, mineralogy
and geology, a field of science in which he was destined to become
distinguished. Among his early labors were those performed with Dr.
Chas. T. Jackson, also a native of Plymouth, on the geological survey
of Maine, and with Professor Henry D. Rogers on the geological survey
of Pennsylvania. He was afterwards engaged in testing and utilizing
the mineral wealth of Lake Superior lands, and the explorations and
reports made by him largely aided in developing the mining interests
of the northwest.
In later times, as one after another, new state and territory
extended our limits in the west, he was among the first to discover
beneath their surface the rich tribute they were ready to pay as they
entered the gates of the union. I believe that science will find no
step treading its paths more vigorous than his, and no keener eye
exploring its mysteries. After a season’s work on the southern shore
of Lake Superior he left Marquette in the steamer Colburn on the 12th
of October, 1871, and on her passage to Detroit the steamer foundered
in a gale and he with others was lost. He inherited from his
grandfather the firmness of nerve which had distinguished, him in his
surgical practice, and from his father, a fearlessness amounting at
times to rashness. Mr. Hodge in preparing his reports was a careful
writer, preferring a criticism for undue caution to a final discovery
of extravagant statements leading unwary investors to failure and
misfortune. Within the field of his literary efforts must be included
some hundreds of articles on scientific subjects contributed to the
American Cyclopædia.
Mr. Hodge married in 1846 Mary Spooner, daughter of John Russell
of Plymouth, and had Elizabeth Thacher, who married George Gibbs
of Riverside, Kentucky; John Russell, 1847, who married Harriet,
daughter of Seth Evans of Cincinnati; James Michael, 1850, and Mary,
1854.
I cannot leave North street without a word in memory of the house in
which I was born, March 3, 1822, now occupied as an Inn, known as
the Plymouth Rock House. After my father’s death in 1824, my mother
continued to occupy the house until 1845, when she moved to the house
now occupied by the Misses Russell, near the head of the street. The
succeeding occupants in their order were Rev. Henry Edes, who kept a
young ladies’ boarding school; Mrs. Sarah Jenkins, Simon R. Burgess
and Charles H. Snell. As long as it was occupied by our family it had
a stable at the westerly end of the garden on Carver street, and a
chaise house opening on Cole’s Hill, which long since gave way to an
enlargement of the dwelling house.
There have been so many alterations and enlargements in the house
since my mother left it in 1845, that there is little left as it was
in my boyhood. The middle kitchen, as it was called, with its dresser
containing articles in pewter, such as hot water plates, candle
moulds, syphons, etc., and its sink with a pewter ewer and bowl
where I washed my hands when coming from play, and the long buttery
leading out of it where the flour and sugar barrels and common china
and the last batch of pies were kept, is now an indistinguishable
feature of the house. The large kitchen, too, with its box seat, the
meal chest with compartments for Indian meal, white meal and rye
meal, the coffee grinder on the wall, the mantel with its row of two
wicked brass lamps always clean and bright, the fireplace with its
high andirons, and a four foot stick for a forestick, a crane with
pothooks and a tin kitchen before the fire, has gone with the rest.
Only one room remains as it was of old, the northeast corner parlor,
a room that is historic, for there the first grate in Plymouth was
set in 1832 for burning anthracite coal for domestic use.
Dr. Thacher and my mother each had a grate set at the same time,
but as his house was not yet finished the fire was kindled in ours
first with coal bought by Capt. George Simmons in Boston, and brought
to Plymouth in the packet sloop Splendid. Outside of the house the
old garden is gone with its lilac tree announcing by its bloom the
advancing step of summer.
How well I remember that old lilac tree,
Which stood in the garden near our back entry door;
No lily nor rose seemed ever to me
As sweet as the blossoms that lilac tree bore.
How gladly it welcomed the warm airs of spring,
As out of the west they swept down the vale;
How responsive it seemed, how eager to fling
Its banners of purple to the ravishing gale.
Like the honey bee sipping the sweets of a flower,
How oft and how richly my sense was regaled,
While sitting beneath my ivy clad bower
I drank in the perfume its blossoms exhaled.
The garden is gone, and the old lilac tree
Stands no longer by the back entry door;
But its fragrance remains, reminder to me
Of a home once beloved—but now no more.
What changes time has wrought in the scenes of my youth. One feature
of these scenes is left to remind me of my Cole’s Hill home, which
years have failed to erase. In my earliest youth nearly four score
years ago a bed of bouncing betts bloomed on the grassy bank opposite
our home, and it is blooming still as if contesting with me a race
for the longest life. I visit it every year to make sure that it has
not given up the contest, and when I stand by it it seems to say,
“Ah, old fellow, I will beat you yet.” I hope you will, dear friend
of my youth, and bloom on for generations to come, reminding others
as you do me of my childhood days.
I have spoken of N. Russell & Co., and Jeremiah Farris and Bourne
Spooner as connected with manufacturing interests in Plymouth. There
are two others among those who have passed away, whom I ought to
notice, Oliver Edes and Nathaniel Wood. Mr. Edes was the son of
Oliver and Lucy (Lewis) Edes, and was born in East Needham, November
10, 1815. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the trade of nail
making at works on the Boston mill dam owned by Horace Gray. He
afterwards ran a tack machine in the works of Apollos Randall & Co.,
in South Braintree, and at the age of twenty-two invented a machine
for cutting rivets from drawn wire. Before that time rivets had been
made by hand, and it was difficult to make the trade believe that
any but handmade rivets would meet the wants of mechanics. In 1840
he entered into a partnership with Andrew Holmes under the firm
name of Holmes, Edes & Co., with a factory at North Marshfield. At
the end of three years the firm was dissolved and a new one formed
between Mr. Edes and Jeremiah Farris, under the firm name of Edes
& Co. At the expiration of a year, in 1844, the firm moved their
business to Plymouth. In 1850 Mr. Edes, having disposed of his
interest, formed with Nathaniel Wood the firm of Edes & Wood, and
began the manufacture of zinc shoe nails and tacks, and soon after
the rolling of zinc plates at Chiltonville. In 1859 he bought out
Mr. Wood, and in 1880, with his son Edwin L. Edes, the partnership
of Oliver Edes and son was formed. In 1883, a partnership was formed
consisting of Oliver Edes, Jason W. Mixter, Edwin L. Edes and T. E.
Heald of Knoxville for the development of zinc mines in Virginia and
Tennessee, and for the manufacture of zinc metal. He married October
7, 1836, Susan, daughter of Ebenezer and Lydia (Curtis) Davie, and
had William Wallace, 1847, who married Ellen M., daughter of Calvin
H. Eaton, Lydia Curtis 1851, who married Jason W. Mixter, and Edwin
L., 1853., who married Mary E., daughter of Edgar C. Raymond. Mr.
Edes died February 21, 1884.
Nathaniel Wood of Dedham married Rhoda Colburn, and came to Plymouth
in the early part of the last century, and had six children, after
1810, among whom was Nathaniel, who was born November 25, 1814. The
son, Nathaniel, learned the nail cutter’s trade at the works on
the Mill dam in Boston, owned by Horace Gray, father of the late
Horace Gray, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.
He worked for some years in the nail factory of N. Russell & Co.,
and for a time on his own account in cutting zinc nails and tacks,
and in 1850 formed a partnership with Oliver Edes, under the firm
name of Edes & Wood, in a factory which stood on Forge pond brook
in Chiltonville, where the business was carried on of making zinc
shoe nails and tacks and rolling zinc plates. In 1859 he sold out
his interest to Mr. Edes, and with Charles O. Churchill, under the
firm name of N. Wood & Co., continued the business in a factory
farther down the stream on the road leading from the Sandwich road
to the old Manomet road at what was called the Double Brook dam. At
a later time he ran a small factory on Little Brook. He married in
1837 Angeline, daughter of Lewis and Betsey (Weston) Finney, and had
Warren Colburn, 1840, and Florence A., 1847. He married second, 1854,
Betsey R., daughter of Charles and Abigail (Russell) Churchill, and
had Nathaniel Russell, 1856, and died April 26, 1888.
Allen Crocker Spooner, whom I knew intimately, was a brilliant man,
who was cut off by death at the threshold of an especially promising
career. He was the son of Capt. Nathaniel and Lucy (Willard) Spooner,
and was born March 9, 1814, in the house on the southerly side of
High street, next west of the house on the corner of Spring street.
He graduated at Harvard in 1835, and was admitted to the Suffolk
bar, September 3, 1839. He belonged to a coterie of scholarly and
jovial men, who met at the eating house of General Bates once a week,
and over their bitter ale were legitimate successors of the Fleet
street club of Johnson and Garrick and Goldsmith. The members of
this coterie were Fay Barrett of Concord, James Russell Lowell of
Cambridge, George W. Minns, Nathan Hale, Allen Crocker Spooner and
John C. King of Boston and Benjamin Drew of Plymouth. All of these
were Harvard men except King, who was a sculptor, and Benjamin Drew,
a journalist, connected with the Boston _Post_. Their jokes on each
other, though sometimes rough, were always taken in good part. One
evening Minns and Spooner were walking into town from Cambridge and
feeling a little dry in the throat, Spooner said: “Minns, have you
got any money about your clothes, for I spent my last cent in paying
toll?” “I’ve got just twelve and a half cents,” said Minns, a sum
which was the silver nine pence of that period. Peter B. Brigham kept
a drinking saloon in the old concert hall building on the corner
of Hanover and Court streets, and his drinks were of two prices,
those like Deacon Grant and Dr. Pierpont, named after distinguished
temperance men, were nine pence, and all other common drinks were
six and a quarter cents or four pence half penny. They marched into
Brigham’s as if they were rolling in riches, and as they came to the
counter, Minns said, “Spooner what are you going to have.” Spooner
answered, “I think I will have a Deacon Grant, what are you going to
have?” “Well, I don’t feel very dry, I guess I won’t take anything.”
Mr. Spooner was sought as a guest on many public occasions, where he
was sure to entertain his audience by either a graceful speech, a bit
of humor, or an appropriate poem. I remember that on one occasion he
was invited to join the Boston underwriters in their annual excursion
down Boston harbor. A little while before, Capt. Jas. Murdock,
commanding the packet ship Ocean Monarch, had run his ship ashore
at Cohasset or Scituate in a fog, though fortunate enough to get
her off. At the lunch of the party on board the excursion steamer,
Mr. Spooner assumed the position of toastmaster, and calling up the
guests one after another, answered the toasts himself, adopting the
personality of each. Among others he toasted Capt. Murdock, who was
present, and kept the company in a roar by claiming a discovery in
the science of navigation by which he had found that the use of the
lead was an obsolete practice, only persisted in by those who had not
yet learned that ships were constructed to navigate the ocean and not
the land. Capt. Murdock, I believe, was a cabin window Captain, a
fine looking man, jolly good fellow, popular with his passengers, but
not a sailor in the truest sense of the word. Afterwards in coming
down the English channel, his ship was destroyed by fire off Holy
head, and a passenger whom I knew by the name of Southworth, told me
that Murdock was the first of the ship’s company to reach Liverpool
with news of the disaster.
About the year 1845 Mr. Spooner went to England, a passenger in
the packet ship Devonshire, Capt. Luce, the same Captain Luce who
commanded the Collin’s steamship Arctic, which was run into by the
Brig Vesta, near Cape Race, Sept. 24, 1854, and sunk with the loss
of three hundred and fifty lives. Capt. Luce, whom I afterwards met,
told me that when the ship went down he stood on the paddle box
holding his little boy by the hand and that he thought he would never
stop going down. He had no sooner reached the surface, still holding
his little boy by the hand, than a spar loosened from the wreck, came
up with great force, and striking his son, killed him instantly. He
succeeded in reaching a fragment of the wreck, and was picked up by
one of the brig’s boats.
On his return home, Mr. Spooner told the Boston Old Colony Club, of
which I was a member, that in running into the harbor of old Plymouth
as he lay on deck basking in the sun, he saw a vessel coming out,
which he pictured in his mind as the Mayflower starting on her voyage
to the new world. His surprise was great when, as the vessel passed,
he read on her stern the name of the Pilgrim ship the Mayflower.
My wonder at the time whether his eyesight was not blurred by an
exuberant imagination was modified at a later time by an incident
within my own experience. On the 19th of August, 1895, in crossing
the English channel from Queensboro to Flushing in Holland, I saw
coming from a northern port a small steamer crossing our course
diagonally, almost exactly the course which the Speedwell steered
in August, 1620, in running from Delfthaven to Southampton, where
she joined the Mayflower. As she passed our stern I was a little
startled as I read the name Speedwell on her bow. I was talking at
the time with two passengers, and calling their attention to the
name of the vessel, I told them the Pilgrim story. Lest I might
be suspected like my friend Spooner of an exuberant imagination,
I examined the British marine register, after my return home, and
found one of the three Speedwells whose size agreed with the vessel
I saw. She belonged in Ipswich, and I wrote to the owner asking him
to advise me of the whereabouts of his steamer on the 19th of August,
1895. Unable to find in Boston a Victoria stamp, I was obliged to
send my letter without a return stamp enclosed, and I attribute to
that circumstance my failure to receive a reply. The incident was
especially interesting, as I had just visited Scrooby for the purpose
of placing a bronze tablet on the site of Scrooby Manor, in which the
Pilgrim church was formed, and was on my way to Leyden, the Pilgrims’
home in Holland.
I shall at this point in my narrative devote some space to notices
of such Plymoutheans as have distinguished themselves in other
localities without regard to the houses with which by birth or
otherwise they may have been associated. To these will be added
notices of a few who were residents of Plymouth, but who have been in
preceding chapters only incidentally alluded to.
William G. Russell was the son of Thomas and Mary Ann (Goodwin)
Russell, and was born in Plymouth, November 18, 1821. After attending
the public schools he was fitted for college by Hon. John A. Shaw of
Bridgewater, and graduated at Harvard in 1840. After teaching in a
private school in Plymouth a short time, and in the Dracut Academy
a year, he studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, Wm.
Whiting, and at the Harvard Law School, receiving from the latter the
degree of LL. B. in 1845, and being admitted to the Suffolk bar July
25, 1848. He was at once associated with Mr. Whiting as a partner,
and while the latter was holding the position of solicitor of the War
Department from 1862 to 1865, the business of the firm devolved on
him. After the death of Mr. Whiting in 1873, George Putnam joined him
as a partner, and at a later period, Jabez Fox was added to the firm.
After the death of Sydney Bartlett he was universally recognized as
the leader of the Suffolk bar, and was offered a seat on the bench of
the Supreme Judicial Court, both as associate and chief justice. He
was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and at various
times held the positions of President of the Union Club, the social
library association, and the Suffolk bar association; vice president
of the Pilgrim Society, director of the Mount Vernon National Bank,
and the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Co., and Harvard
overseer from 1869 to 1881, and from 1882 to 1894. He married October
6, 1847, Mary Ellen, daughter of Thomas and Lydia Coffin Hedge of
Plymouth, and died in Boston, February 6, 1896.
Thomas Russell, brother of the above, was born in Plymouth, September
26, 1825, and graduated at Harvard in 1845. He studied law with
Whiting & Russell in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar
November 12, 1849. He was appointed Justice of the Police Court of
Boston, February 26, 1852, and in 1859 on the establishment of the
Superior Court was appointed one of its associate justices. While
he was on the bench a number of cases of garrotting and robbery
occurred on Boston Commons, which for a time made the Common
dangerous to cross in the evening. The first person charged with
the offence was tried before Judge Russell, and convicted, and the
severe sentence imposed by him put an end to the commission of the
crime. In 1867 he resigned his seat on the Superior bench, and on
the accession of General Grant to the Presidency, was appointed
collector of the port of Boston. During General Grant’s second term
he resigned the collectorship, and was appointed minister to the
Republic of Venezuela, where he remained several years. He was a
Harvard overseer from 1855 to 1867; a Trustee of the State Nautical
School several years, and in 1879 was chosen President of the Pilgrim
Society, holding that position until his death. The judge was an
ardent republican, and being a ready speaker, was always in demand on
the political stump. He was occasionally selected for the delivery
of formal orations, the most notable of which occurring to me were
a fourth of July oration before the Boston City Government, and a
eulogy on General Grant delivered in Plymouth. He married in 1853
Mary Ellen, daughter of Rev. Edward T. Taylor of Boston, and died in
Boston, February 9, 1887.
Henry Warren Torrey, born in Plymouth, was the son of John and Marcia
Otis (Warren) Torrey. He graduated at Harvard in 1833, and studied
law in the office of his uncle, Charles Henry Warren in New Bedford.
He was at the same time co-operating with Frederick Percival Leverett
in preparing what is known as Leverett’s latin lexicon, published in
1837. While engaged in that work his eyes became seriously affected,
and practice in the profession of law was abandoned. I remember that
at the time of the great whig celebration in Boston on the 10th of
September, 1840, he was living in New Bedford, and on that occasion
the New Bedford delegation carried a banner with an inscription of
which he was the author. On the banner a whale ship was painted
with a whale alongside in the process of stripping, and the fires
under the try pots smoking on deck, and beneath was the inscription:
“Martin VanBuren—we have tried him in, and now we will try him out.”
In 1844 Mr. Torrey was appointed tutor at Harvard and instructor in
elocution, and served until 1848. My impression is that from 1848
to 1856 he lived in Hamilton Place, Boston, and with his sister,
Elizabeth, taught a young ladies’ school. In 1856 he was appointed
McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard, serving
until 1886, when on his resignation he was appointed Professor
Emeritus, serving until his death. In 1879 he received the degree of
LL. D. from Harvard, and from 1888 until his death, he was a Harvard
overseer. He was also a member of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He died in Cambridge in 1893.
Lemuel Stephens, son of Lemuel and Sally (Morton) Stephens, was born
in Plymouth, February 22, 1814. He belonged to a sturdy race, and I
well remember his grandfather, William, who was born in 1752. His
father, Lemuel and his uncle William, occupied the two Stephens’
houses between Union street and the shore, but I am inclined to
think, while Lemuel built the house he occupied, that the house
William occupied was built by his father. Lemuel and William, the
father and uncle of the subject of this notice were engaged many
years in the grand bank fishery, and Stephens’ wharf, which since the
abandonment of the fishery has gradually crumbled away, presented
once a busy scene when the Jane and Constitution and the Duck and
the Industry were fitting out in the spring, and washing out in the
autumn. The Stephens brothers were men of brains, and consequently
men of ideas, men who were called pessimists because they looked out
for weak spots in government and society, and sought to correct them.
The optimists on the other hand flattered themselves that everything
was right when everything was wrong, and that the ship was tight,
though leaking a thousand strokes an hour. They were the earliest
abolitionists in the town, the earliest advocates of temperance
reform, the earliest promoters of a well maintained education of the
people, while the optimists as long as they were making money said,
“All is well, let things be.”
Lemuel Stephens of whom I specially speak, the son of Lemuel,
graduated at Harvard in 1835, and soon after graduation went to
Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, where for a time he taught in a private
school. After leaving Pittsburg he went to Germany for study,
spending three years in Heidelberg and Gottingen. On his return he
was appointed Professor of chemistry in the western University of
Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1850, when he was appointed
professor of chemistry and physics in Gerard College, continuing in
service until 1885. He married Ann Maria Buckminster of Framingham,
Mass., a relative of Rev. Dr. Joseph Stevens Buckminster, once pastor
of Brattle street church in Boston, and died in Philadelphia, March
25, 1892.
Another Plymouth man, of whom I must speak, was Winslow Marston
Watson, of whom few of my readers ever heard. The son of Winslow
Watson he was born I think on Clark’s Island in 1812, and graduated
at Harvard in 1833. His mother, Mrs. Harriet Lothrop Watson, was a
close observer of persons and families, their traits of character
and their relations to each other, and was the first genealogist
whom I ever saw. Her son, Winslow, inherited her powers of
observation, and her remarkable memory, which in a broader sphere
of life made him a reconteur of wide reputation. He early entered
the profession of journalism, and in 1842 I found him, while on a
visit to Troy, the editor of the Troy _Whig_. He later removed to
Washington, where for some years he rendered valuable service as
correspondent of leading newspapers in New England and New York. His
artistic taste and literary ability attracted the attention of Mr.
Corcoran, the wealthy banker and patron of art, and in his service
he performed appreciative work. I doubt whether any man ever lived
in Washington who came in contact with more persons of distinction,
and could portray their characters and habits more thoroughly, than
Mr. Watson. For nearly forty years I never failed to see him when
visiting Washington, and if he had followed my advice to publish a
book of reminiscences he would have made a valuable contribution to
the literature of Washington life. His personality was striking,
of medium height and weight, with a fair complexion and large
protuberant blue eyes, with that sad, patient, placid, yet protesting
expression which Homer recognized who called the celestial queen
the ox-eyed Juno. He married in 1852 Louisa Gibbons, and died in
Washington in 1889. He was a cousin of the late Benjamin Marston
Watson, of whom I have already spoken, and to whom it occurs to me to
refer again by inserting the following lines, which I inscribed in a
book presented to him on his last birthday, and which better than my
earlier reference to him, illustrate the beauty of his character and
life:
A placid stream, with flowers on either hand,
And meads beyond, tempting the eye of art;
With here and there a ripple as it runs
Against opposing winds, or flows triumphant
Over hidden shoals, with lips upturned
And smiling in the noonday sun.
Such, my dear friend, has been thy life.
’Twere vain to wish it ever thus to be,
For every stream must some time reach the sea.
There lived in my youth on the lower corner of Summer and Spring
streets an elderly gentleman of kind words and gentle speech, who,
though living a distance from my home, early attracted me and found a
lasting place in my memory. From 1806 to 1819, he had been treasurer
of the town, and was some years a teacher in what was later called
the high school. His name was Benjamin Drew, and he was the father
of my long time friend, Benjamin Drew, who died in 1903. He was
something of a poet, and his son told the story that one time when
asked to contribute an inscription to be placed on the gravestone of
his brother-in-law, Barnabas Holmes, he composed the following:
By temperance taught, a few advancing slow,
To distant fate by easy journeys go;
Calmly they lie them down like evening sheep,—
On their own woolly fleeces softly sleep.
Objection was made to the inscription by the family of Mr. Holmes, it
appearing too personal, as Mr. Holmes had been a dealer in mutton.
Like most emasculated poetry the substitute adopted was tame—as
follows:
By temperance governed, and by reason taught,
The paths of peace and pleasantness he sought;
With competence and length of days was blest,
And cheered with hopes of everlasting rest.
He married in 1797 Sophia, daughter of Sylvanus and Martha (Wait)
Bartlett. His son, Benjamin, of whom I especially speak in this
notice, was born in Plymouth, November 28, 1812. He was educated at
the public schools, leaving the high school about four years before
I entered it. After leaving school he entered the office of the _Old
Colony Memorial_ to learn the printer’s trade, and there laid the
foundation of his reputation as an expert in typography. About the
year 1835 he began his career as teacher, and during a period of
twenty-five years taught in the Phillips, Otis, Mayhew and Glover
schools in Boston. While living in Boston his companionship was
prized by scholarly men, and he was one of a group of social fellows
already referred to who met at a saloon in Cornhill square, called
the Shades, kept by General Bates, a Scotchman. There the group
would frequently meet in Bohemian fashion to exchange witticisms and
criticisms and enjoy a mug of ale. These occasional opportunities
to give vent to his sense of humor were not sufficient to exhaust
his flow of wit and under the cognomen of Ensign Stebbins he often
wrote for the “carpet bag,” and was always a welcome contributor
to the humorous columns of the _Boston Post_, I remember reading a
squib of his in the _Post_ sixty years ago, representing a showman
explaining and describing to his audience the various features of his
exhibition, as for instance:
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the zebra, it measures ten feet from
head to tail, and eleven feet from tail to head, has twelve stripes
along its back and nary one alike.”
“This is the hippopotamus, an amphibious animal, what dies in the
water and can’t live on the land.”
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the shoved over of the scalper’s art,
the statute of Apollos spoken of in the acts of the Apostles, where
it says that Paul doth plant and Apollos water, and to illustrate
the text more fully I have appended to his left hand a large, tin
watering pot, which I bought of a tin peddler for thirty-seven and a
half cents.”
About 1860 Mr. Drew went to St. Paul, where he taught school a year,
and then for some years he performed the duties of proof reader in
the Government printing office in Washington. In 1881 he made a
journey around the world, spending a short time on the way with his
son Edward Bangs Drew, a Mandarin in the Chinese Imperial Customs
Service, with headquarters at Tientsin, where he passed his 70th
birthday. On his return he settled permanently in his native town,
recalling the scenes and friends of earlier days, and roaming among
the haunts of the fathers of the town. He published during his life
a book entitled “Pens and Types,” a standard work on typography, and
another entitled, “The North side of slavery,” and after his final
return to Plymouth he published a valuable descriptive catalogue of
the gravestones and inscriptions on Plymouth Burial Hill. He married
Caroline Bangs of Brewster, and died in Plymouth July 19, 1903, at
the age of ninety years, seven months and twenty-one days.
Zabdiel Sampson, son of George and Hannah (Cooper) Sampson, was born
in Plympton in 1781, and graduated at Brown University in 1803. He
studied law with Joshua Thomas, and settled in Plymouth. In 1816 he
was chosen member of Congress, and in 1820 was appointed collector
of the port of Plymouth to succeed Henry Warren. At that time
political lines were in a comparatively subdued and inactive state.
The loose constructionist or federal party was still in existence,
but declining in strength and power. Monroe, a strict constructionist
or Democratic Republican, was re-elected with practical unanimity,
while the campaign of 1824 was rather a personal contest between John
Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, than a party struggle. During the
administration of Adams the name National Republican took the place
of Federalist, and the Democratic Republican party assumed the name
of Democrat. Thus parties remained until the campaign of 1832, when
the National Republicans assumed the name of Whigs. Thus the two
great parties continued until 1856, when the Republican party was
born. There were splinters from these parties at various times, such
as the anti-masonic party in 1830, the liberty party in 1839, the
free soil party in 1848 and the American party in 1852, as there are
now splinters from the Democratic and Republican parties like the
temperance and labor parties.
Mr. Sampson was undoubtedly when appointed collector in 1820 a Monroe
strict constructionist, or in other words a Democrat, but retained
the office through the Adams administration because during that
period party lines were loosely drawn. He died while in office, July
19, 1828. He was a member of the board of selectmen eight years,
during five of which he was its chairman. He married in 1804, Ruth,
daughter of Ebenezer Lobdell of Plympton, and had ten children,
neither of whom I think has descendants living in Plymouth.
I have said that the presidential contest in 1824 was a personal
one between Adams and Jackson. Then began the hostility between
these two men, which was never placated. General Jackson died June
8, 1845, before the days of the telegraph, and rumors of his death
drifted to the East several times before the event occurred. Rev.
Dr. Wm. P. Lunt, Mr. Adams’ pastor in Quincy, told me that while
in Boston one day, authentic news of Jackson’s death was received,
and on his return home he thought it proper for him to call at Mr.
Adams’ house and communicate to him the sad news. As he entered the
library Mr. Adams was standing with his back to the door, looking
over some papers on a window seat. He said, “Mr. Adams, I heard in
Boston this afternoon the sad news of the death of General Jackson,
your successor in the presidential chair.” Mr. Adams, without looking
round or stopping in his work exclaimed, “Umph, the old rascal is
dead at last, is he?”
Schuyler Sampson, brother of the above mentioned Zabdiel, was born in
Plympton in March, 1787, but moved with his father to Plymouth when
young. I am inclined to think that he and his brother lived for some
years in the house which until recently stood on the corner of Summer
street and Spring hill. All through my boyhood, however, and until
his death, he owned and occupied the house on the northerly side of
Summer street, next westerly of the house for many years occupied by
Benjamin Hathaway. He was for several years a member of the board
of selectmen, and in 1828 was appointed to succeed his brother as
collector of the port. He served in the latter office during the
administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and in 1841 succeeded
Ebenezer G. Parker as cashier of the Old Colony Bank. He married in
1823 Mary Ann, daughter of Amasa Bartlett, and had Mary Ann Bartlett,
1825, who married George Gustavus Dyer. He married second, 1827,
Sarah Taylor (Bartlett) Bishop, sister of his first wife, and widow
of Wm. Bishop. By his second wife he had Sarah Taylor Bartlett, 1829,
George Schuyler, 1833 and Hannah Bartlett, 1835, who married Rev.
Isaac C. White. The late Wm. Bishop of Boston was the son of the
second wife by her first husband. Mr. Sampson died in Plymouth May
10, 1855.
During my boyhood Truman Bartlett lived on the northerly side of High
street, west of Spring street. He was a tall, robust man, weighing I
should judge about two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and I remember
him well with his plaid Camlet cloak which he wore in the winter,
reminding me of the outer cold weather garment worn by the watchmen
in Boston before the police patrol was established in that city. He
was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Jackson) Bartlett, and was born
in Plymouth, March 10, 1776. He was a shipmaster for many years, and
sailed for my grandfather, Wm. Davis and Barnabas Hedge. He married
in 1798 Experience, daughter of Robert Finney, and had William,
Josiah, Flavel, Charles, Stephen, Truman, Azariah, Ann, Lucia and
Angeline. Of these Angeline died at the age of twenty, April 24,
1838, and Charles died in childhood in 1826; Lucia died October
3, 1841, at the age of twenty-eight, and of Ann I know nothing.
The remaining six sons all became shipmasters, and formed a group
of merchant captains, such as no other Plymouth family can match.
Of William, who commanded the Charles Bartlett, and Truman, who
commanded the Queen of the East, I have already spoken, but of the
others I have no reliable record. Captain Bartlett died August 18,
1841.
Ezra Finney, called Captain, lived on the northwesterly corner of
Summer and Spring streets from 1822, until his death. He was the
son of Ezra and Hannah (Luce) Finney, and was born in Plymouth July
5, 1772. He may have been a shipmaster in his early days, and his
connection with the Old Colony Insurance Company, of which he was
at one time President, as well as his ownership and management of
navigation, renders such an occupation probable. He was a member
of the board of selectmen three years, and the absence of his name
in connection with the whale fishery suggests a conservatism in
business affairs which precluded investments over which he could
have no personal supervision. In navigation he was enterprising and
successful, but as far as I know never engaged in the grand bank
fishery. He married in 1797 Lydia, daughter of Andrew Bartlett, and
had Lydia Bartlett, 1799, who married Capt. Lemuel Clark, Ezra, 1804,
who married John Bartlett. He married second 1808, Betsey, widow of
John Bishop, and daughter of Eliphalet Holbrook, Eliza, and had
Betsey Bishop, 1809, who married William Sampson Bartlett; Mary
Coville, 1811; Caroline, 1814; Ezra, 1817; Mary Coville, 1819, who
married Henry Mills; and Caroline, 1822. Abby, daughter of Captain
Finney’s second wife by her first husband, John Bishop, was born in
1801, and married James E. Leonard and Henry Mills.
It was the custom under what was called the Suffolk Bank system,
when banks were forbidden by law to pay out any bills but their own
to send every two or three days all foreign bills received by the
banks to the Suffolk bank in Boston and receive from that bank their
own bills in return. As expresses were not established in Plymouth
until after 1845 packages of bills to or from the Suffolk bank were
entrusted to any friend of the Plymouth or Old Colony Bank, as they
were to myself even when a boy. On one occasion Mr. Finney received
from the Suffolk bank a package of the bills of the Old Colony Bank.
Chilled by his ride from Boston in a stage sleigh, it was not until
he had thawed out by the home fire that the package was brought to
his mind. It was not in his pockets, nor was it to be found anywhere
in the house. As a last resort he hurried to the stage stable, where
his anxiety was relieved by the discovery of the package hidden
by the straw with which the floor of the sleigh was covered. This
incident was far from being indicative of carelessness on his part,
for he was a methodical business man, and one as thoughtful of the
interests of others as of his own. On another occasion he proved
himself a thrifty trustee of the Savings Bank. Mr. Danforth, the
treasurer, having occasion to leave town for a day or perhaps two,
left Mr. Finney in charge of the bank, and among the contents of
the safe was a strapped package of counterfeit bills which had been
collecting for some time, and had been charged off to profit and
loss. On Mr. Danforth’s return, not finding the package, he asked
Mr. Finney if he had seen the bills, and Mr. Finney replied that he
had, and not doubting them genuine, had paid them out. The bills
were never heard from afterwards, and their amount was in due time
credited back to profit and loss. Captain Finney died February 5,
1861.
Andrew Bartlett, son of Andrew and Sarah Holbrook Bartlett, was
born in Plymouth, October 20, 1806, and lived in High street, near
his kinsman, Truman Bartlett. He was a shipmaster, possessing those
qualities which made him not only a skilful navigator, but a prudent,
economical and trustworthy business man. He told me once that during
his career as master, he had never lost a man or a spar. While this
fact speaks well for his seamanship, it was due largely to the
models of vessels in his day, and the absence of those hasty methods
of doing business which characterize our times. A blunt bow and a
full counter made it easy to encounter a head sea, and to leave a
following one, while there was enough left of the old kettle bottom
to check the shift of even a cargo of railroad iron, which, however
securely braced, is always ready to start with the kick of a rolling
sea. Safety to ship and cargo, not speed, was the great consideration
sought. When Capt. Fox in the brig Emerald, after a thirteen days’
passage from Liverpool, rounded to off Long wharf and was hailed with
the question, “When did you leave Liverpool, Capt. Fox,” his reply
was, “Last week, damn you, when do you think?” He did not say how
many sails he had lost, nor whether his cargo in the forehold was
dry. I think Capt. Bartlett sailed for a combination of owners of
whom Ezra Finney, Wm. Nelson and Benjamin Barnes were the chief.
After abandoning the sea his interests in seamen led him to devote
his life to their service in connection with the sailors’ Bethel and
Home in Boston. He married in 1830 Mary, daughter of William Barnes
of Plymouth, and had Victor A., 1841, Mary E., 1843 and Andrew P.,
1848. He married second, in 1866, Phebe J. Tenney, who had been for a
number of years a school teacher in Plymouth. Captain Bartlett died
February 4, 1882.
William Nelson, son of William and Bathsheba (Lothrop) Nelson, was
born in Plymouth, September 29, 1796, on the old Nelson farm near
Cold Spring, which had been in the Nelson family from the time of
its first American ancestor, William Nelson, who married Martha,
daughter of widow Ford, who came to Plymouth in the ship Fortune in
1621. I think Mr. Nelson lived on High street until 1841, when he
built and occupied until his death the house on Summer street, which
in 1867 was sold to Barnabas Churchill. He had a sister, Mary Lothrop
Nelson, who married Jesse Harlow, and he with Mr. Harlow, under the
firm name of Nelson & Harlow, was engaged some years in navigation,
with a counting room on the westerly side of Water street, opposite
to Nelson’s wharf. He was a director in the Old Colony Bank, and in
the Old Colony Insurance Company, a prominent member of the Orthodox
Congregational church, and a liberal contributor to its support. He
married in 1821 Sarah, daughter of Josiah Carver, and had William
Henry, 1830, who is noticed at the end of this chapter; Thomas
Lothrop, 1833, who married Susan A. Warren of Exeter, N. H., and Mary
Stratton of Atchison, Miss.; and Sarah Elizabeth, who married Wm. K.
Churchill. Mr. Nelson died October 6, 1863.
There is one whom I omitted in my wanderings in the northerly part
of Court street, of whom I shall be glad to speak. I heard much
of him in my youth, though he died before my birth, and of the
disappointment which his premature death caused to be felt by his
friends. Isaac Eames Cobb, the son of Cornelius and Grace (Eames)
Cobb, was born January 19, 1789, in the old Nehemiah Savery house,
still standing south of Cherry street, a little back from Court
street. He graduated at Harvard in 1814 a leading scholar in his
class, and began the study of law. A disease of the lungs obliged
him to abandon a profession in which there was every reason to
believe that he would have a successful career. He entered into
business with Messrs. Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, but died a victim of
consumption January 14, 1821. He married in 1816 Elizabeth, daughter
of Thomas Bartlett, whose house occupied the site on which that of
Gideon F. Holmes now stands. His daughter Elizabeth, the widow of
Joseph Holmes, lives in a house standing on what was a part of her
grandfather Bartlett’s estate. The following inscription is on his
gravestone on Burial Hill:
Possessed he talents, ten or five or one,
The work he had to do—that work was done;
Informed his mind, in wisdom’s ways he trod,
Reluctant died, but died resigned to God.
No man was better known in Plymouth in his day than Joseph Lucas.
He was a son of Joseph and Ruby Lucas of Plympton, and was born in
that town in February, 1785. He learned the nail cutter’s trade, and
worked at it many years in the works of N. Russell & Co. His work
was something more than perfunctory, for it not only led him into a
study of machinery with its needed improvements, but it gave him also
an opportunity to ponder over worldly affairs beyond the horizon of
his daily occupation. His ingenuity suggested useful improvements in
nail cutting machines, which proved profitable to both his employers
and himself. Mr. Lucas was an ardent whig, and as a manufacturer
was a supporter of the tariff policy of his party, little thinking
that within thirty-five years of his death the tariff policy which
he advocated would by the imposition of high duties on coal and iron
wipe out of existence the nail cutting business of New England.
Mr. Lucas was often sought to represent the town in the General
Court, and in the house of representatives his name was as much
identified with Plymouth as that of Kellogg with Pittsfield; Banning
with Lee; Lawrence with Belchertown, or Lee with Templeton. In his
day it was not the custom as it is now, to nominate one of two or
three who set themselves up as candidates, but the voters selected
the men they wanted for representatives, believing that laws to
be respected must be enacted by men of good judgment and superior
intelligence. Mr. Lucas married in 1823 Lydia, daughter of William
and Lydia (Holmes) Keen, and had Augustus Henry, 1824; Catherine
Amelia, 1825, and Frederick William, 1831. Mr. Lucas died January 13,
1871.
Before crossing Town Brook I must speak of Joseph P. Brown and Wm. H.
Nelson, though they are not associated with the remote history of our
town. Mr. Brown was the son of Lemuel Brown, and was born December
12, 1812. His father was a cabinet maker who came to Plymouth with a
wife, Sarah Palmer of Cambridge, and established himself in business
with a shop in the rear of the house next west of the present
residence of the Misses Rich on Summer street. He did good work,
and I know many mahogany chairs of his workmanship still doing good
service in the parlors of some of my friends. His two sons, Stephen
P. and Joseph P., learned the trade of their father, and in later
years carried on business on the south side of High street, and in
the building, a part of which is occupied by the provision market
of C. B. Harlow on Market street. At a still later time Joseph P.
carried on the same business in the old Plymouth bank building on
Court street. Joseph was on the board of selectmen with me from 1856
to 1860, inclusive, and I am glad of the opportunity to attest his
usefulness and fidelity in the management of town affairs. He was
a man of dry humor, and had many a story to tell, often provoking
a laugh against himself. He chewed tobacco freely, and was obliged
before speaking to deliver himself of the saliva which had been
accumulating. I remember that one autumn afternoon when the board had
been visiting the south end of the town, we stopped at the house of
David Clark, a member of the board, to leave him, and went into the
house to warm ourselves. As we sat around the wood fire I noticed
a couple of herrings roasting in the ashes for supper. Before Mr.
Brown could answer a question I put to him he was obliged to relieve
his mouth of its contents, and he discharged them squarely upon the
herrings, completely covering them. Nothing was said, and I did not
suppose that any one but myself noticed the catastrophe. After we had
started for home, Mr. Brown turning to me said, “Good heavens, Davis,
did you see me baste those herrings?”
He told me once of an expedition to Sandwich to bring home his wife’s
invalid sister, who had been visiting there. He started one November
morning about four o’clock, and after driving two hours he came to
a cross road, and seeing a light in a house, stopped to inquire the
way. On rapping at the door a man appeared with a lamp in his hand,
whom he recognized as John Harlow, an old resident of Chiltonville.
“What are you doing, John, down here in Sandwich,” he asked, and
John replied, “I guess, mister, your morning toddy was a little
strong, I am in Chiltonville, not Sandwich.” Then for the first time
recognizing his visitor, he added, “Why, Mr. Brown, what are you
doing here at this time in the morning?” “Why, John, I started for
Sandwich, but at the rate of progress I have made I don’t think I
shall get there much before night.” The trouble was that his horse,
following the track which suited him best, had after leaving the
Cornish tavern, borne constantly to the left and traversed the Beaver
Dam road, and the road over the Pine Hills until he reached the
Harlow house, four miles from his starting point two hours before.
Mr. Brown married in 1837 Margaret, daughter of George Washburn, and
died June 23, 1877.
William H. Nelson was the son of William and Sarah (Carver) Nelson,
and was born August 13, 1830. After leaving school he was a clerk
for a time in the hardware establishment of Cotton, Hill & Co.,
in Boston, but eventually established himself in business in his
native town. As well as I can remember he first embarked in the
grand bank fishery, supplemented by the mackerel fishery. Gradually
enlarging his fleet, and also the size of his vessels, he extended
his business operations by either chartering some of his vessels to
Boston merchants engaged in the West India trade, or engaging himself
in that trade. Building from time to time still larger vessels which
were employed entirely under charter, his fishing interests became
a secondary matter. By prudence and sagacity, his business was made
successful and profitable, and as he won the confidence of his fellow
citizens, he was sought for in the management of institutions and
public affairs. He was a director of the Old Colony National Bank
many years, and after the death of George Gustavus Dyer for a short
time, until his own death, its President. His chief service, and one
which made him respected, and his trustworthiness relied upon by his
fellow citizens, was that rendered by him on the board of selectmen,
of which he was a member for twenty years, and chairman sixteen
years. As manager of town affairs he was conservative and faithful to
his trust, never hasty in the support of new schemes, but sure in the
end to support them when satisfied of their merit. He married Hannah
Coomer, daughter of Coomer Weston, Jr., and died July 18, 1891.