Encyclopedia of Massachusetts, biographical--genealogical; (Volume 3) online

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of ^Massachusetts



Biographical Genealogical



Compiled with Assistance of the Following
ADVISORY COMMITTEE



WILLIAM RICHARD CUTTER

Former Librarian of Woburn Public Library;
Historian of New England Historic-Genea-
logical Society; Author of "History of Arling-
ton," "Bibliography of Woburn," "History of
the Cutter Family," etc.

EUGENE C. GARDNER

Member of American Institute of Architecture,
etc.; Author of "Homes and How to Make
Them," and other popular works; Lecturer,
and frequent contributor to leading magazines
and newspapers.

HARLAN HOGE BALLARD, A. M.

Librarian of Berkshire Athenaeum and Mu-
seum; Secretary of Berkshire Historical Soci-
ety; Author of "Three Kingdoms;" "World of
Matter;" "Translation into English, Hexameters
of Virgil's Aeneid;" Joint Author "American
Plant Book;" "Barnes' Readers;" "One Thou-
sand Blunders in English."

REV. JOHN H. LOCKWOOD, A. M.

Member of Connecticut Valley Historical Soci-
ety, and Western Hampden Historical Society;
Author of "History of the Town of Westfield,
Mass."



HON. ELLERY BICKNELL CRANE

Charter Member, ex-President and for fifteen
years Librarian of Worcester Society of Antiq-
uity, and Editor of its Proceedings; Author of
"Rawson Family Memorial," "The Crane Fam-
ily," in two volumes, "History of 15th Regi-
ment in the Revolution," and Compiler of a
Number of Genealogies of the Prominent Fam-
ilies of Massachusetts. Member of the New
England Historic-Genealogical and other His-
torical Societies.

CHARLES FRENCH READ

Clerk and Treasurer of Bostonian Society;
Director of Brookllne Historical Society; Sec-
ond Vice-President of Mass. Soc. S. A. R. ;
Chairman Membership Com. Mass. Soc. Colo-
nial Wars; Member Board of Managers, Mass.
Soc., War of 1812; Treasurer of Read Soc. for
Genealogical Research.

ROBERT SAMUEL RANTOUL

Ex-President of Essex Institute; Member of
Massachusetts Historical Society; ex-Repre-
sentative and ex-Mayor of Salem.

E. ALDEN DYER, M. D.

President of Old Bridgewater Historical Soci-
ety; President of Dyer Family Association.



LLUSTRATED



NEW YORK



1916

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Inc.)

BOSTON

?C



CHICAGO



THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

364879A

ASTOR, LENOX AND
T1LDEN FOUNDATIONS
1928 L.



Both justice and decency require that we should bestow on our forefathers
an honorable remembrance Thucydides



BIOGRAPHICAL



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



DAWES, Henry L.,

Eminent Constructive Statesman.

Henry Laurens Dawes, whose services
as a national constructive legislator are
commemorated in various notable and
highly useful enactments by the national
legislature, was born in Cummington,
Massachusetts, October 30, 1816, and died
February 5, 1903, son of Mitchell and
Mercy (Burgees) Dawes. He was of
English ancestry, of a family which ad-
hered to the house of Stuart during the
Cromwellian times, and came into favor
at the restoration of Charles II. The an-
cestor of Senator Henry L. Dawes estab-
lished himself in Boston about the year
1700.

Henry L. Dawes began his education
in the common schools, then entering
Yale College, from which he was gradu-
ated in the class of 1839. After leaving
college he spent two years teaching
school. Subsequently he became editor
of the "Greenfield Gazette," and still later
of the "Adams Transcript." Meantime
he studied law in the office of Wells &
Davis, at Greenfield, Massachusetts, and
was admitted to the bar in 1842, begin-
ning his practice at North Adams; in
1864 he removed to Pittsfield, Massachu-
setts. In 1848-49 he was a member of the
lower house of the State Legislature ; in
1850 of the State Senate ; and in 1852
was again returned to the lower house.
In 1853 he was a member of the Constitu-
tional Convention of Massachusetts ; and
in 1853 and to 1857 was United States
District Attorney for the Western Dis-
trict of Massachusetts. He was nine
times successively elected to the National



House of Representatives, his term of
service beginning in 1857 and ending in
1875, ne declining to be a candidate for
a tenth term. His congressional service
covered the entire troublous period pre-
ceding the Civil War, and the whole of
that momentous struggle. A Whig in
early life, he became a Republican at the
founding of the party, and he was among
the most virile forces of the nation in op-
posing the encroachments of slavery, and
in the maintenance of the Union when
the national existence was at stake. The
positions which he occupied during those
days give eloquent attestation of his abil-
ity and integrity. In the House of Repre-
sentatives he was chairman of the com-
mittee on elections through the difficult
war and reconstruction periods ; and at
other times rendered distinguished serv-
ice as chairman of the committees on
appropriations, and ways and means. He
was among the foremost in the advance-
ment of many important measures. He
was the father of the Weather Bureau
and the National Fish Commission, hav-
ing provided the legislation for their
establishment, and procured the neces-
sary appropriations ; and the tariff bill of
1872 was passed by the House as he
drafted it, and without amendment. While
a congressman, he twice declined a seat
on the bench of the Supreme Court of his
State.

Mr. Dawes was elected to the United
States Senate in 1875, to succeed Senator
Washburn, who had been appointed to
fill the vacancy occasioned by the death
of Hon. Charles Sumner. Mr. Dawes
was reflected in 1881 and again in 1887,
his service closing March 3, 1893. I n tnat



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



body his service was most useful, in vari-
ous highly responsible committee posi-
tions on the committees on appropria-
tions, civil service, the fisheries, Revolu-
tionary claims, naval affairs, and Indian
affairs. He was also a member of the com-
mittee on public buildings and grounds,
and it was upon his initiative that the
Washington monument in the national
capital was carried to completion. Mr.
Dawes, however, is chiefly known for his
service as chairman of the committee on
Indian affairs for fifteen years. He re-
ported and secured the enactment of the
first bill providing for Indian education.
In 1887 he wrote and secured the passage
of the act called the Indian Severally Law
which conferred land in severally and
citizenship on the American Indians.
This is sometimes called the Indian
Emancipation Act, and on this account
"Dawes Day" is celebrated at Hampton.
When he retired from the Senate in 1893,
he was appointed chairman of the Com-
mission to the Five Civilized Tribes of
Indians popularly known as the Dawes
Commission and which position he occu-
pied until his death. While an uncompro-
mising Republican in politics, he enjoyed
the respect of all parties, and was the
personal friend of every President from
the time of his first election to the legis-
lature to the end of his service. He was
a man of independent thought and action,
and his ability as a speaker was equalled
by his ability as a writer. For four years
at Dartmouth College he was lecturer on
"United States History during the Past
Fifty Years." In 1869 the degree of Doc-
tor of Laws was conferred upon him by
Williams College, and in 1889 by Yale
University.

He married, May i, 1844, Electa A.
Sanderson, of Ashfield, Massachusetts,
daughter of Chester and Anna (Allis)
Sanderson; children: I. Thomas Sander-
son, born February 24, 1848, died Sep-



tember 7, 1849. 2. Anna Laurens, May
14, 1851 ; a prominent author, greatly in-
terested in educational and sociological
matters ; a member of the Massachusetts
board of managers of the World's Colum-
bian Exposition, also of board of lady
managers of the Louisiana Purchase Ex-
position at St. Louis ; published several
books, her subjects being mainly educa-
tional and political. 3. Henry Laurens,
born April 13, 1853, died April 16, 1854.

4. Chester Mitchell, born July 14, 1855.

5. Robert Crawford, born January 21,
1858, died September 3, 1859. 6. Henry
Laurens, born January 5, 1863.



DODGE, General Grenville M.,

Soldier, Civil Engineer.

General Grenville Mellen Dodge, a dis-
tinguished soldier of the Civil War and a
civil engineer of masterly ability, was
born in Putnamville, Danvers, Massachu-
setts, April 12, 1831, son of Sylvanus and
Julia T. (Phillips) Dodge.

He attended a public school in winter,
meanwhile working industriously in vari-
ous employments. He devoted his leisure
hours to study, and in 1845 was able to
enter Durham, (New Hampshire) Acad-
emy. The following year he entered Nor-
wich (Vermont) University, a military
college, and graduated from the college
as a civil engineer in 1850, and from Cap-
tain Partridge's Military School in 1851,
taking his diploma in the scientific course.
He began his active career at Peru, Illi-
nois, where he engaged in surveying. In
the winter of 1851 he entered the service
of the Illinois Central Railroad Company,
and made surveys for that road between
Dixon and Bloomington, Illinois. He
then became connected with the engineer
corps of the Rock Island railroad, and
soon afterward was commissioned to sur-
vey its Peoria branch. While thus en-
gaged he wrote a letter home, which was



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



published, prophesying the building of
the first Pacific railroad, and indicating
its general lines across the continent, a
line which in later years he constructed.
Under the directions of Mr. Dey he made
the surveys of the Mississippi & Missouri,
now the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
railroad, from Davenport to Council
Bluffs, Iowa, and he was assistant engi-
neer during the construction of the road
from Davenport to Iowa City. In 1853
he made a reconnaissance west of the
Mississippi river with a view of deter-
mining the location of a Pacific railroad,
and the bill authorizing the construc-
tion of the Union Pacific railroad, which
was adopted by Congress in 1862, was
largely based upon his surveys and
reports. November n, 1854, he removed
to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and engaged
in mercantile pursuits. Later he estab-
lished the banking house of Baldwin &
Dodge, which was finally merged in the
Pacific National Bank, with Mr. Dodge
as president, and this institution became
the present Council Bluffs Savings Bank,
of which his brother, N. P. Dodge, later
became president. From 1853 to 1860
he continued his surveys for the Union
Pacific railroad under the patronage of
Henry Farnham and Thomas C. Durant,
and was connected with all the railroad
interests in Iowa and Nebraska.

In 1856 he organized and equipped the
Council Bluffs Guards, of which he was
elected captain, and in 1861, at the out-
break of the Civil War, he tendered its
services to the Governor of Iowa, it being
one of the first companies in the State to
respond to President Lincoln's call for
troops for the suppression of the rebel-
lion. This proffer was declined, it being
deemed inexpedient to withdraw troops
from the western border of Iowa on
account of threatened Indian disturb-
ances. Early in 1861 Captain Dodge was
appointed on the staff of Governor Kirk-



wood, who sent him to Washington City,
where he obtained six thousand stands of
arms and ammunition for the use of Iowa
troops. While engaged upon this errand
the Secretary of War offered him a cap-
taincy in the regular army, but this he de-
clined, whereupon Secretary of War Cam-
eron telegraphed Governor Kirkwood
recommending that Captain Dodge be
made colonel of an Iowa regiment. Gov-
ernor Kirkwood at once commissioned
him as colonel of the Fourth Regiment,
Iowa Infantry, and authorized him to re-
cruit and complete its organization at
Council Bluffs. A fortnight later, Colo-
nel Dodge, with his regiment, was in
active service in northern Missouri.
When the Army of the Southwest was
organized under General S. R. Curtis,
Colonel Dodge was assigned to the com-
mand of the Fourth Brigade, Fourth
Division, and he led the advance in the
capture of Springfield, Missouri. He was
engaged in the battle of Pea Ridge, where
he was wounded, and where his gallant
conduct brought him promotion to the
rank of brigadier-general. November 15,
1862, he was assigned to the command of
the Second Division of the Army of the
Tennessee, and was actively engaged
thereafter against the Confederate forces
under Forrest and Roddy in West Ten-
nessee and Mississippi. With two divi-
sions of the Sixteenth Army Corps he
joined General Sherman at Chattanooga
on May 4, 1864. He was commissioned
major-general May 22, on the recom-
mendation of General Grant, in recogni-
tion of his services during the operations
about Corinth and in the Vicksburg cam-
paign. He took part in all the operations
of General Sherman which culminated in
the fall of Atlanta, and on August 19 fell
dangerously wounded, and was sent home
as soon as he was able to be moved.
While exhibiting all the traits which
mark the accomplished soldier and gen-



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



eral in conduct in campaign and battle,
General Dodge's engineering skill was
also of vast advantage to Generals Grant
and Sherman, who relied upon him in
large degree for the rebuilding of many
large railroad bridges which had been
destroyed by the Confederates, and which
were necessary for providing subsistence
and munitions of war to the army. This
splendid service was never forgotten by
Generals Grant and Sherman, both of
whom paid fervent tribute to General
Dodge in their "Memoirs," as well as by
word of mouth in presence of military
assemblages subsequent to the war. Re-
turning to duty after recovering from his
wound, General Dodge was assigned to
the command of the Department of Mis-
souri, relieving General Rosecrans on De-
cember 2, 1864. General Dodge subse-
quently took command of all the United
States forces serving in Kansas, Colo-
rado, Nebraska, Utah, Montana and Da-
kota, west of the Missouri river, and con-
ducted an aggressive and successful cam-
paign against the Indians. At the con-
clusion of these operations, at his own
earnest request, he was relieved, and May
30, 1866, his resignation was accepted.

In July, 1866, the Republicans of the
Fifth Congressional District of Iowa
nominated General Dodge for Congress,
an honor which was entirely unsought.
In Congress he was recognized as an
authority on all questions relating to the
army, and he was active in formulating
and promoting the bill to reduce the army
to a peace footing, and in other important
military legislation. He declined a reelec-
tion to Congress in order to give his sole
attention to his duties as chief engineer
of the Union Pacific railroad. He planned
the iron bridge across the Missouri river
between Council Bluffs and Omaha, and
in one year directed the locating, building
and equipment of five hundred and sixty-
eight miles of road. May 10, 1869, he



witnessed the consummation of his great
purpose, the uniting of the Union Pacific
with the Central Pacific at Promontory
Point, Utah, eleven hundred and eighty-
six miles from the eastern terminus on
the Missouri river. In 1871 General
Dodge was appointed chief engineer of
the California & Texas Railway Construc-
tion Company, and he built the Texas &
Pacific railroad from Shreveport, Louisi-
ana, to Dallas, Texas, and from Marshall
via Texarkana to Sherman. He also
made the preliminary surveys to deter-
mine the thirty-fifth parallel route, and
partially built eastward some two hun-
dred miles of road.

In 1874 General Dodge visited Europe,
primarily on account of his health, and
until 1879 he spent a portion of each year
abroad. During this period, at the solici-
tation of President Grant, he met the
German and Italian engineers engaged in
building the St. Gothard tunnel, and also
examined the system of internal improve-
ments in various parts of Europe. In
January, 1880, he organized the Pacific
Railway Improvement Company, of
which he became president, and com-
pleted a large section of the Texas &
Pacific road. He was subsequently presi-
dent and promoter of various railroad
organizations in the United States and
Mexico. In 1871 and 1886 the Chinese
government invited the aid of General
Dodge in carrying out certain internal
improvements, but he declined. After
the Spanish-American war he surveyed
various railroad routes in Cuba. It is not
too much to say that no man of his day
contributed so much to the establishment
of transcontinental railroads, and he was
to the last a constant inspiration to rail-
road projectors and builders throughout
the land.

General Dodge enjoyed the distinction
of being the last surviving corps com-
mander of the old Armv of the Tennessee,



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



which was organized and long command-
ed by Grant, who was succeeded by Sher-
man. General Dodge was an original
member of the Society of the Army of
the Tennessee, and was its president after
the death of General Sherman until he
himself passed away. He was vice-presi-
dent of the Grant Monument Association,
and he was commander of the Military
Order of the Loyal Legion of the State of
New York in 1897-98. He was a member
of the Union League, Colonial, United
States and other clubs, and of the Grand
Army of the Republic. He was a dele-
gate-at-large from Iowa to the National
Republican Conventions at Philadelphia,
Chicago and Cincinnati, and took an
active part in every presidential cam-
paign beginning with that which resulted
in the first election of Lincoln, and
throughout his life. When war was de-
clared against Spain in 1893, General
Dodge was proffered by President Mc-
Kinley a commission as major-general,
which he declined on account of his years
and professional duties. After the war he
was appointed one of the commissioners
to investigate the conduct of the War
Department during the war with Spain.
He always took an active interest in his
alma mater, the Norwich (Vermont) Uni-
versity, which he long served as trustee,
and Dodge Hall was built and donated
by him to the institution. In 1911 he
wrote in large part and published a "His-
tory of Norwich University," in three
spacious and well illustrated volumes. He
was an honorary member of the New
York Society of Vermonters. He died at
Council Bluffs, Iowa, January 3, 1916.



TYLER, William S.,

Distinguished Educator and Author.

William Seymour Tyler, one of the
foremost classical scholars and educators
of his day, was a native of Pennsylvania,
born at Harford, Susquehanna county,



September 2, 1810, son of Joab and Nabby
(Seymour) Tyler, of English descent.

He was a student for one year at Ham-
ilton College, and then entered Amherst
College, from which he was graduated in
1830. From 1830 to 1834 he was a tutor
in Amherst. He was for two years a
theological student at Andover and under
Dr. Skinner, of New York, and was
licensed to preach in 1836. He did not,
however, take up pastoral work, for he
was immediately appointed Professor of
Latin and Greek at Amherst College, and
afterwards of Greek, which position he
filled for sixty years. Harvard College
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
of Divinity in 1857, and that of Doctor
of Laws in 1888, and he received the lat-
ter degree from Amherst College in 1871.
He was at times president of the board
of trustees of Williston Academy, East-
hampton, Massachusetts; of Mount Hoi-
yoke Seminary at South Hadley, Massa-
chusetts ; and of Smith College at North-
ampton, Massachusetts, and was known
as the trusted adviser of the founders of
these institutions. Among his publica-
tions are : "Germania and Agricola of
Tacitus, with Notes for Colleges" (1847) ;
"Histories of Tacitus" (1848) ; "Plutarch
on the Delay of the Deity," with Pro-
fessor H. B. Hackett (1867) ; "Theology
of the Greek Poets" (1867) ; Premium
Essay, "Prayer for Colleges" (1854; re-
vised and enlarged repeatedly) ; "History
of Amherst College" (1873; revised and
continued to 1891 in 1895) ; and "The
Olynthiacs of Demosthenes, with Notes"
(1893). He also contributed extensively
to quarterlies and monthlies, chiefly on
classical subjects.

Professor Tyler was married, in 1839,
to Amelia Ogden Whiting, a great-grand-
daughter of Jonathan Edwards, once
president of Princeton College, and a dis-
tinguished theologian. They had four
sons : Mason Whiting, a practicing law-



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



yer in New York City ; William Well-
ington, a mechanical engineer at Dayton,
Ohio ; Henry Mather, Professor of Greek
at Smith College, Northampton, Massa-
chusetts; and John M., Professor of
Biology at Amherst College. Professor
Tyler died at Amherst, Massachusetts,
November 19, 1897.



CLAFLIN, William,

Governor, National Legislator.

William Claflin, twenty-third Governor
of Massachusetts, was born at Milford,
Massachusetts, March 6, 1818, his father
being a tanner in comfortable circum-
stances.

He first attended the district schools,
and was obliged to run errands and labor
on week days out of school hours, while
on Sundays he was held to the strict
religious discipline of those times. After
five or six years of this rigid training, he
was sent to the Milford Academy. While
attending that institution, his father tore
out the vats of his tannery, replacing
them with machinery for the purpose of
making boots and shoes. This was the
first boot and shoe manufactory in Massa-
chusetts, and in this William, then in his
fourteenth year, spent his spare hours
and vacation days, working hard at the
bench. After completing his preparation
for college at the Milford Academy, he
entered Brown University, in his fifteenth
year, his privilege of further schooling
being obtained only at the earnest solici-
tation of his mother. On her death, one
year later, his father persuaded the son,
owing to his ill health, to leave college,
and put him again in the shoe shop. Later,
in 1837, the father rented for the son a
small shop in Ashland, Massachusetts, in
which the latter worked so hard, early
and late, that within a year he was pros-
trated with typhoid fever. After his re-
covery he went to St. Louis, Missouri,



where he established a boot and shoe shop,
which his father stocked for him for two
years, and he conducted the business so
successfully that he took the entire man-
agement upon himself, and built up a
large business.

Mr. Claflin was a strong anti-slavery
man, and his sentiments were strength-
ened by what he witnessed in St. Louis,
then a great slave mart. On one occa-
sion, seeing a handsome young colored
man, his wife and daughter, offered for
sale, he and his partner bought them, and
set them free at once, thus giving great
offence to the slaveholding element of St.
Louis. He was a member of the Free-
soil party, and during the Kansas troubles
the St. Louis manufactory was several
times threatened with destruction by a
mob.

In 1846 Mr. Claflin committed his St.
Louis business to partners, and returned
to Massachusetts, devoting himself to the
extension of the boot and shoe manufac-
turing business, establishing factories and
tanneries in many parts of the country,
and employing several hundred opera-
tives, the yearly sales of the firm amount-
ing sometimes to $2,000,000. Mr. Claflin
continued an ardent advocate of the Free-
soil and anti-slavery cause, working earn-
estly for its success. In 1849 he was
elected a member of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives on this particu-
lar issue, serving until 1852. He was a
member of the Massachusetts Senate in
1860 and 1861, and during the latter year
was president of that body. On the out-
break of the Civil W r ar, so many debtors
of his St. Louis house failed to settle their
accounts that Mr. Claflin lost thereby
about $50,000, a very large amount in that
day, but the house met every engagement,
and the business was soon again in a
flourishing condition. He was chairman
of the Republican State Central Commit-
tee for seven years, a member of the Re-



8



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY



publican National Committee, and its
chairman from 1869 to 1872. In Novem-
ber, 1865, he was elected Lieutenant-
Governor of Massachusetts on the ticket
with Alexander H. Bullock, and at the
following election the same ticket was
reflected. When Governor Bullock re-
tired, Mr. Claflin was elected to succeed
him, and he filled the gubernatorial office
during the years 1869, 18/0 and 1871 with
distinction and ability. It is believed that
he saved millions of dollars to Massachu-