Ashley Family of New Bedford, MA

ASHLEY (New Bedford family). Among the first settlers of Rochester, Mass., and their families appear the names of Joseph Ashley and his wife Elizabeth and their children. There had settled at Springfield as early as 1639 Robert Ashley; and from the fact that many of the early settlers of Springfield were drawn from Roxbury by Pynchon, perhaps Mr. Ashley had been there previously a short time. One Thomas Ashley resided at Cape Ann (Gloucester) in 1639; he was admitted an inhabitant of Boston in 1658, and was probably the Thomas Ashley of Maine, 1654, who, says Savage, may have removed … Read more

Weymouth ways and Weymouth people

Weymouth ways and Weymouth people

Edward Hunt’s “Weymouth ways and Weymouth people: Reminiscences” takes the reader back in Weymouth Massachusetts past to the 1830s through the 1880s as he provides glimpses into the people of the community. These reminiscences were mostly printed in the Weymouth Gazette and provide a fair example of early New England village life as it occurred in the mid 1800s. Of specific interest to the genealogist will be the Hunt material scattered throughout, but most specifically 286-295, and of course, those lucky enough to have had somebody “remembered” by Edward.

Free Masonry in Norwich Vermont

It does not appear that any Masonic Lodge has ever existed in Norwich. Quite a number of our citizens, however, as might be expected, have at different times belonged to lodges in adjacent towns. In the list of members of Franklin Lodge, established at Hanover, N. H., in 1796, we find the names of the following Norwich men, with the year of their admission: Reuben Hatch, Freegrace Leavitt (1798), William Sumner (1799), Thomas Brigham, Erastus Leavitt, and Moses Hayward (1800), Reuben Partridge, Andrew Dewey, William Little, Levi Richards, Aaron West (1801-1807), Lyman Lewis, Elijah Slafter, Simon Baldwin, Enos Lewis, Jasper … Read more

Vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts

Vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 title page

The list of vital records of Southborough, Massachusetts, comprised in this volume includes all which were entered in the Town Books during the period from the earliest date there found to the end of the year 1849. Some additions and corrections of names and dates have been made from the records of the First Church, these being indicated in each instance by proper reference. There are a total of 6,297 births, marriages, and deaths recorded. This book is free to read or download.

Stetson Family of Bridgewater, MA

The Stetson family of Bridgewater is one of the oldest and most prominent in that section of the State, and it has for upward of two centuries been identified with the manufacturing interests of the town, its representatives being the founders of the iron industry of Bridgewater. Especial reference is made to Capt. Abisha Stetson, who was one of the first to engage in the iron business; his son, Nahum Stetson, whose name was a household word in his native town, and who by his great foresight, enterprise and progressive ideas built up the great Bridgewater Iron Works; and the latter’s sons and grandsons, all men of substance and good citizenship.

Biography of Robert Thompson Davis, M. D., of Fall River, MA

Robert T Davis

ROBERT THOMPSON DAVIS, M. D., late of Fall River, physician, promoter, State senator, mayor, congressman, etc., was one of the most prominent figures in the public and industrial life of Fall River, and as well one of its most widely known and wealthiest citizens. Dr. Davis was the son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Davis, and was born Aug. 28, 1823, in County Down, Province of Ulster, North of Ireland.

Descendants of John Washburn of Duxbury, MA

nathan washburn

The Washburn name in this country is a distinguished one. Perhaps it is as yet only a tradition that John Washburn, the ancestor of the Washburns here considered, was he who first served as secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Several governors of our States have borne the Washburn name and at one and the same time four of the name occupied seats in the United States Congress. And the branch of the Massachusetts Washburns seated in Middleboro and vicinity have borne no small part in the annals of the Old Colony and later Commonwealth. Capt. Amos Washburn was in command of a company in the American Revolution; one of his sons, a graduate of Harvard, was a talented lawyer at Middleboro; Edward Washburn, brother of Capt. Amos, was another patriot in the Continental army; and his son, Gen. Abiel Washburn, was one of the leading men of his time in Middleboro, the acknowledged leader of the Federal party, and for thirty-six years held commissions through the different grades of office in the State militia; while Luther, Cyrus and the late Bradford Sumner Washburn, in turn, were substantial citizens of the town, and the latter’s son, Judge Nathan Washburn, lawyer and present Justice of the Courts of Plymouth county, is giving a good account of himself.

Soule Family of New Bedford Massachusetts

Rufus A. Soule

SOULE (New Bedford family). The family bearing this name at New Bedford, Mass., is a branch of the Old Plymouth family, descending from George Soule, one of the “Mayflower” Pilgrims and a signer of the compact in 1620. The present head of the family is the Hon. Rufus Albertson Soule, citizen soldier, now collector of the port of New Bedford, who for many years has been a conspicuous figure in the business and political life of that place, a public servant of high and honorable service, one who as man, citizen and neighbor enjoys that popularity that comes to but few.

Colonel Dodge Reaches Villages of Western Indians

Trailing through broad and verdant valleys, they went, their progress often arrested by hundreds of acres of plum trees bending to the ground with tempting fruit; crossing oak ridges where the ground was covered with loaded grapevines, through suffocating creek-bottom thickets, undergrowth of vines and briars, laboring up rocky hillsides and laboring down again, the horses picking their way through impeding rocks and boulders, until on the twenty-ninth of the month, two hundred miles from Fort Gibson, General Leavenworth and his staff reached Captain Dean’s camp, a mile or two from the Washita, where there were quartered two companies of … Read more

Slade Family of Somerset-Fall River, Massachusetts

Lawton Slade

For the past hundred years – during almost the lifetime, as it were, of Fall River and its entire industrial life – the name Slade has been continually identified with that industrial life and also prominent in other lines of effort in that great city of spindles. In 1812-13, when the real substantial pioneer establishments in the cloth making industry of Fall River were projected and completed – the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory and the Fall River Manufactory – began the Slade name in this connection, Eber Slade of Somerset being one of the most prominent promoters of one of the corporations; he became its first treasurer and filled the position until in the middle twenties. William Slade of Somerset was one of the owners of the site of these first establishments, and was himself an original proprietor of the Pocasset and Watuppa Manufacturing Companies. The brothers Jonathan and William Lawton Slade were among the founders of the celebrated cotton mills of Fall River, both becoming presidents of the corporation. John Palmer Slade, another of Somerset’s sons, figured largely not only in the industrial life of the city but in other lines, becoming president of both the Shove and Laurel Lake Mills. George W. Slade, one of the “forty-niners” of the Pacific coast, was for full fifty years one of the extensive and wholesale merchants of Fall River and his name, too, is coupled with the city’s industrial life. And of younger generations one or more of the sons of some of these are at this time officially and otherwise connected with this industrial life and in other lines, notably Leonard N. and Everett N. Slade, of the firm of John P. Slade & Son, insurance and real estate; David F. Slade, member of the law firm of Slade & Borden; and Abbott E. Slade, now treasurer of the Laurel Lake Mills.

The genealogy and history of the Ingalls family in America

The genealogy and history of the Ingalls family in America

Edmund Ingalls, son of Robert, was born about 1598 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England. He immigrated in 1628 to Salem, Massachusetts and with his brother, Francis, founded Lynn, Massachusetts in 1629. He married Ann, fathered nine children, and died in 1648.

Staples Family of Taunton, MA

Herbert M Staples

STAPLES (Taunton family). The Staples name is one of long and honorable standing in New England and the country. The family has been a continuous one in the Bay State for two hundred and seventy and more years, and at Taunton, in this Commonwealth, have lived generation after generation of the name down to the present – a worthy race, one representative of the best type of citizenship. Such men in more recent generations as the two Sylvanus Staples, father and son, and the latter’s son Sylvanus Nelson Staples, and the two Ebenezer Staples and Abiel B. Staples – all … Read more

Descendants of Joseph Borden of Fall River MA

Richard Borden

BORDEN (Fall River family – line of Joseph, fourth generation). The Borden family is an ancient one both here in New England and over the water in old England, as well as one of historic interest and distinction. The New England branch has directly or indirectly traced the lineage of the American ancestor, Richard Borden, many generations back in English history. His first English forbear went over to England from Bourdonnay, Normandy, as a soldier under William the Conquerer, and after the battle of Hastings  – in A. D. 1066 – was assigned lands in the County of Kent, where … Read more

Descendants of Edmund Hobart

Residence of Benjamin Hobart in South Abington

The East Bridgewater family bearing this name, the head of which was the late Hon. Aaron Hobart, long one of the town’s leading citizens and substantial men, and whose father before Him, Hon. Aaron Hobart, was an eminent lawyer and efficient public servant, holding many positions of trust and responsibility, State senator, member of the United States Congress, etc., is a branch of the older Abington Hobart family, in which town the Hobarts were long prominent, and that a branch of the still older Hingham family of the name. It is the purpose here to consider the East Bridgewater Hobart … Read more

Descendants of Jonathan White, Brockton, MA

HON. JONATHAN WHITE, for sixty years a member of the Plymouth county bar and a citizen of note in what is now Brockton, Plymouth Co., Mass., was born Aug. 22, 1819, in that part of Randolph called East Randolph (now Holbrook), Norfolk Co., Mass., son of Jonathan and Abigail (Holbrook) White. The Whites have lived in this section of Massachusetts from the time of the earliest settlements, and the members of the family in every generation have upheld the honorable name. Mr. White’s lineage from the immigrant ancestor follows: Thomas White, probably from England, was in Weymouth as early as … Read more

Seth Hastings Family of Clinton New York

Family Record of Dr Seth Hastings of Clinton, Oneida County, New York

The “Family Record of Dr. Seth Hastings, Senior” by Francis H. Hastings is a genealogical account that documents the ancestry and descendants of Dr. Seth Hastings, Sr., born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1745. This work briefly traces his lineage back to Deacon Thomas Hastings, who emigrated from Ipswich, England, to New England on the ship Elizabeth in 1634. Deacon Thomas Hastings became a freeman in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635. The book then advances to a brief overview of the family of Dr. Seth Hastings, Sr., before delving into detailed records of his descendants. The genealogy extends to various families allied to the Hastings through marriage, incorporating a wide array of surnames.

Richard Dexter Genealogy, 1642-1904

Arms of Dexter

Being a history of the descendants of Richard Dexter of Malden, Massachusetts, from the notes of John Haven Dexter and original researches. Richard Dexter, who was admitted an inhabitant of Boston (New England), Feb. 28, 1642, came from within ten miles of the town of Slane, Co. Meath, Ireland, and belonged to a branch of that family of Dexter who were descendants of Richard de Excester, the Lord Justice of Ireland. He, with his wife Bridget, and three or more children, fled to England from the great Irish Massacre of the Protestants which commenced Oct. 27, 1641. When Richard Dexter and family left England and by what vessel, we are unable to state, but he could not have remained there long, as we know he was living at Boston prior to Feb. 28, 1642.

Descendants of William Sumner of Dorchester, MA

The Sumner family, to which the late Mrs. George Barstow Stetson belonged, is an old and prominent family of New England, descended from one William Sumner, who was born at Bicester, England, in 1605, son of Roger Sumner, of Bicester, Oxfordshire, and his wife Joane (Franklin).

William Sumner, the only child of Roger and Joane, married Oct. 22, 1625, Mary West, and they came to America with their four children in 1636, locating at Dorchester, Mass. He was made a freeman of the Colony May 17, 1637, and held many offices of importance, being selectman for nearly a quarter of a century. He was deputy from Dorchester to the General Court for eight years. He died Dec. 9. 1688, surviving his wife, who died June 7, 1676. Both are buried at Dorchester.

Biography of Henry G. Sumner

Sumner, Henry G., Bristol, grandfather of Hiram S. Sumner, of Bristol Flats, Vt. Henry G. married Sally Hall, and to them were born a large family, of whom Thomas, the father of Hiram S., was the eldest. He married Dorcas M. Fuller, of Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., where they resided until 1841, when they settled in Middlebury, Vt., where they engaged in farming. They had a family of four children born to them — Charlotte, Mrs. Elia Austin, of Bristol, Vt.; Mary E., now Mrs. Harrison Gove, of Bristol, Vt. After the death of his first wife he … Read more