Essex County, Massachusetts - Biographical sketches (4 of 8 so headed), 1888 (part 1 of 2)

Biographical sketches

Dr. Andrew Nichols was born in the northern part of Dauvers, on that portion of the "Prince Farm " now owned by heirs of Philip H. Wentworth, on the 22d of November, 1785. His father was Major Andrew Nichols, an efficient and progressive farmer. He introduced the Lombardy Poplar into this section of the country, his farm being lined with them. His mother was Eunice Nichols, the daughter of John Nichols and Elizabeth Prince. It was Elizabeth Prince, granddaughter of Captain Robert Prince, who set out the large elm tree now standing near the main entrance to the Wentworth estate. Sarah Warren, of Watertown, wife of Robert Prince, and grandmother of said Elizabeth, who was afterward married to Alexander Osborne, was cried out upon as a witch, and died in jail.

The first of his ancestors to settle in this country was William Nichols, born about 1596, who took grants of land in " Brooksby " (now Peabody), and settled on them in 1638. In 1652, as by his deposition on record in the office of the clerk of courts, he was living on his farm of about two hundred acres, situated between Ipswich River and Salem line. The farm in Middleton, now owned by Walter L. Harris, of Salem, and adjoining lands bounded by Nichols Brook, including the hill called "Ferncroft," were a portion of it. His only son was John Nichols, who married Lydia Wilkins, a daughter of Bray Wilkins, of Wills Hill, Middleton. Their son, John Nichols, by his second wife, had two sons, John Nichols, who married Elizabeth Prince, before mentioned, and Deacon Samuel Nichols, Avho married Abigail Elliot, and they were the parents of Major Andrew Nichols. They were all well-to-do farmers, and lived within a mile and one half of Dr. Nichols' birthplace.

After the completion of the course at Phillips Academy, in Andover, in 1804, he studied with Dr. Waterhouse, at the famous " Cragie " or Longfellow Mansion at Cambridge, and attended the course of lectures at the Harvard Medical School in 1806 and 1807.

He commenced the practice of his profession in the southern part of the town (now Peabody), in 1811 ; it soon spread to every part of the old town, also to Middleton, Lynnfield and a portion of Topsfield and Salem, where, as the beloved physician, he might be seen early and late, either walking or riding. I think it can well be said, that no practitioner had more names of persons who were unable to pay upon his books than he. He seldom asked twice for the very moderate fee, and never asked for it wliere he knew or mi>trusted it was hard for them to pay. But to rich or poor alike, he always responded cheerfully, and was very sympathetic to all. I have seen him performing surgical operations and appear to suffer more than the patient.

He was admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1811, and was for many years president of the Essex South District Medical Society. He vvas always a diligent student, and in the advance guard of his profession, delivering an essay on the irritation of the nerves before the Massachusetts Society in 1836.

He was interested in all that was going on about him. He was a charter member and first master of Jordan Lodge of Masons, and during his whole life an active member, of which his poem on " The Spirit of Free Masonry" in 1831, gave evidence.

He was a distinguished botanist, assisting Dr. Bigelow in his well-known book. He gave the first course of lectures ever delivered upon that subject in Salem in 1818 ; his keenlove of it led him to discover the minute Arctic flower, the Draba Verna, on the bleak hills of Peabody, upon the melting of the winter snows. He was the first president of the Essex County Natural History Society in 1836, which, with the Essex Historical Society of 1821, formed the Essex Institute of 1848.

Though in active practice and living in the southern part of the town, he showed a great interest in agriculture. He was intensely interested in the management of his farm in Middleton, some seven miles away next adjoining the old William Nichols farm of 1652, which fell to him through his first wife, Ruth Nichols.

He was one of the founders of the Essex Agricultural Society, and its treasurer for thirteen years. He delivered the address at its first cattle show, held at Topsfield, in 1820.

He was one of the old line Abolitionists, and at the head of the Free Soil party in Dan vers. I have seen the poor fugitive slave at his house being fed and instructed on whom to call as he went northward. He carried on the anti-slavery lectures in town, lecturing and entertaining the lecturers of those days, Garrison, Phillips, Pillsbury, Pierpoint, Henry (Box) Brown and many others, and doing all in his power to advance the cause of the oppressed. He did not live long enough to witness the results. In this connection I would state that his brother, Abel Nichols, cast the first vote in town in the anti-slavery cause, and the only one at that particular election.

The reading and study of the poets, ancient and modern, was a recreation which he thoroughly enjoyed, and which gave him many happy hours. He wrote many poems and hymns, some for special occasions, that have been published, among them the "Centennial" poem of Danvers in 1852.

It was his regular habit to write one every Sabbath, many times quite late at night, as his professional duties would give him no regular hour. Also poems to his wife, mother, children, friends and self, on their recurring birth-days.

He was active in the temperance cause, and as early as 1819 lectured before the " Society for Suppressing Intemperance and other Vices," of which he was a member. He took an active part in the Washingtonian movement in 1840, and in his profession he did all in his power to stay its evils.

He was very inventive, and constantly at work with mind or hands upon something to the advancement of science, as his improvement of Dr. Arnott's Hydrostatic Bed, upon one of which he died. He had, that very week, given instructions to a mechanic for additional improvements to it. The rubber air pillows and beds used at the present day take its place. Tubes for the introduction of fresh air from the window to the bed of the patient. The making of zinc paint. The coupling of railroad cars while in motion. Object cards and letters to place upon the blackboard in our schools while upon the School Committee, of which he was for many years a member. In this connection it is proper to state that he made the first move for the establishment of the High School within the town.

He was one of the founders of the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Danvers (now Peabody), and was a sincere friend and helper to all of its pastors from the first to the last. The Rev. Frank P. Appleton truly said of him, " His heavenly Father was a dear and sacred presence to him," In all the brighter scenes of life he saw that Father's love ; and he laid his soul meekly, cheerfully before that infinite Friend . . . His was a guileless worship. He was open-hearted to God, as he was to man. No fear mingled in his communion ; his cheerful love cast out all fear, or rather his unselfishness made fear of God impossible. ... To serve his Father and to help his brethren, this was the aim of his life. He never lost his love for his fellow-beings, - they were always God's children ; and the deep interest in others which rose uppermost in his heart during his last sickness, the sacred counsel, "to live for man, to work for humanity,'' which, with faltering lips, but unfaltering soul and faith he gave, were only simple repetitions of what his whole life had said.

An intimate friend of George Peabody from his boyhood, in the apothecary shop, when he removed the wen from his forehead, to his success as a London banker, and corresponded with him until the time of his death.

He married his cousin, Ruth Nichols, daughter of Deacon John Nichols, of Middleton, and wife of Sarah Fuller, the 1st of June, 1809; she died without issue, March 31, 1832.

He married secondly, Mary Holyoke Ward, daughter of Joshua Ward, of Salem, and wife Susanna Holyoke, daughter of Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, the 8d of October, 1833.

He left two children, Andrew Nichols, civil engineer, who now occupies the northwesterly corner of the Robert Prince farm, which, to this time, has never been out of the ownership of his descendants, though for one hundred years in the name of Nichols, and a daughter, Mary Ward Nichols.

Of the next generation four sons and three daughters are living children of Andrew Nichols and wife, Elizabeth P. Stanley, of Salem. The eldest Andrew inherits his grandfather's taste for Natural History.

Hon. Elias Putnam

Elias Putnam, son of Israel and Anna Putnam, was born in Danvers, Mass., June 7, 1789, and was descended from John and Priscilla Putnam, who, in or about the year 1634, as stated in a previous page, came from England to America with their three sons, and settled in Salem village. The second of these sons was Nathaniel, whose son John had a son, also named John, the father of Edmund and grandfather of the above mentioned Israel. Through the various matrimonial alliances of this line of ancestors, Eliaa might trace his pedigree back to many others of the emigrant colonists whose history has more or less been made known to us, and whose progeny is now very numerous throughout the country. Edmund Putnam dwelt for the greater part of his long life, and died in the year 1810, at the old Daniel Rea house, which still stands at the north of the Plains, and at a little distance east of the direct road from Salem to Topsfield, and which, having been the property and home of four successive generations of this branch of the Putnam family, passed many years ago into the possession of Mr. Augustus Fowler, who now occupies it. He was commonly known as " Deacon Edmund," having served as deacon of the First Church from 1762 until 1785, when he became a Universalist. While holding this office, he was unanimously chosen captain of a Danvers Alarm List Company, March 6, 1775. In 1776 he was made selectman and assessor, and in 1778 was appointed one of a committee of the town to consider and report upon the New State Constitution then proposed for adoption. Israel, the third of his five children, was born November 20, 1754, at the old Rea place just referred to, and his wife, Anna, was a daughter of Elias Endicott, Sr., and lineal descendant of the old Puritan Governor, John Endicott, whose " Orchard Farm " was her father's native spot. Immediately after their marriage, in 1788, they began housekeeping on another farm owned by the family, situated at a point on the road two miles farther north and about a third of a mile south of the Topsfield line. The house, which is still standing, was built during the last century, and marks the site of one of the earlier Porter homes, which was destroyed by fire. There Elias, and also two of four other children, were born, the family then removing for a time to the New Mills (Danversport), and next to the original homestead, where they might have a more immediate care of the grandparents in their declining years. It was here that Elias took his first real lesson in manual work, serving about the house and in the field in such ways as New England lads were then generally expected to learn and practice. Meanwhile, the short winter terms of the rural district schools, located about midway between the upper and lower farms, afforded him about all the opportunities foreducation, which he enjoyed in his boyhood. Early in 1812, in company with several other young, men of the neighborhood, he entered Bradford Academy, but had not long been a student at that institution before he gave much offence to its teachers and officers by a composition which he prepared and presented as one of the required exercises, and in which he ably and boldly advanced views at variance with the theology there dominant and almost everywhere prevalent. Unwilling to remain where he found that he could not enjoy full religious freedom, he withdrew from the school and repaired to Topsfield for private instruction under Mr. Israel Balch, and there finished the one short term that was to end his school-day life. His classmates or companions from Danvers sympathized with him, approved his action, and all joined him at once in his new scene of study and endeavor. Their concurrent and life-long testimony, as well as his own subsequent career, bore abundant witness to the fidelity with which, at both places, he improved his all too limited advantages, and to the rapid progress he made in his work. Desiring to qualify himself especially for the plain, practical pursuits that engaged so many of his fellow townsmen, he devoted himself to the common English branches, and gave particular attention to the art of surveying, which he so mastered that he subsequently made his proficiency in it, very useful to many others as well as to himself. But however much he might have been indebted to books and schools, nature gave him a still better outfit in a strong mind, in excellent judgment, good common sense, a high moral purpose, indomitable energy and a spirit of industry and activity that never seemed, from first to last, to crave, or even need, relaxation or rest.

He was now twenty-three years of age, and was asked to teach the school of his native district for the following winter of 1812-13, and this he did. The old school-house had been condemned, and a new brick one had just been erected, of whose long line of " masters " he was to be the first, as a youngest son was to be the last, about forty years later. Having married Eunice Ross, daughter of Adam Ross, of Ipswich (who had been a soldier at Bunker Hill and in the Revolutionary War), he and his bride commenced housekeeping, like his parents before them, at the upper farm. His father had offered to send him to college, or to deed to him this estate, as he might choose. Too distrustful, perhaps, of his chances of success in professional life, and fond of agricultural pursuits, he decided to hold to his ancestral acres. Soon after he had served out his single term as a teacher, he concluded to unite with his occupation as a farmer, the business of manufacturing shoes. Amongst the intelligent and sturdy inhabitants of the district and its vicinity, this industrial interest, which was destined to be of prime importance to the town, had already attracted the attention and engaged the enterprising spirit of such men as Caleb Oakes, Zerobbabel Porter, Moses Putnam, Elias Endicott, Jr., and a few others of like character. Elias Endicott, Jr., was a near neighbor as well as an own uncle of the subject of our sketch. The latter had learned not a little from him about the art of the "gentle craft," and now wished to set up business on his own account. He bought the old abandoned school-house, moved it up near his own home, reconstructed and enlarged it, and began in it what was to be the chief avocation of his life. Not, however, without serious discouragement at the very outset ; for, through the insolvency of a Southern tradesman to whom he had sold a large lot of goods, he lost the first thousand dollars he had earned by hard and patient work. But the misfortune only nerved him to greater exertion, and his shop, as well as his laud, became ere long still more the busy scene of labor.

In 1814, or about that time, " Deacon Edmund" and his wife having died, Israel returned with his household to the scene of his early married life to spend the remainder of his days with the son and his family, enlarging the habitation with a northern " L," the future birth-place, it may be noted by the way, of that distinguished soldier and civilian of the West, Major-General Granville M. Dodge. Israel, like his father Edmund, was a Universalist, and soon began, with "'ome of his neighbors, to take the necessary steps for the promulgation of the doctrine within the district. He presided over a meeting, held at the school-house, April 22, 1815, at which the friends of the new movement presented a declaration of their principles and made arrangements to secure preachers. Here was the origin of the present Universalist Church of Danvers. Israel and Elias, both, were among the signers of the declaration, and the active participants in the enterprise, and they subsequently welcomed to their home many of the early apostles of the faith who came from time to time to expound it to such as were willing to hear, Hosea Ballou, Charles Hudson, the Streeters and many others. As the father was prominent in the society in its infant history, so the son was a staunch supporter of it in its more prosperous years, both of them being identified with its fortunes as long as they lived. Farmer Israel was a deeply religious, as well as a very intelligent man, and in his zeal for Universalism he wrote able sermons in its advocacy and defence, several of which were published in pamphlet form for circulation. He died in the summer of 1820, at the age of sixty-five, and the Essex Eegiater, in announcing his decease, referred to him as " a highly respected and worthy citizen." His wife, who was characterized by a full share of the traits and qualities of her race, died long years afterward, at Danversport.atthe-residence of her only surviving daughter, Mrs. Mary P. Endicott.

In 1832 Elias, finding that shoe manufacturing was, and was likely to be, a more lucrative calling than farming, and that the prospective needs of his family of ten children, to which one other was added in the following year, required him to engage in it more extensively, let out his house and land and moved down once more to the ancient homestead on the lower and smaller farm, where he could be nearer the heart of the town, and enjoy ample facilities and opportunities for the end in view. Building for himself, out by the i-oad-side, a more commodious factory than he had thus far occupied, he embarked more and more largely in business, furnishing employment to increasing numbers of workmen in Danvers and surrounding towns, and supplying with the products of their labor the markets of still other cities in the Middle, Southern and Western States.

The qualities of character which distinguished him had a long time before fixed the attention of his fellow-citizens, and he had already received not a few marks of their confidence and respect. He had again and again been chosen moderator of the annual town meetings, and had repeatedly been a member and also a chairman of the Board of Selectmen, in years when such ofiices were posts of honor more than they are now. In 1829 and also in 1830 he was elected as Representative to the General Court, and served for the two years. In 1833 he was chosen Senator and served for one term in that branch of the State Legislature. Here he had the great pleasure of renewing his former friendship with that sterling man, Charles Hudson, who had been an inmate of his home while preaching in Danvers ten or twelve years previously, but who had now entered political life, and was destined to high civic honors. The two men were the members from the Senate of the joint standing committee on railways and canals. It was at an important juncture in the history of such internal improvements in the old commonwealth. The Boston and Lowell Railroad was the only one then in existence in Massachusetts. The eastern company was now fighting, against much opposition and under many difficulties, for a charter. Mr. Putnam was very earnest and active in his efforts in behalf of the measure, and his zeal for it, taken in connection with his acknowledged ability to deal with such matters as these, and his position as a leading member of the committee, and the only member of it from the county which he represented, and in which the line was to have one of its immediate termini, and with the interests and needs of which, so largely to be affected by a successful issue, he was quite well acquainted, enabled him to exert, as the late and lamented Mr. Joshua Silvester and others testify that he did, a very controlling influence towards the favorable result that was finally reached. In like manner he defended and supported other measures of public utility while thus at the capitol.

More and more, as life went on, Mr. Putnam had at heart the prosperity of his native town, and gave to it, in no stinted degree, his thought and care, his time and his means. With that object still in view, he was, as Mr. Silvester again remarks, in a recent biographical sketch of him, accompanied with some personal reminiscences, the first to propose the establishment of a bank in North Danvers. The two men were near neighbors, had already known each other for some years, were both engaged in the same kind of business, and were associated intimately in political, religious and other relations, and were on terms of mutual trust and friendship which continued to strengthen and ripen with each advancing year. " During all this time," says the account or tribute of the revered and veteran survivor of his long since departed companion and co-worker, " scarcely a day passed that we were not together. I can safely say that I knew the man perfectly. One day he asked me if I did not think we needed a bank in North Danvers? I told him, yes, I thought we did. We then called a meeting of the business men of the town at the old Berry Tavern to consider the matter. It was unanimously voted that application should be made for a charter, and that other necessary steps should be taken." The end was at length accomplished. The bank was duly incorporated in 1836, and Mr. Putnam was chosen the first president, and held the office to the close of his life. Mr. Silvester, who was made one of its directors, adds, - " the bank immediately went into a successful business, which was soon checked, however, by the general crash of 1837. Nearly all the banks of the country suspended specie payment, and well nigh all the business houses failed or asked extensions, in consequence of the embarrassments occasioned by the removal of the government deposits and by the destruction of the National bank. There followed the greatest depression and stagnation ever known before or since to the industry and trade of the people. But under the management of Mr. Putnam, the village bank was safely carried through it, and to the most perfect satisfaction of the stockholders." And, notwithstanding great personal losses, the business of his own manufacturing establishment was conducted with like wisdom and success.

In 1842, with the view of extending still more his operations, he built in the village of the Plains, at a distance of about a mile south from his home, a dwelling-house, and a much larger factory than his last one, on land he had just purchased of Mr. Jonas Warren. Thither he moved his family in the following January, and soon took into business with him as a partner, his son, Elias E., giving to the firm the name of " Elias Putnam & Co.''

It was in the summer of 1843 that he united with others to promote the plan of purchasing and laying out the beautiful grounds of the Walnut Grove Cemetery as a new and fitting place for the burial of the dead. In pursuance of the object, a suitable organization was formed at successive meetings of citizens, and on the 18th of October, the first regular ofiicers of the corporation were chosen, Mr. Putnam being elected president. The consecration services took place June 23, 1844.

He was a warm friend of the cause of education. While in the Legislature he had made the acquaintance of Horace Mann, then and for a long time a member from Dedham, and was deeply interested in the better system of common schools which the future renowned philanthropist had already there advocated and urged. He became a diligent reader of his writings upon the subject, and especially of his longcontinued and most useful Common School Journal. Some trace of this influence may perhaps be seen in the part which he took in causing the large amount of surplus revenue that was apportioned to Danvers in 1838, to be set apart as a permanent fund for the benefit of her schools. The proposition encountered much opposition, but it was finally carried a few years later, and John W. Proctor, Esq., in his Centennial address of 1852, says, - " Considering the many jealousies brought to bear on this topic, the act whereby the investment was made will ever remain most creditable to the town. No man did more to bring this about than the late Elias Putnam who, in this as in all his other public services, showed himself a vigilant friend of Danvers." If, in the same connection, Mr. Proctor, long after Mr. Putnam's death, allowed himself to indulge so publicly in a less just and generous word, those who were then conversant with affairs, were not slow or mistaken in referring it to the old frequent controversies between the northern and southern sections of the town, in which these two men not seldom stoutly and uncompromisingly antagonized each other, and in which the able and distinguished lawyer, as he could but remember, was not always successful, even as he was not always in the right.

Mr. Putnam was also among the very first to devise and agitate the project of a railroad that should connect Danvers and other towns north of it with the seaboard and more populous and 'commercial places at the south. One of his sons-in-law recalls a ride which he was early invited to take with him through Middleton to Andover, and the pleased interest with which the latter sought out and discovered a feasible route for the proposed line. Along that way the Essex Railroad, extending from Salem to Lawrence, was constructed at length, but comparatively few to-day are aware what a protracted and determined struggle it cost to give it that direction, and thus to ensure to Danvers the increased facilities and advantages for transportation and inter-communication which she has consequently so long enjoyed. The road was chartered in 1846, though not opened until 1848, and Mr. Putnam was one of the several persons in whose names the grant of incorporation was vested, and subsequently, at the organization of the Board, was made one of the directors, though he was not to live to see fully completed the enterprise which had commanded so much of his interest and energy, and which he had done so much to put into the way of success.

Among the numerous offices which he held at one time or another, was that of county commissioner, and on various occasions he was appointed a delegate to county. State and National political conventions. He was a member of the Whig party, and few felt more keenly disappointed than himself at the defeat of Henry Clay in 1844. As a personal friend, he had often taken counsel and been much associated in these relations, with such men as Daniel P. King, Eufus Choate, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen C. Phillips and others of like repute in Danvers, Salem and vicinity, sharing fully their Whig principles and sympathies, and working with them to supplant the Democracy. He had a deep and abiding interest in political and national affiiirs, and kept himself well informed in regard to what was going on at Washington, as well as to matters of legislation nearer home. He had a natural and instinctive abhorrence of the system of slavery, and greatly desired to see it brought to an end, but he was opposed to all rash and violent measures to compass the result, and was persuaded that the best good of the country and the higher interests of freedom itself, would most surely be realized through the triumph and continued supremacy of the party with which he was connected and whose illustrious leaders and statesmen he sincerely trusted and honored. He was fond of argument, had debated similar questions long before in the old Danvers Lyceum, and still liked to discuss subjects of this kind with his friends and neighbors, and such was the intelligence and candor of the man that they were equally ready and glad to exchange views with him, however much they might differ with him in opinion. Whatever his prepossessions, he was a lover of the truth, had an inquiring mind, aimed to get at the reasons of things, and was most conscientious and deliberate in arriving at his convictions. We quote again from Mr. Silvester, - " He had supreme control of himself under all circumstances, and was a deep thinker and reasoner. Every question, or new movement, presented to him he traced out in all its bearings to the end, after which he was ready to express his feelings on the matter, and when you got his opinion on any subject, you could rely on it as his best candid judgment and most likely to be correct." Nor is it diificult to say where he would have stood had he lived somewhat longer, only to see his old party utterly recreant at last to its better principles and high trusts, and men taking sides anew for the momentous conflict at hand.

Mr, Putnam was, morever, a person of rare inventive skill. As he was one of the early shoemanufacturers of the town, so he was one of the very first in the country to invent machines to facilitate the various processes of the art, and to economize, in connection therewith, labor, time and material. It is a curious circumstance that when, in 1833, his neighbor, Mr. Samuel Preston who, like Mr. Silvester, was engaged in the same business, had invented a machine for pegging shoes and had got out a patent for it, Mr. Putnam had at the same time and in the same quiet or secret way, been studying and toiling to accomplish a like result, and had actually constructed a machine of his own that did the work. In a letter which he addressed to a friend, and a copy of which, in his own handwriting, lies before us, he manifests a desire to know more fully the principle of Mr. Preston's invention, having received an intimation that it was essentially the same as that of his own, yet suspecting his own might have certain merits which the other had not. Doubtless the discovered resemblance was such as to discourage him from applying for a patent in his own case, since, as a matter of fact, the two machines worked about equally well, though poorly at best. But neither of these gentlemen followed up his advantage so as to make his achievement practically useful to himself or others. It was reserved to men of a later time to bring to wonderful perfection what they had created as only humble beginnings. Mr. Putnam turned his attention to other contrivances, and a few years later obtained a patent for a machine which he had invented for splitting leather, and which was found to be of so much benefit to the manufacturers, that it commanded a brisk sale amongst them, far and near. Two others, of like utility, were soon afterward invented and patented, both ingenious, yet simple in plan. The inventor had connected with his shop a private apartment to which few were admitted, and in which, amidst a promiscuous array of drawings, mouldings, castings and patterns of great variety, he beguiled in such studies or pursuits as these whatever hours he could snatch from his busy and stirring life in the world without. In such, as in so many other ways, he advanced the chief business of the town and wrought for the general good.

It has always and justly been said of him by those who knew him that he was one of the most publicspirited of men, and he was not less disinterested and benevolent in motive and feeling than he was honest and upright in thought, word and deed. His worldly possessions might have been abundant, indeed, had he not given himself so constantly and freely to the service of others. He was the helper and not the hinderer of men around him, and many were those, in Danvers and elsewhere, to whom he gave a good start in life, or whom he assisted in their worthy struggles by generous advances of money, or by other not less valuable forms of encouragement and aid. He was a prodigious worker himself, and he had a decided liking for men who had in them the very spirit of work, who were industrious and virtuous, and showed signs of thriftiness and prudent living, and it was a genuine pleasure to him to extend to them his sympathy and support whenever they chanced to get into a hard place and needed a friendly hand. In other words, he was ever quick to help those who tried to help themselves, and also those who were helpless, indeed, yet were really deserving. He had small patience with the lazy and shiftless ones, even as the vain, the double-minded and the false-hearted found him an uncongenial presence. It was pleasant to see what a wide reputation he had in Essex County for wisdom, goodness and rectitude, and in what varied and numerous ways the feeling of absolute trust, on the part of families or private individuals in the region round about, was wont to manifest itself. He was constantly called upon to arbitrate between contentious parties, to compose difficulties, to give advice, to settle estates, to readjust boundary lines and to be himself a sort of savings-bank for widows and orphans and others at a time when no legally incorporated institution of the kind existed in the town. Such depositors felt that their little all, principal and interest both, was safe for them beyond all question in the hands of "Squire Lias," as he was popularly called, and so it was. It was often at no little inconvenience and sacrifice that he rendered these different kinds of service to strangers and acquaintance alike, but he never declined the request if it was in h's power to fulfil it, and so to di-charge an act of kindness. We can hardly refrain from quoting once more from the simple and heartfelt tribute of Mr. Silvester, - " His personal character," he says, " was the noblest." He was frank and generous, sincere in all he said and did, scorned a trick or an unworthy act, and was incapable of either, and he bore about with him wherever he went that deportment and dignity which secured for him the perfect confidence of every man with whom he came in contact. He was one of those who believe that there is a pleasure beyond that of benefiting one's self - the pleasure of doing good to others, and this he practiced. Selfishness was the last trait which the spirit of truth and goodness could have imputed to him."

In person he was tall, large and well proportioned of stature, was of reddish brown hair and fair florid complexion, with full blue expressive eyes, and was of great physical strength and of remarkably good health through all his life until his last, lingering and fatal sickness. He was generally of grave aspect, yet was not without a native element of humor and not seldom indulged in more hearty sportive moods, was marked by a certain puritan simplicity of manner, and was plain in his dress and frugal in his habits. He was a member of one of the earliest temperance societies in Essex County, and was a total abstinence man all his life, even at a time when it was well nigh a universal custom to make use, in some form or another, of spirituous liquors. He was an early riser, and was early to bed, filling the waking hours with incessant work, and while he was so faithful to all the many interests which we have enumerated .he had a supreme aad loving care of home and kindred.

After months of severe suffering, occasioned by a wrench or a strain of the side, which finally proved the cause of his death, he passed peacefully away, July 8, 1847, at his village home and in the presence of his family and other loving friends. The trustees, or directors, and officers, of the various institutions with which he had been prominently connected, such as the village bank, the Essex Railroad Company and the Walnut Grove Cemetery corporation at once met, passed resolutions expressive of their respect for the memory of their deceased associate, and of their deep sense of the great worth of his character and services, and of their own private as well as of the iiublic loss, and voted to attend, each board as a body, his funeral obsequies. The local and other papers contained just tributes in his honor, voicing the general sorrow of the hour and the sentiments of high esteem and gratefiil regard entertained towards him by all who had known him. We copy from one or two of these journals the following extracts. Said the Salem Gazette, of July 12, 1847, -"It is with sincere regret that we are called upon to chronicle the decease of the Hon. Elias Putnam, of North Danvers, a gentleman of great worth, and a highly influential and useful member of the community where he dwelt. Mr. Putnam was much respected wherever he was known. Enterprising, sagacious, of comprehensive views and upright action he was foremost in all schemes for the promotion of the general good within the sphere where his influence could be felt, and filled many offices of public trust, from a State

Senator to those more immediately local, with unswerving fidelity and acknowledged usefulness. His death cannot but be regarded as a public loss by his own community, and he will be sincerely mourned by a very large circle of neighbors and friends." And the Danvers Courier, of July 10th, said, - " For many years he has been looked to as the counsellor and friend of all around him. Ever ready to lend his aid to all who asked it, ever cool and considerate in his judgment, - the want of his judicious advice will be deeply felt in the circle in which he moved. For the last thirty years he had been repeatedly called to the discharge of duties of trust and confidence by his fellow-citizens, and uniformly met them to their entire satisfaction. He never sought office, but never refused it when he thought he could be useful in the fulfilment of its duties. There are none among us who have done more to promote the prosperity of the town than Mr. Putnam. Discriminating in his judgment, persevering in his industry and efficient in his operations, the influence of his example will long be remembered with admiration."

The funeral services were held at his residence, July 10, and were attended by a large assemblage of people, and the burial took place on the same day at the grounds which he had been so much interested in having set apart and consecrated as a receptacle of the dead. Shortly after, Rev. Mr. Hanson, the pastor of the Universalist Church, preached an eloquent sermon in which he bore touching testimony to the virtues and usefulness of his departed friend and parishioner, and to the conspicuous exemplification which his life and character had given of the value and power of the faith he had cherished.

Mrs. Putnam survived her husband twenty -six years. Of their eleven children, seven are still living. Of the other four, Emily died in 1843, and Elias Endicott, Israel Alden and Louisa Jane, in 1848.

Rev. Alfred P. Putnam, D.D.

Alfred Porter Putnam, the eighth child of Elias and Eunice (Ross) Putnam, was born January 10, 1827, in Danvers, Mass., in the house in which also his father was born thirty-eight years before. He was the lineal descendant of the famous John Putnam, who immigrated to this country in 1634, and whose death, eighteen years later, simultaneous with the appearance of a great comet, was publicly proclaimed, by the clergymen of the time, as affording this " very signal testimony that God had then removed a bright star and shining light out of the heaven of his church here into celestial glory above."^ In the female line he traces his pedigree to some of the ablest founders of our New England civilization, such as Governor John Endicott, Francis Peabody and William Hawthorne, men who have made their impress on every succeeding generation in Essex County to the present day. Educated in the common schools of his native town, he first turned his attention to mercantile pursuits. After a short apprenticeship in the village bank of which his father was president, and, subsequently, a year's study at the Literary Institute at Pembroke, N. H. he entered, as book-keeper, a dry goods establishment in Boston, where he at once discovered an uncommon aptitude for a business career. The intellectual and reformatory movements of the time, however, soon engrossed his attention ; and seeking a wider field and a higher aim for his life work, he determined to fit himself for college, and thus acquire a mental equipment with which, in the mighty contests then impending, he might do some service in behalf of his fellow-men.

Accordingly, in 1848, at the age of twenty-one, he began his preparatory studies at an academy in Vermont, and the next year entered Dartmouth College. Attracted by the new elective system under President Wayland at Brown University, Providence, he transferred his membership to that institution in 1850, where he was graduated with high honors in 1852, delivering, at the spring exhibition, the valedictory oration of his class on " Religion and Art." Thus, in the brief period of four years after leaving his desk in Boston, he had won his A. B.

During the following autumn, as in the preceding winters, he was engaged in teaching, and then he entered the Divinity School at Cambridge, under Drs. Noyes and Francis. Ajjprobated in due time to preach by the Boston Association of Unitarian Ministers, he delivered his first sermon in the Unitarian Church at Sterling, Mass., December 17, 1854. The next year, and while yet a student he received unanimous calls to settle at Sterling, Bridgewater, Watertown and Roxbury, the latter of which he accepted. He was graduated at the Divinity School July 17, 1855, and was ordained to the ministry and installed as pastor of the Mount Pleasant Congregational (Unitarian) Church, Roxbury, December 19th, Rev. Dr. George W. Briggs, of Salem, preaching the sermon.

His ministrations at Roxbury continued, to the great acceptance of his people, nearly nine years, interrupted only by a visit to Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land in 1862-63. Perhaps the most notable incident, connected with his travels abroad, was the speech made by him at the dinner of Americans in London, on the Fourth of July, 1862. It was at one of the darkest periods of the Civil War. Banks' campaign in the valley of the Shenandoah had just culminated in disaster, and the Army of the Potomac, the focus of every loyal heart, seemed to hang on the perilous edge of annihilation, between the Chickahominy and the James. Under these disheartening circumstances and in the midst of a people flaming with prejudices, the assemblage of Americans to celebrate the anniversary of their national independence was an event that gained wide publicity on both sides of the Atlantic. Called upon to respond to the toast, " The Constitution of the United States," Dr. Putnam rose to the full height of the occasion. It was a speech long to be remembered by those who heard it. Of commanding form and with a voice of extraordinary richness and power, he roused his audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The following extract (which we copy from a London journal), referring to our flag, may aflTord some conception of the speech and the effect it produced at that critical juncture of our affairs :

" And then, Bir, that old flag of the Union which so fittingly symbolizes what the constitution makes a reality - that, too, shall go down to those who are to come after us, more precious far than ever it has been before - more signiflcantin its moaning - glowing with brighter radiance - not a single star erased from its field of blue - a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Baptized anew into ten thousand deaths, that azure field takes on a deeper blue for the faithfulness unto the end of all who have fallen martyrs to the righteous cause - those crimson stains wear an intenser red for the blood that has been shed so freely in our behalf - and every line and star of light upon that banner of our love is whiter still for the purity of the souls that have mounted from the battle fields of the Union up to God. Oh ! within these few past months, how many brave men has that national emblem made braver ! How many a struggling host it has inspired and led on to victory I How many a noble fellow has been called upon to sleep his last sleep, enwrapped in its sacred folds ! How many of our Southern brethren have wept like children as they have caught once more a glimpse of its stars and stripes ! And what a promise it seems to give us of the hour when the groat deliverance shall come to us all, freeing us not only from the hand that has been lifted up against our country, but also from that evil and scourge of our land which is the source of all our woe. Yes, sir, it is the flag of our pride and our affections, growing richer in associations and more terrible in might with every passing day. As new Stars shall beadded to its already splendid constellation, it shall continue its mission of beneficence and power. It shall mean peace and love forever to all who befriend it - defiance and war to those only who insult it."

Returning home in 1863, Dr. Putnam delivered before various Lyceums lectures on " The Nile," the " World's Indebtedness to Egypt," and other topics suggested by his tour abroad, all of which added to his reputation and enlarged the sphere of his usefulness.

From time to time, while in Roxbury, urgent calls came to him to settle elsewhere, - from Salem, Boston and Chicago churches, - all of which, however, were declined. In the spring of 1864 the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, N. Y., presented a strong claim for his services. This was everywhere recognized as one of the most important posts in the denomination. To hold its ground in the City of Churches, it needed an exceptionally able and vigorous champion of the faith it professed. Considerations of duty, strongly urged upon him by leading men of the denomination, finally induced Dr. Putnam to sunder the peculiarly tender and affectionate ties that bound him to the hearts of his people in Roxbury. He accepted the call, and on the 28th of September following he was installed as pastor. Rev. E. S. Gannett, D.D., of Boston, preaching the sermon.

His own society testified their appreciation of his pastoral work by the erection, in 1866, of a beautitul chapel for the use of its Sunday-school, and, at the same time, resiwnded generously to his appeals for the religious instruction of the children of the poor, so many of whom he had observed spending the sacred hours idly in the streets and alley-ways of the crowded city.

For this class, accordingly, a Sunday-school was immediately opened in a room over the Wall Street Ferry-house, and after a time passed under the superintendency of Mr. A. T. White an active member and efficient co-worker in Dr. Putnam's Church. Six children only attended the first session, but by the persistent and indefatigable exertions of the founder and his willing assistants, the numbers rapidly increased, until now [1887], it is a large and flourishing institution, with a fine, commodious chapel, erected for its use, a permanently settled missionary to carry on its beneficent work, and a constituency of about a hundred families to share its blessings and send down the stream of its influence, it is to be hoped, to many succeeding generations.

Another philanthropic enterprise, to which Dr. Putnam directed his attention at this time, was the founding of the Union for Christian work, since become one of the most important and influential charities of Brooklyn. The first conferences of the projectors were held in his study. At a subsequent meeting, already large and enthusiastic, he presented the report, as chairman of the committee on constitution and by-laws, which was adopted, and, by request, delivered an address on the love, pursuit and practice of truth, striking the key-note of the organization and enlisting still broader sympathy in its behalf. From these beginnings, the Union has grown to be a recognized power in the community. Nobly endowed and established in a beautiful edifice of its own, with its library, reading and lecture rooms, its labor bureau and schools of industrial art, it stands to-day a worthy monument to those who, in the providence of God, laid its foundations deep in human brotherhood and love.

In 1867 Dr. Putnam again signalized his pastorate by the establishment of the Third Unitarian Church, in the suburbs of the city. The rapid growth of Brooklyn toward the East, which he foresaw, has abundantly justified the wisdom of the movement, though, at the time it was undertaken, there were not wanting among well-tried friends some misgivings of the result. Sunday services were opened at first in a small hall over a fish-market, and conducted there regularly, with ever deepening interest, for about a year, when Dr. Putnam, appealing to his people, secured the sum of ten thousand dollars for a house of worship. The building was dedicated December 9, 1868, Dr. Putnam preaching a powerful sermon on the " Freedom and Largeness of the Christian Faith." Latterly the society has again out-grown its accommodations, and has purchased and fitted up anew the ample and attractive structure it now occupies. Professor Foster, in his published sketch of the new church, thus testifies to its paternity : " Above all other human sympathy and aid, does it cherish the friendship and services of Rev. Alfred P. Putnam. It is simply just to affirm that the Third Unitarian Society of Brooklyn is the offspring of his hope and zeal."

During his ministry in Brooklyn Dr. Putnam delivered, from time to time, to his people courses of lectures on a variety of important subjects, such as the Great Religions of the World, the History of the Bible, the History of Sacred Song, the Doctrines ot Liberal Christianity, the History of Unitarianism, the History of Universalism, the Religious Aspects of Europe, and on Egypt, Sinai and Palestine.

Two of these courses, on the Great Religions and the History of Sacred Song, were subsequently repeated to the students of the Meadville (Pa.) Theological School. Out of the latter series grew Dr. Putnam's ''Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith," a work which required the finest taste and most extensive research, and which gives biographical sketches of nearly one hundred Unitarian hymnwriters, with selections from each, and copious illustrative notes. This work was published in 1874, and received with high encomiums by the press, religious and secular, and by critics and reviewers of every sect. The late Dr. Ezra Abbott said of it : " It seems to me in every respect admirably edited. I find unexpected richness in the book every time I open it." Indeed, that a work like this, avowedly denominational in its scope, should yet, by the sweetness of its tone and the catholicity of its spirit, win universal praise, is almost without a parallel in our literature.

The terrible conflagration at the Brooklyn Theatre December 5, 1876, was an event that called forth the profoundest sympathies of every class in the community. In obedience to a common impulse, the citizens at large promptly organized a Relief Association for the benefit of the surviving sufferers and the families of the deceased. From this was formed an executive committee, and Dr. Putnam, who had delivered the address at the burial, in one common grave, at Greenwood Cemetery, of the unrecognized dead, was appointed a member to represent the churches and charities of the city. His capacity for hard work, combined with a practical knowledge of affairs, brought him at once to the front. The special disbursement of the fund among the beneficiaries for whom it was intended largely devolved upon him. The burden was cheerfully and faithfully borne. It may afford some conception of the extent of his labors in this cause, if it be stated that the sums disbursed, mostly in small checks about once a week and covering a period of two years, amounted to nearly fifty thousand dollars, and that the families receiving aid.

all of whom required personal visitation, numbered one hundred and eighty-eight. At the close of the trust, Dr. Putnam was requested by his associates to draw up the final report. This he did ; and its publication in the daily papers and in jjamphlet form was followed by a popular verdict of approval as spontaneous and hearty as it was well-deserved.

One of the most interesting events of his life in Brooklyn was the celebration of the centennial anniversary of Dr. Channing's birth, April 7, 1880. It may well be deemed a landmark in the history of the Christian Church in America. Representatives of every denomination took part in its impressive ceremonies. To Dr. Putnam, who conceived, and, as chairman of the committee, carried out the novel arrangements for the occasion, it was truly a labor of love, for Channing's spirit and teachings were greatly instrumental in leading him into the ministry and are still very dear to his heart.

A memorial service in the evening, at the Academy of Music, presided over by Mr. A. A. Low, brought the exercises to a fitting close. It was a brilliant assemblage. Five thousand people, including men eminent in every walk of life, filled the auditorium. Henry Ward Beecher, George William Curtis, Rufus Ellis, Robert Collyer and others made addresses, in which the dawn of a new and better era of Christian fellowship was confidently proclaimed. Dr. Putnam published the unique proceedings in a volume, entitled '' The Brooklyn Channing Celebration,'' containing the addresses and letters of sympathy from distinguished theologians and publicists in all parts of the world.

He has also published during his ministry a considerable number of his sermons in pamphlet form, such as those on the " Death of Rev. George Bradford," 1859; the "Life to Come," delivered in 1865 at the Cooper Institute in New York and afterwards printed as a tract by the American Unitarian Association ; "Edward Everett," 1865; the "Freedom and Largeness of the Christian Faith," 1869; "Unitarianism in Brooklyn," a historical address, preached on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the dedication of the First Church edifice, 1869 ; the " Unitarian Denomination, Past and Present," 1870 ; " Broken Pillars," 1873 ; " Christianity, the Law of the Land," 1876 ; a " Tribute to the Memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Frothingham," 1877; "William Lloyd Garrison," 1879; "The Whole Family of God," 1884. Also biographical memorials of Mrs. Josiah O. Low and Mr. Ethelbert M. Low, 1884 ; and of Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Buttrick, 1885.

For many years, and until he removed from Brooklyn, Dr. Putnam was a director of the Long Island Historical Society, and much of the time chairman of its executive committee, writing its annual reports for publication during the period of 1876-81, and giving to its interests, at all times and in full measure, a firm and loving support. He was also corresponding secretary and member of the invitation committee of the Brooklyn New England Society from the date of its organization, and at one of the annual dinners he gave an account of a visit made by him, in 1883, to Scrooby, the original seat of the Pilgrims in England.

In the line of historical investigation, which he pursued in intervals of leisure, con amove, we owe to his fruitful pen, strong articles, published in denominational and other magazines, on " Hosea Ballon," " A Visit to Haworth," " The Origin of Hymns," " Helen Maria Williams," " A Story of Some French Liberal Protestants," and " Paul's Four Great Epistles and his Visits to Jerusalem," etc. He also contributed one of the chapters in Judge Neilson's volume, " Memories of Rufus Choate."

Scores of extended articles in the Banvers Mirror on local history and traditions, running through a series of- years, attest his fondness for this sort of literary work. Future historians will find in them a rich thesaurus of materials, historical, biographical and genealogical, carefully collated for their use.

In 1882, under the pressure of his long-continued and laborious pastorate, Dr. Putnam's health began to decline. His robust constitution could no longer resist the strain to which his multifarious cares and engagements subjected it. Promptly and affectionately, his church voted to give him a year's leave of absence, that he might revisit foreign shores, to continue to him his salary, and to supply his pulpit. He was also generously supplied with funds to defray his personal expenses abroad.

Removing his family for the year to Concord, Mass., the ancestral home of his wife, he sailed for Europe on his birthday, January 10, 1883. After a delightful wdnter in the south of France, where his restoration to health and to the natural elasticity of his spirits was, as he thought, assured, he visited London in May, and was a welcome guest at the Unitarian Conferences, then in session in the city. Here, before various bodies, he delivered several addresses, one of which, by special request, was on the Aspects of Unitarianism in America. Its decidedly conservative tone awakened at once a profound interest among his hearers, and at its close drew a running fire of criticism, for and against the positions assumed, from the eminent scholars and divines who were present. Subsequently, the discussion was taken up by the religious press, on both sides of the Atlantic, Dr. Putnam publishing trenchant articles in his own defence.

He sailed from Liverpool for home July 4, 1883. With some misgivings, confirmed indeed by medical advisers, he immediately returned to his pulpit, and re-assumed all the burdens his versatile talents had hitherto imposed upon him. The struggle, however, was in vain. His enfeebled constitution soon admonished him that a longer period of rest was imperatively necessary. Accordingly, early in April, 1886, he resigned his pastoral office, with regretful sympathy on the part of the church he had so long and so faithfully served, and heartfelt sorrow on his own. A testimonial from his grateful parishioners, accompanied by the munificent gift of fifteen thousand dollars, fitly expressed their appreciation of his high character, and the esteem and affection in which they held him. Resolutions of similar import were passed by the other organizations with which he was officially connected ; and the papers of the city made warm, eulogistic mention of his life and labors in Brooklyn.

The Long Island Historical Society generously put on record " the deep sense entertained by all its members of the value of the service which Dr. Putnam has cheerfully rendered it for many years, by his wise counsels, by his faithful and intelligent participations in its discussions, and his generous and efficient assistance in accomplishing its plans," Rev. Dr. Storrs, president, adding that *' the highest regard and esteem of all the members of the board will follow Dr. Putnam to his future home, wherever that may be, with their best wishes for his speedy and complete restoration to health, and for his continued enjoyment and usefulness in the service which they do not doubt he will render elsewhere, as he has so signally rendered it here, to the cause of good letters, of historical enquiry, and of the best social culture."

The Oldening words of a Brooklyn Eagle editorial were as follows: "The resignation of the Rev. Dr. Putnam, of the First Unitarian Church, will occasion regret beyond the boundaries of the society. He has been a faithful and devoted pastor, and this implies a good deal in a term of service of twenty-two years, including, as it does, not merely the delivery of sermons, but the personal work which brings the minister into intimate relations with many people in the sharp crisis of life and death. Dr. Putnam, during that period, has been also an active and useful citizen, bearing an interested part in those public enterprises which in Brooklyn know no denominational lines. An unanimous expression of good will, with hearty hope for his restoration to health and his prosperity everywhere and at all times, will accompany him in his retirement."

The Brooklyn Union closed an article with this : " His name has been connected with many benevolent movements. He was an earnest worker for the Union for Christian Work, the Mission School and many other charitable enterprises. He was a conspicuous figure in helping to relieve the distress of those who were made widows and orphans by the destruction by fire of the Brooklyn Theatre. He also did much towards familiarizing people of all denominations with the life of Dr. Channingin the services which w^ere held in his commemoration. Apart from his ministerial work Dr. Putnam has filled a large space in the public mind by his untiring labor in forwarding thg great and growing interests of the city

Rev. Almon Gunnison, D.D., pastor of the All Souls' (Universalist) Church, in Brooklyn, wrote to the Christian Leader, of Boston, of which paper he has long been the regular correspondent :

" W^e record with great sorrow the reBignation of Bev. Dr. A. P. Putnam, the pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Brooklyn. He has had a long and triumphant pastorate of over twenty years, and gives up a successful work on account of ill-health. He has gone South, and it is expected that freedom from care and rest, will hring complete restoration. Dr. Putnam is well-known in our denomination, as he is of Universalist parentage, and has always been in thorough sympathy with our faith and the genius of our church. He has been outspoken in his utterances and fraternal in his fellowships. A preacher of large ability, a gentleman of noble instincts, he has been identified with every good work in the City of Churches, and his strong personality has counted for much in educational, philanthropic, reformatory and religious work. He has been the most helpful of yoke-fellows, ready always for neighborly service, quick in his sympathy in sickness, swift to speak the appreciative word and to do the kind act. His resignation will be regretted not only by his own people, but by all liberal believers, and, in fact, by all of every faith, who can appreciate the influence of a strong, sweet-souled, consecrated Christian worker."

Of the various biographical sketches of him which have appeared from time to time, a ad to which we have been greatly indebted for our materials here, we copy the following extract from J. Alexander Patten's " Lives of the Clergy of New York and Brooklyn," as showing his cuaracteras a preacher and his theological position :

"Dr. Putnam preaches with much effectiveness. There is great comprehension in his thought, and he is able to give expression to it in terms of rare conciseness, and not le-sof beauty. All that he says has this vigor of meaning and force of application, and much of it is delivered in the most classic and glowing picturings of eloquence. In his argument, he addresses himself to an elaborate and practical consideiatiou of his subject, and you are led along with him, without tediousness, but rather allured by the attractive interweavings of a warm and chaste fancy. And herein is it that this gifted preacher excels. Your attention is instantly riveted by the smoothness of his periods and the elegance of sentiment which usher you to profound discussion and lofty imagery. He belongs to the Channing school of Unitariauism. Holding to his particular tenets with all the strength of his intellect and his love, he stands prominent among their ablest expounders, and in a pure, consistent life seeks their practical illustration before his fi41ow-men."

One of his sermons, delivered in Roxbury in 1861, at the outbreak of the civil war, on the Flag of our Country, has become widely known, and is published in text-books, as a model of fine diction and impassioned eloquence.

In 1877 he was invited to become the pastor of the Unitarian Church in Quincy, Mass., but he declined the call. While in Roxbury he was elected president of the Unitarian Sunday-school Society. After his removal to Brooklyn he was made vice-president of the New York and Hudson River Unitarian Conference, and was also elected as its president, but the latter position he declined. For a time he edited the Liberal Christian, a Unitarian weekly paper, published in New York City. When, years ago, the project was on foot to remove the Meadville (Pa.) Theological School toChicago, 111., and there enlarge and endow it, the leading man of the denomination who had charge of the enterprise asked Dr. Putnam to become president of the new institution, but the friends at Meadville could not be reconciled to the loss of the school, and the plan was therefore abandoned. Dr. Putnam was a member of the Century Club in New York, and also of the similar organization, of later origin, in Brooklyn, the Hamilton Club, as well as of the Brooklyn Art Associatian. He is also a member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, and of the American Historical Association.

In politics Dr. Putnam was an ardent Free-Soiler in old anti-slavery days, and often preached from the pulpit and spoke at political meetings in behalf of the slave and the cause of liberty. While a student in the Divinity School in 1854, he was sent, as a delegate from his native town, to the convention at Worcester that founded the Republican party and gave it its name. He has generally acted with that party since, but not seldom has on occasion assumed a more iudeiDendent attitude.

In his pleasant retirement at Concord, whither he has again removed his family, he is now rapidly regaining his health. Surrounded by his bonks, and by many beautiful works of art which are the mementoes of loving friends, or which have been gathered by him in his extensive travels at home and abroad, he is devoting his leisure to favorite literary pursuits.

In person Dr. Putnam is tall and imposing. His well-proportioned form, his cultivated bearing, his classic, intellectual face in which strength and benignity combine, make him always a marked man among men.

His voice, sonorous and flexible in a high degree, is also wonderfully sympathetic. It can touch the tenderest chords of feeling, or express in thunder tones, as so often wont to do, hatred of wrong and oppression. The courage of his convictions is invincible. No man has hurled more scathing anathemas against intolerance, or held up to public scorn corruption in high places, more fearlessly than he. Courteous, affable, open-hearted, blessed with hosts of friends, he has preserved in its freshness and integrity, through all the vicissitudes of a laborious and useful life, the charming personality with which nature so richly endowed him.

Dr. Putnam was married to Miss Louise P. Preston, daughter of Mr. Samuel Preston, of Danvers, January 10, 1856. She died in June, 1860. For his second wife he married, in 1865, Eliza K. Butt rick, of Cambridge, daughter of Ephraim Buttrick, Esq., long a prominent member of the Middlesex bar. Their five children are Endicott Greenwood, Alfred Whitwell, Helen Langley, Ralph Buttrick and Margaret Ross.

Joxas Warren

The man whose portrait accompanies this short sketch, one of the best business men who ever lived in Danvers, was not a native of the town. His ancestor, Joshua Warren, emigrated from Dover, England, and settled in Watertown. Joshua's son, Daniel, married Rebecca, daughter of Captain Benjamin Church, the famous Indian fighter. Daniel had fifteen children, and one of his sons, Phinehas had a family of the same number, of whom five sous were in the battle of Bunker Hill. Phinehas' youngest son, Jonas, married, first, Apphia Stickney, and they were the parents of the subject of this sketch, who was born in North Beverly July 29, 1787. In his early boyhood the family moved to Boxford, and there, when he was still quite young, the mother died. He was brought up by his uncle, Ancil Stickney, and when he reached the age when young men struck out for themselves, he came to Danvers, and soon found a place of usefulness in the store kept by Deacon Gideon Putnam in his old tavern, which stood at the corner of High and Elm Streets. Before many years he bought the whole establishment of the late Judge Samuel Putnam, son of Deacon Gideon. " Jonas,'' said the judge, " here you will live and here you will die." Though the prophecy was not fulfilled as to his death, Mr. Warren did live many years, full of activity and thrift, on the old corner, and he built up there a business more extensive than can be easily appreciated at this time. Some days, a half a century ago, as many as forty great teams came into Danvers Plains from surrounding towns and far back into the country, to dispose of their produce and take back a season's load of staple groceries. It was chiefly Mr. Warren's fair treatment and broad and far-sighted manner of doing business that transformed a mere country cross-roads into a busy commercial centre. The amount of goods handled thus in the way of sale and barter was enormous, and it was no rare thing for clerks to be obliged to work till midnight, loading these teams, so that customers could start away bright and early in the morning. His policy was to oflfer such inducements vhat there was no object to farmers to carry their produce four miles farther to find a market in Salem, and, as a consequence, he and ''Uncle Johnnie" Perley, on the opposite corner, so controlled the situation that Salem dealers often had to come to Danvers to buy at second-hand, and, of course, at the seller's price. In all this there was no trickery or meanness on the part of Mr. Warren. Mr. Joshua Silvester, just deceased, was in his early days a clerk in the old store, and a few weeks before his death he was speaking of Mr. Warren : " For an up and down square dealer he had no superior."

In 1841 Mr. Warren sold out at the Plains and removed to the Port, where he became the pioneer of the wholesale flour and grain business, entering into the larger field with the same energy and sagacity which had characterized his previous operations. He was the first to bring grain to this port by water, and from the cargoes of the many vessels in his employment he supplied a very extensive inland trade.

Mr. Warren was one of the earliest Unitarians of Danvers, and was always a steadfast supporter of that denomination. Long before the establishment of the church here, he regularly attended the church in North Beverly. Rev. E. M. Stone, long the pastor of that church, has written of Mr. Warren, - "He was a parishioner whose constant attendance on public worship greatly cheered my ministry. During the thirteen years of my pastorate there I do not recollect of his being absent from church for a single Sabbath, unless detained at home by sickness, and I do remember of his being present after heavy snow storms and before the roads were broken, when persons living near the church excused themselves from attendance for the same reason. He was an attentive hearer, a devout worshipper, and an unostentatious Christian believer." He was much interested in the building of Unity Chapel in this town, and attended there as long as advancing age would permit, contributing always liberally towards its support.

He married Hannah, daughter of Enoch Kimball, of Boxford. She died the year following Mr. Warren's removal to Danversport. Mr. Warren was himself nearly ninety years old when he died. The date of his death was November 18, 1876, and the place, the home which he built, now occupied by his only daughter, on High Street. Besides his daughter, two sons survived him - Aaron W. and the late Harrison O. Warren. Mr. Warren was a director of the Naumkeag National Bank of Salem from its organization to near the close of his life. He was the last survivor of New Mills Alarm List of 1814.

Though Mr. Warren kept aloof from politics, and rarely, if ever, held office, his business relations were such that scarcely any man was more widely known in the county. His strict integrity secured the confidence of all. He wronged no man intentionally, and his word could always be depended upon. In his family, too, he was just and kind, a true husband, a wise father. He left to this community the priceless example of the life of an honest man, and to his family the legacy of an unspotted name.

Samuel Page Fowler was born in Danvers New Mills (now Danversport), April 22, 1800. His parents were Samuel Fowler and Clarissa (Page) Fowler. Among his ancestors are to be found the names of men, who, by their patriotism, military genius, business activity and enterprise commanded the respect of their contemporaries, and left their impress upon the times in which they lived.

The first of the name who came to this country was Philip Fowler, born in Wiltshire, England, in 1590, settled in Ipswich, 1634. Joseph, his son, born in 1629, married Martha Kimball. Philip, their son, born in Ipswich, December 25, 1648, was " a man of superior ability, and as a merchant, deputy- marshal 35i and attorney, left a good record. He strongly opposed the witchcraft delusion, was employed as attorney by the Village Parish in its lawsuit with Mr. Parris, and in 1692 conducted the proceedings in Court against the head and front of the witchcraft prosecution." He married Elizabeth Herrick, daughter of Henry and Editha (Laskin) Herrick, and died 1715. Their son Joseph, born August 7, 1683, married Sarah Bartlett, died December 25, 1745. Joseph, born October 9, 1715, married Mary Prince, died February 1, 1807. Samuel, their son, left Ipswich in 1765 and became one of the pioneer settlers of " Danvers New Mills." A shipwright by trade he assisted in building many vessels, both before and after the Revolution, some of which he partly owned; he was a private in Captain Jeremiah Page's company, at the battle of Lexington. He married Sarah, daughter of Archelaus and Mehitable (Putnam) Putnam. Deacon Putnam, in the spring of 1754 moved a small building used as a cooper's shop from his father's farm, now known as the "Judge Putnam farm," by floating it down Crane River to the bank of the river at what is now Danversport. He fitted it up as a home for his family, and here his daughter Sarah was born, September 14,

1775. She was the first white child born in that part of the town, which was then covered with woods, where she was often lost when a child. She lived to see the small hamlet a prosperous village, and died in 1847, aged ninety-two years, having had six children, twenty-seven grand-children and sixty greatgrand-children. Deacon Putnam built grist and chocolate mills near his house, which gave to this section of the town its name of New Mills.

1776. He was a man of large enterprise and carried on the business of his grandfather, having a grist mill, a mill for pulverizing spices, as well as one for grinding bark, besides pursuing the occupation of a tanner. He died February 22, 1859. He married Clarissa Page, the daughter of Captain Samuel and Rebecca (Putnam) Page. " She was greatly endeared to a large circle of relatives and friends by her social and domestic virtues." She died April 14, 1854. Captain Samuel Page was the son of Colonel Jeremiah Page and Sarah (Andrews) Page, born in Danvers, August 1, 1753. "He enlisted in the cause of his country at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and was engaged in the battles of Lexington, Monmouth, and Stony Point. He was with Washington at the crossing of the Delaware, and in the severe winter of 1777 shared in the sufferings of the American ai-my at Valley Forge, and he, with his company, was present when Wayne stormed Stony Point. After the close of the war he successfully engaged in commercial pursuits." He married Rebecca, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Putnam) Putnam. William was a son of Lieutenant David Putnam (brother of General Israel Putnam) and Rebecca (Perley) Put- nam. David was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Porter) Putnam. Joseph the son of Thomas Putnam and Mary Veren. Thomas was the son of John Putnam, 1st. Samuel Page's father, Colonel Jeremiah Page, was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was the son of Samuel Page, who was the pioneer settler of Fitchburg, having been found there with his wife and family by the surveyors, sent out by the General Court, to lay out the town in 1719. Captain Page died in Danvers, September 2, 1814.

Descended from so worthy and patriotic an ancestry, we might reasonably expect that Mr. Fowler would inherit their many virtues and worthy traits of character, and in this we realize our expectations. In boyhood he attended the district school, where he read from the well-known books: "The Columbian Orator," and "American Preceptor,'' also " Jedediah Morse's Geography," then a popular reading book. He learned the rudiments of grammar from the "Young Ladies' Accidence," and mastered the difficulties of "Walsh's Popular Arithmetic," but the best advantages the town then furnished its children, were meagre when compared with those enjoyed by the youth of the present day.

New Mills at that time was the home of ship-owners and sea-captains, who, on their return from their voyages, would tell their listening townsmen of the lands they had visited, so that the boys of that period were made familiar with foreign countries and the characteristics of their inhabitants. Another factor which helped to develop a desire for knowledge and a taste for reading in the subject of this sketch, was the New Mills Social Library, formed in 1808, with the best books then to be found in the range of English literature, selected by Jeremiah Chaplin, D.D., pastor of the Baptist Church.

In the War of 1812 the inhabitants of Danvers shared in the excitement and the patriotic spirit of their more maritime neighbors, and Mr. Fowler, then a lad of twelve years, readily imbibed that love of country, and hatred of oppression, which he has shown through a long life.

He has always manifested a deep interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the town, and has often been chosen to fill important offices, and to represent his fellow-citizens in many ways. Before the division of Danvers, he held the office of selectman and assessor from the years 1835 to 1840, was auditor in 1833, 1841 and 1842, moderator of town meeting in 1839, was a member of the school committee for seven years, and one of the board of health for three years. He was one of the fire-wards of the town upon the first organization of the fire department, and continued so for several years. He was elected representative to the General Court in the years 1837-38-39, and with the Rev. M. P. Braman and Hon. Alfred A. Abbott, represented the town in the Constitutional Convention held at Boston in 1853. He was one of the committee appointed to make arrangements for the celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Danvers, on the 16th of June, 1852, and at the dinner on that occasion responded to the following toast: "The Women of Danvers in Revolutionary Times - like the staple manufacture of the town - firm, tough and well tanned, but unlike it, as they were not to be trampled upon."

He was, also, one of the trustees elected by the town to hold the surplus revenue funds, and one of the members of the first committee chosen to confer as to the best methods of introducing water into the town. But it is as overseer of the poor, a position which he still holds, that Mr. Fowler's tenure of office has been the longest, extending over a period of forty-four years, with only one year's exception, and a greater part of the time he has been chairman of the board. His knowledge of the poor-laws is complete and exhaustive, and his decisions are undisputed in the settlement of the many vexatious questions which arise in the administration of these laws. His faithfulness to the interests of the town, and his kindness and consideration to the poor have given him for many years the nomination of all parties. Although taking such an active part in all town matters, Mr. Fowler has never been a politician, was a member of the old Whig party, and has been a supporter of the Republican party since its formation.

He was one of the trustees of the Peabody Institute, appointed by Mr. George Peabody, served as a member of the building committee, and upon the resignation of Rev. M, P. Braman. was chosen president of the board of trustees, which office he held till March, 1879. At the present time he is chairman of the committee on buildings and grounds, and in connection with Mr. Joshua Sylvester, has done much toward the laying out and beautifying of the park about the Institute, making it one of the most attractive places in the town. He has also been chairman of the lecture and library committee, and in the latter capacity gave much time and thought to the selection of those books which would instruct and elevate their readers, and cultivate in them a desire for useful knowledge, having the experience gained by many years of reading and study, to help him in this work. From his youth he has shown a great taste for natural history, and during his long life has been a close observer of nature, in all her varied forms. By constant observation and study, he made himself thoroughly conversant with the notes and habits of our native birds, and contributed a series of most interesting and instructive articles to the New England Farmer, on "The Birds of New England." A lover of flowers, he has always taken great pleasure in their cultivation, and has had equal success with plants from widely sei^arated localities, so that in his garden the variously-tinted blossoms of our woods and fields grow side by side with the more gorgeous flowers of China and Japan. Nor is he selfish in the enjoyment of his garden, but freely gives its treasures to all - from the little child, who timidly asks for a few flowers, to the learned botanist, who solicits specimens for analysis. It has been his pleasure for many summers to arrange a bouquet each week for the church, and the ladies of the Parish showed their appreciation of this work by presenting him with a beautiful engraving. He has not devoted his attention exclusively to the cultivation of flowers, but has also studied the characteristics of our native trees and shrubs. The results of his close observation in this direction are apparent in various articles written by him on our " Native Trees and Shrubs," published in the New England Farmer, in which he shows himself a nice and accurate observer in this department of nature. He has carefully noted the habits of the various insects injurious to vegetation, and in an essay read before the Essex County Agricultural Society, gives many valuable suggestions as to the best methods of destroying the numerous insects, which infest the orchards and gardens of the county. Possessing these tastes it might be expected that when the Essex County Natural History Society was formed, Mr. Fowler would be one of its first members. He is now the only one living of the founders of this organization. At its fiftieth anniversary, held at Topsfield, in June, 1884, he was present, and in an address delivered on that occasion, alluding to the first meeting of the society, says : " After dinner a stroll was taken in the woods and fields, and among the plants gathered was a fine specimen of Blood Root {Sanguinaria Canadensis) which was taken up with a spade, and upon our return it was placed in the middle of the table, with a newspaper under it, when we pledged ourselves to sustain the Essex County Natural History Society, and promote its interests." When the Essex Institute was formed by the Union of the Essex Historical and Essex County Natural History Societies in 1848, he was chosen curator of Natural History, and vice-president in that department in 1861, and remained so for several years; he was also on the Field committee as early as 18fi7.

Fond of historical research, the rich field of his town, county and State has furnished him abundant material, so that he has not his equal as a local historian, and has given especial time and thought to the study of the witchcraft delusion, and the causes which led to its origin and continuance. He has published an " Account of the Life and Character of the Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem Village, and of his Connection Avith the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692,'' and edited an edition of " Salem Witchcraft, by Robert Calef, published by H. P. Ives and A. A. Smith, in 1861." He has also made a large manuscript collection bearing upon this subject, copied from the church and court records of that period. Upham, in speaking of Philip Fowler, of Ipswich, and the bold stand taken by him in 1692 against the decisions of the clergy and magistrates, says : " It is an interesting circumstance that one of the same name and descent, in his reprint of the papers of Calef, and other publications, has done as much as any other person of our day to bring that whole transaction under the light of truth and justice." It is largely due to his research and interpretation of Mr. Parris' conduct in the affair, that has led to a more favorable construction of the motives which actuated him and the neighboring clergy in their treatment of those persons accused of practising witchcraft. Mr. Fowler has published in the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute the following articles: " .lournal of Captain Samuel Page, in the Campaign of 1779, with Notes ; " " Biographical Sketch and Diary of Rev. Joseph Green, an Account of the Life of Rev. Peter Clark and Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, Ministers of Salem Village," (now Dan vers Centre) ; " Records of Overseers of the Poor of the Old Town of Dan vers for the years 1767 and 1768, by the Chairman of the Board, Captain Elisha Flint, with Notes." " Craft's Journal of the Siege of Boston, with Notes."

He is thoroughly conversant with the early history of the town, and often contributes to the columns of the local paper articles full of historical facts, which will yield a rich harvest to the town's future historian.

He became a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, in Boston, in 1862. His literary work has been performed in the midst of his regular occupations, for Mr. Fowler learned the trade of a tanner, and carried on the business in the same establishment formerly owned and occupied by his father, on Porters river.

He was one of the cori^orators of the Danvers Savings Bank, incorporated in 1850, and one of its first trustees ; he was also actively engaged in the formation of the First National Bank, and has been one of its directors since 1863. He was admitted to Jordan Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, March 26, 1823, and is at present an honorary member, and one of the oldest masons in the State.

He has always shown a deep interest in the temperance cause, more especially before it became so intimately connected with the political questions of the d.ay. At the annual meeting of the old town of Danvers, on the 4th of March, 1833, the subject of intemperance in the town being under consideration, an order and vote to be presented to the moderator was drawn up by J. W. Proctor, Esq., instructing the selectmen to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors in the town, which vote was presented to the meeting by Mr. Fowler, who is now the only one living of that band of temperance workers, who, in one of the square pews in the brick meeting-house at the Centre, conferred together as to the best means to arrest the drunkenness in their community. The passing of this vote made Danvers the first town in the State that took action in its corporate capacity against licensing the sale of intoxicating liquors, and it has ever since maintained the same position. Before the general awakening of the public mind to the subject,

Mr. Fowler was keenly alive to the fact that our burial-places were neglected and unattractive, and it was largely through his efforts, and that of his brother, Mr. Henry Fowler, that a tract of land was purchased to be laid out as a cemetery, and the Walnut Grove Cemetery Corporation formed, of which he has been president for many years.

In the year 1832, he joined the First Church during the pastorate of the Eev. M. P. Braman. When the Maple Street Church was organized in 1844, he became one of the original members, was chosen one of its first deacons, which office he still holds, and has ever been mindful of all that concerned the temporal and spiritual welfare of the church. He was a member of the building committee to erect the first meeting-house, and when this new and beautiful edifice was destroyed by fire only a few years after its completion, he was one of the members who bravely took up the work of building the present house of worship. He has been clerk of the parish for more than thirty years, and the distinctly written pages of this record will be a pleasure to the society's future historian. Before his advanced years he was a constant attendant upon the prayer-meetings of the church, contributing to their interest by his words of instruction and wisdom, and was for many years an efficient Sunday-school teacher.

Although in his eighty-eighth year, Mr. Fowler possesses the physical and mental activity of a man of much younger years, filling with acceptance and fidelity the various offices bestowed upon him by his townsmen. The reading of his favorite books, the cultivation of his garden are as great sources of jsleasure to him as they ever were, and his interest is unabated in whatever concern the public goods.

The record of such a life shows what a man can accomplish for himself and others by habits of industry and patient thought, combined with a desire for the best good of those who are associated with him as fellow-citizens. The public favors he has received have not been obtained at the sacrifice of truth and honor, for in all things he has shown himself an honest man, just and upright in his dealings with others.

Mr. Fowler was married December 3, 1833, to Harriet Putnam (who was born in Danvers, May 11, 1806) daughter of Moses and Betsey Putnam. Like her husband, she retains in a remarkable degree her youthful feelings, possessing those virtues which make her a devoted wife, a good mother and an earnest Christian.

Their children are, (1) Clara Putnam, born March 20, 1836, married November 25, 1856, George E. Du- Bois, of Eandolph, Mass., who died November 3, 1859; their child, Ellen Tucker, born December 16, 1857, married, April 22, 1886, Nathan Putnam Proctor, of Danvers ; they have a son born June 7, 1887. (2) Samuel Page, Jr., born December 6, 1838. (3) Harriet Putnam, born July 25, 1842.

Charles Lawrence

Mr. Lawrence was among the thirteen children of Abel and Abigail (Page) Lawrence, of Salem, Mass. He was descended in the seventh generation from John Lawrence, of Wisset, England, who came to this country and first settled at Watertown, but removed to Groton in 1662, where he died.

About 1833 he married Miss Lucy A. Ward, sister of Thomas Ward, the banker of Boston. Delicate health prevented him from studying a profession or entering upon a business career. He made several voyages to India in early life, and spent a winter or two in the West Indies and Florida to combat dangerous symptoms of lung disease.

With his brother and sisters he afterwards left Salem and established a home upon what was then known as the Phillips Farm, Danvers. There for nearly forty years Mr. Lawrence resided and found occupation in open air pursuits, which no doubt were the means of prolonging to eighty-four years a life which was never robust. Gardening was a favorite occupation, and he had a passion for flowers, which always flourished under his care.

Though mixing little with the world, he was always acquainted with the best and newest books, and wholly alive to the political questions of his time.

In November, 1820, he was made a member of the Salem East India Marine Society, and was elected corresponding secretary January, 1828, remaining in that position till January, 1838. He was also an original member of the Essex Institute, and through life he felt a strong interest in the welfare and success of that society.