forty-eight hours from Boston to New York.

Immediately on arriving in New York, Mr. Spof-
ford secured a store in Fulton Street while Mr. Tile-



.'OUO



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



ston continued on as far as Philadelphia, and, I think,
Baltimore, to see which of the three cities would be
best for their permanent establishment.

The next day (Sunday), Mr. Spofibrd obeyed his
father's injunctions by attending the Brick Church,
of which Dr. Gardiner Spring, son of the Rev. Dr.
Samuel Spring, of Newburyport, was pastor. From
that day until his death, in 1809, he was a regular at-
tendant of that church, and eventually became a
member of it.

His partner, when he returned, a few days after,
from Philadelphia, found him in full swing of busi-
ness, and they wisely determined that New York
was the place for them. Among their earliest cus-
tomers were Spaniards, for at that time a low rate of
duty permitted the shipment of shoes to Havana and
Jlatanzas. They paid cash, and this young house of
but small means saw that they should use every effort
to keep and increase their custom by selling at small
profit, and by great care in packing their goods.
They soon won the confidence of their Spanish friends,
and, on their return from Cuba, with their proceeds in
produce, they were entrusted with the sale of coffee,
sugar and molasses on commission. Having thus the
control of considerable freight, they were induced,
within a year or two, to place vessels in the Cuba
trade. This, and the agency of the Boston packets,
which they obtained about this time, was the begin-
ning of a long and successful career as shipowners.

They boarded at Mrs. Street's, 115 Pearl Street, and
at Bunkers'. Among their fellow-boarders were Jos.
Kernochan, Henry and Daniel Parish and others
who afterwards became very prominent in New
York.

During this time Mr. Spofford and his partner had
not neglected our Southern country, but they had
found a large market for their goods in that direc-
tion, and with the like result of cotton, rice and
other produce being consigned to them.

Their receipts of goods from Massachusetts on
commission soon drifted into purchases for their own
account, often paid for in leather. The frequent
purchase of leather led them to importing hides from
South America, and in a very few years they had six
packets running regularly to Buenos Ayres and Mon-
tevideo. Meanwhile Spain had laid a heavy duty on
American manufactures, so that the goods they for-
merly sold for Cuba could no longer be sent thither,
but the firm had become fully established as import-
ers of sugar and coffee. Their packets— the " Dromo,"
"Pharos," "Havana," "Cristobal Colon," "Ade-
laide," '■ Hellespont," " Caspar Hauser," " James
Drake," and many others; and their captains, Benja-
min Smith, Richard H. Ellis, Lane, Doughty, Rich-
ard Adams and others — were favorably known. For
many years they did a very large business with that
island. Sugar being an article of great consumption,
and bearing a very heavy duty, it happened .several
times that the greatest amount of duty paid during



the year at the New York Custom-House by any one
importer was paid by Spofford & Tileston.

In 1845 Captain Michael Berry proposed to them
the building an ocean steamship to run to Charles-
ton, S. C. His many efforts to this end, with his
owners and with all the other houses in that trade,
had been in vain. They said that their fine packet-
ships had handsome cabins, more than suflicient for
all the travel. Only once or twice a year would they
go full ; generally, they could not gel one-quarter of
what they could accommodate. Why build a vessel
that could carry every fortnight four times as many
passengers as one of their largest ships? Where
could he expect to get enough of them for even a
small part of his room ? And, as to freight, how
could coal compete with wind. The steamship would
cost more than five times as much as one of their
packets, and every trip there would be a heavy bill
for engineers, coal, wages and wear and tear on the
machinery. Lastly, but by no means least, who in this
country could build sea-going engines ? This last
really had great force. No marine engines and no
sea-going steamers up to this time had ever been
built in the United States. In building steamboats
for river and inland navigation we excelled. In
pleasant weather they could venture along the coast,
prepared in case of storm to seek the first harbor.
Y'ears before this, a few trips had been made by steam-
boats between New Y'ork and Charleston, but the ex-
periments ended in shipwreck and fearful loss of life.
Once, many years before, a steamboat from a South-
ern port had succeeded in crossing the Atlantic, but
none dare a second voyage.

Mr. Spofibrd and his partner considered the mat-
ter carefully. They could not see why marine-en-
gines could not be built in the United States if ma-
chinists would inform themselves, and were well paid
for their work. They saw at once that the uncer-
tainty of the sailing vtssel, which, even with good
winds, was four or five days on the trip, and with
calms or storms, might be twenty days, when con-
trasted with sixty hours, in which the steamship
would make the run, would give them all the passen-
gers that went by sea and a large number of those
who then went by land. But they also saw that it
would be useless to attempt it unless they were ready
to spend money enough to build a stanch ship with
powerful marine-engines that, regardless of weather,
would go out at her appointed hour, and that would
safely hold her way through the terrific storms that
sometimes rage upon our coast.

In 1846 they built the "Southerner; " the contract
for machinery was with Stillman, Allen & Co., of the
Novelty Works, and for the hull with William H.
Brown. The first trip was a success. On the second
the " Southerner " encountered one of the worst
storms that there had been for many years. Many
persons were in great fear for her ; but she passed
through unscathed, landed her passengers safely and



HAVERHILL.



2061



delivered her cargo in good order. She proved a
very buoyant, easy ship, and then all felt that Ameri-
cans had shown that they, as well as the English,
could build marine-engines and ocean steamships
that would stand the roughest weather. In a few
months they contracted for a larger steamship, the
" Northerner.''

Aspinwall, Law, Sloo, Vanderbilt, Collins, Living-
ston and others, who afterwards became so promi-
nent in the steam annals of the country, were upon
the trial trips of (he "Southerner" and "Northern-
er. When they saw the regularity of their trips, and
the success that had attended the enterprise of Spof-
ford & Tileston, they also built steamships for Liver-
pool, Havre, Aspinwall and other ports.

It shows how facilities for travel tend to its in-
crease, when we see Spofford & Tileston commenc-
ing with a steamship of one thousand tons, trips
once in two weeks, and schedule time of sixty hours,
and find them at the outbreak of the Civil War with
four splendid steamships, each of one thousand six
hundred tons, so that twice a week they despatch a
vessel with a schedule time of forty-eight to fifty
hours. Besides which, on the south of Charleston,
Savannah, and Norfolk on her north, each had their
lines of steamships, and the travel by rail, also had
greatly increased.

It was always a source of great gratification that
during all this time not a single life was lost, none of
their steamships were wrecked, nor, in fact, met with
any mishap of moment. We think, therefore, that
we may fairly claim for Haverhill the honor of hav-
ing two of her former citizens the first in this coun-
try to build ocean steamships, and to run them
successfully ; and also that the enterprise of persons
whose business education was commenced in Haver-
hill, immediately began a steamship development
in the United States which soon threatened to wrest
the supremacy from England, and which, had it
received from our government aid similar to that be-
stowed by England upon her people, would make us
to-day, at least her powerful rival, instead of being
almost driven from the ocean.

In 1848, they bought the splendid line of Liverpool
packets, "Sheridan," "Roscius,""Garrick," and "Sid-
dons," ships of fine model, and when built considered
very large. The line was profitable, but they were
quick to see that larger ships could be run at about the
same expense. They supplied their places with the
" Webster," " Calhoun," " Henry Clay," " Orient,"
"Energy," and others, most of which they built.
These were the largest ships in the Liverpool trade.
When the great rush for California occurred in 1849,
they were among the first to fit-up and send ships
thither.

During the Civil War they were staunch support-
ers of the North, and contributed liberally to the
cause. One of their steamships, the " Nashville,"
was seized by the Confederates, and, as a privateer,



did much mischief. Some of their steamers entered
the United States service. With the others they
established a line to Havana, and when New Orleans
was taken by our forces, their steamers were among
the first to visit that city. They sent thither, as their
agent, William J. Eeid, a young man brought up in
their employ, son of the Captain Reid of the " Gen-
eral Armstrong," who, in the War of 1812, so bravely
defended his ship against an overwhelming British
iorce.

On a trip Jto a neighboring plantation for a lot of
sugar he had bought, a party of rebels attacked the
steamer just as she was leaving. Reid was hit in sev-
eral places, and a bullet passed through his neck, but
being like his fiither, a man of great courage, he con-
tinued for a few moments to give orders, and succeed-
ed in getting the vessel free. It was a terrible wound
and it was many months before he recovered. Soon
after the close of the war, Eeid, having made a hand-
some property, came North, and the agency was dis-
continued.

Thus, besides the large inland and banking business
ofSpoftbrd and Tileston, their shipping business was
very extensive. In it, their flag, yellow, on a blue
cross, the letters S T, white, was borne unsullied in
the four quarters of the globe, and it always flew as
the flag of American citizens, for they never yielded
to the temptation of putting any of their vessels under
a foreign flag, not even during the Civil War. On
the contrary, they armed their Havana steamers, and
obtained commissions in the United States Navy for
the captains ; and as for their other vessels, they
trusted to the skill and prudence of their command-
er.s,— Hill, Eldridge, Joseph J. Lawrence, Cauikins,
De Peyster, French, Truman and others. Fortunate-
ly, with the exception of the Nashville, they all
escaped capture.

In 1844, Mr. Spofford bought Elmwood, a beautiful
country-place on the Sound, three miles from Harlem.
There he passed half the year, and after a hard day's
work in town, he would rest himself by hard work in
the hay field, and the superintendence of his farm.
I say rest, because, to him, the complete change of
occupation, and the bringing back many of the asso-
ciations of his boyhood, proved a rest, and without
doubt prolonged his life, which, though it attained to
seventy-seven, would probably have been yet greater
had he not met with a severe accident in 1857. He
was accompanying the daughters of his partner to the
Italian opera, where for many years they had owned
a box, and, as usual, together.

In his care for his young charges, he was struck
down by a pair of horses which came rushing round
the corner at a furious rate. He received a terrible
blow on the back of the head- The young ladies for-
tunately escaped bar m, and cculd aid him to his
residence, which was near. Dr. Willard Parker, his
family physician, congratulated him in his cheerful
manner on his skull not being fractured, but enjoined



1062



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



rest and quiet. He avoided alarming the family, but
he well knew that no one could then tell what danger
there might be of internal injury. The ue,\t morning,
Mr. Spoftbrd felt so much better, that he insisted on
going to his office, but by mid-day he became unwell
and returned home. For weeks his life trembled in
the balance.

Every particle of his scalp sloughed off. To meet
this tremendous drain upon the system, it was neces-
sary at first to give him nourishment every two
hours regardless of breaking liis rest, or of the suffer-
ing, a change of position entailed. After a time
minute red spots upon the skull, and then very min-
ute filaments radiating from them, and by degrees a
web of blood vessels, and then a new skin, and then a
new head of hair was formed. Dr. Parker watched
this development day by day, and to his professional
eye it was most beautiful. Within three months
Mr. Spoffordwas out, as active and apparently as well
as ever. It was a most wonderful recovery. The
Doctor attributed it to his having always lived a
prudent, moderate life, and in no way, having im-
paired his splendid natural constitution ; and to the
most careful nursing of his devoted wife, aided after-
wards by his sister, Mrs. Hersey, a resident of this
city, and Miller, a nurse who had served in the Cri-
mea under Florence Nightingale.

In 1864, Mr. Spofford had the great sorrow to lose
his partner Mr. Thomas Tileston, his life-long friend.
It was a sudden and terrible blow, but he bore up
under it nobly, and continued actively engaged in
business until his death, five years later. Then he
had a stroke of paralysis, which in a few days ended
in his death, October 28, 1869, at Elmwood. The
funeral services took place on the 31st at his town
residence. The Rev. Drs. Shedd, Murray, and
Adams, and the Rev. Mr. Nixon officiated. Richard
M. Blatchford, Jonathan Thome, Shepherd Knapp,
Levi A. Dowley, Thomas H. Faile, John David
Wolfe, Robert L. Stuart, Jonathan Sturges, John D.
Jones and William M. Evarts acted as pall-bearers.
He was buried in Greenwood in his family vault
which adjoins that of his partner Thomas Tileston.

The intimacy between the two partners was un-
usually close, and contributed much to their success.
When they first came to New York they boarded
together. On Mr. Tileston's marriage, Mr. Spofford
was a member of his family until his own marriage.
Then they took houses adjoining and exactly alike
522 and 524 Broadway. In the same block, three or
four houses distant, one of their neighbors was John
Jacob Astor. Fearing that their business would suf-
fer by reason of their distance from their store, they
in 1826 built two houses 37 and 39 Barclay Street,
side by side exactly alike, and drew lots for a choice.
The situtation was beautiful ; the lots were deep
enough for pleasant gardens and in their immediate
rear were the grounds of Columbia College, with
their fine old buttonwoods. There they remained



until 1840, when they moved to two houses, side by
side, and exactly alike, which they had built at 733
and 735 Broadway. They occupied them for ten
years, and then built at 2 and 4 East Fourteenth
Street, at the corner of Fifth Avenue, two houses
side by side and exactly alike, for which they again
drew lots, and which they occupied until their
deaths.

Mr. Spofford was for many years one of the council
and treasurer of the New York University. He had
been a director in the Erie, the Harlem and other
railroads and companies; he was also director in va-
rious banks, fire and marine insurance companies and
other institutions.

Both he and his partner were elected members of
the Union Club, but the tastes of both were domestic,
and they never accepted. They were, however, for
many years members of the celebrated Hone Club,
composed of a few gentlemen who dined once a fort-
night at each other's houses. Amongst them were
Philip Hone (their president), Moses H. Grinnell,
Simeon Draper, J. Prescott Hall, Richard M. Blatch-
ford, John Ward, George Curtis, Samuel Jaudon,
James Watson Webb, Dr. J. W. Francis, Roswell L.
Colt and A. C. Kingsland. There were a few honor-
ary members — Daniel Webster, Thurlow Weed,
Thomas Butler King, William H. Seward and one or
two others — who dined with them when in town.
Being very intelligent men, highly intellectual and
leaders in their various pursuits, these reunions were
very pleasant, and, though neither Mr. Spofford nor his
partner ever held political office, at these meetings,
they aided in shaping the course of political parties.

Mr. Spofford was a man of great coolness and
nerve. When over seventy, while driving to Elm-
wood, one of his neighbors tried to pass him, but he
maintained the lead until he came to where he was
to turn from the main road into the one which led to
his place. In order to turn he slackened his pace.
His friend, but a few yards behind, was going at full
speed, when his horse suddenly shied and brought
one of his wheels in contact with the wheel of Mr.
Spofford's light wagon, throwing it with great force
high into the air, pitching him out on the other side.
He picked himself up, and, calling to his horse, the
well-trained animal stopped. His friend was greatly
alarmed, and wished to take him home, but Mr. Spof-
ford assured him that he could drive himself He
felt that something was wrong with one hand, but
the other was all right; so he jumped into his wagon
and drove home, a mile or so. His friend, however,
would not be put off, but followed in his own wagon
until he saw him at his gate all right. Mr. Spofford
stopped at the stable to order a man to go for the
doctor, and at his farmer's to give some directions
about his crops, and then went to the house. He
told his wife that he had met with an accident, and,
though slight, had sent for the doctor.

His manner was so unconcerned she could not sup-




/ j7^y>^/rtL



HAVERHILL.



2063



pose that it was serious. Tlie doctor found that both
bones of his arm, at the wrist, were broken off short,
and set them. The next day, Sunday, his family had
hard work to prevent his going to church. On Jlon-
day he went to business at the usual hour, stopping
at Doctor Parker's, who said that his arm was doing
well, and that he would recover the full use of it ;
but that, while as strong as ever, the wrist would be
slightly crooked, from the haste with which it had
been set. He added that by resetting the difficulty
could be overcome, but that it would be very painful,
and was not necessary. Mr. SpofTord thought other-
wise, and then and there made the doctor perform the
operation, and bore the pain, which was very great,
without flinching. Then, with his arm in splints,
well bandaged and in a sling, he went to his office,
where, to his great surprise, his friend found him
when he called to inquire how he was progressing.

Mr. Spofford's first wife was the niece and ward of
the Hon. Jeremiah Nelson, member of Congress,
from Newburyport. After her death he remained a
widower for more than ten years, and then married a
daughter of the Eev. Dr. Gardiner Spring. He
left one daughter and five sons.

In manner he was very unassuming, quiet and
retiring, very pleasant, rather slow of speech, but
very witty, and quick to see the bearing of a remark.
His judgment was excellent. He was a man of very
kind, deep feelings, and very considerate of the feel-
ings and welfare of those under him. He would at
any time put himself to great personal inconvenience
to do them a favor. He was always neat in dress and
person, slightly under the average height, of spare
wiry build, very healthy, and capable of great endur-
ance, very quick and active in his movements, of
dark complexion, very bright, sparkling black eyes
and a pleasant smile that lit up his whole counten-
ance. Until fifty years began to sprinkle his hair
with grey, it was jet black, very glossy, fine and silk-
like in texture, clustering around his head in beauti
ful curls. From early manhood he always wore
whiskers, but never moustache nor beard.



KEY. B. F. HOSFORD.

Among all the influences which, from the earliest
period, have contributed to the moulding of institu-
tions and the development of character in Xew Eug-
land, none have been more powerful than that of its
clergy. These, from the beginning, were noted as
men of learning, ability and piety. They were the
founders of schools and colleges ; they lefc their im-
press upon Church and State ; they were leaders in
thought and action during times of peace and times
of war.

A fit successor and representative of these worthies
was the subject of this sketch, in whose character and
career an old and a new era seemed to blend their
elements. His boyhood was spent amidst the quiet



of a new England country home. His early man-
hood brought him into contact with the activities of
a growing manufacturing community. The period of
his pastorate over the Centre Church in Haverhill
extended from 1843 to 1865, the mid-period of the
nineteenth century, an epoch marked by intellectual
quickening, great inventions and stirring events in
our national history. In all the movements of the
age to which he belonged, he shared through a wide
range of sympathies and a keen and vigorous intel-
lect. Thus, while he had drunk of the mental and
religious influences of the New England of the past,
j he was fully alive with the progressive spirit of a later
day, and was peculiarly fitted for that office of spir-
itual teacher and leader which he held among the
same people for nearly the space of a generation.

Benjamin Franklin Hosford was born in Thetford,
Vt., November 11, 1817. The youngest of twelve
children, he was reared with careful tenderness in the
simplicity of his rural home, the remembrance of
which he always held dear.

The beautiful associations of mountain and wood-
land, of orchard, meadow and river, of birds and
flowers, became a part of his inner life, never to be
outgrown. Still more was his character affected by
the conscientious training of parents of intelligence
and piety, and by the profound metaphysical preach-
ing of a revered theologian, in the square-pewed
meeting-house on Thetford Hill, in which families
were seated according to rank or seniority, with the
boys and girls occupying their respective galleries,
guarded by a force of tithing men.

He fitted for college at the Academy of his native
town, showing from the first the qualities which
marked him through life. His school-mates bore
witness to his quickness of apprehension, his enthu-
siasm for study, his fine taste.-", ready powers of
observation and quick sense of the ludicrous. The
child was, in almost every respect, the father of the
man.

He entered Dartmouth College, at Hanover, N. H.
in 1834, and directly after his graduation there, began
his theological course at Andover Seminary, which
covered the usual period of three years, besides an
additional year of post-graduate study.

He was ordained pastor of the Center Church in
Haverhill May 21, 1845, and on July 28, 184-5, was
married to Mary Elizabeth Stone, of Saxonville, Mass.
Thus began his life-work, concentrated in one
home and one parish, and carried on with all the
force of a nature whicti kaew nothing of self-seeking,
while through it, like a beam of pure white flight,
shone the consciousness of the greatness of his high
office.

His congregation was made up of varied elements.
It contained many families endowed with a heritage
of standing, wealth and culture, while there also
came into church relations, more or less intimate,
representatives of a more restless and less thoughtful



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



class, which the growth of manufacturing interests
was attracting to Haverhill. It required no ordinary
tact and wisdom so to adjust pulpit and social minis-
trations that all should be instructed and won.

It was not so much owing to any direct effort, as to
a unity of feeling centering in affection for the pastor
and confidence in the consistency of his life and
teaching, that the difficult task was accomplished.
Social distinctions were little mentioned or thought
of and a sympathy of interest existed, which has
been largely perpetuated to the present day.

Into all the general interests of the thriving town
the new minister entered enthusiastically. He be-
came a member of the school committee while the
public school was still in a formative state, and took
a deep interest in their success, as well as in the