Ashland Town (part 3 of 3)

In 1874 Henry Lummis commenced a pastorate of three years, during which time he became greatly respected both by his church and the people of the town. As a member of the school committee, opportunity was afforded for making use of his wide and accurate scholarship. After serving as pastor at various stations, he is now discharging the duties of a professor in one of the Western colleges.

J. R. Gushing followed in 1877, remaining three years. He was a genial man and an acceptably preacher. He too became well known in town, holding for a time the office of school committee. He has left samples of his large, even handwriting in the committee's record-book, having served as secretary of that board. He is now pastor of the Stanton Avenue Church in Boston.

E. A. Manning was an able preacher and a wideawake citizen. He was often employed to report public meetings for the press. It is in this capacity that for many years his erect figure upon the stage has become familiar to the frequenters of the Chautauqua meetings at the Framingham camping-ground. He came to Ashland in 1883 and remained two years.

J. C. Smith was assigned to this church in 1886. There were those who thought his sermons equal to any that have been delivered in the church, He resigned in the summer of 1887, and has recently deceased.

C. H. Talmage, while pursuing his course of theological study in Boston University, was sent here to supply the pulpit in the last part of 1887. In the following year he was appointed pastor. He manifested energy in all his work. He succeeded in collecting the scattered-congregation and in securing much-needed repairs of the church edifice. The next year he was assigned to a church in Boston Highlands.

Civil War. - When the war broke out in 1861 the town was in debt $16,000, chiefly for the cost of the Town Hall built six years before. The town, however, assumed readily the new burden imposed by the war. No one at first supposed that there was to be a long, hard trial of strength between the contending parties. As Ihe war progressed it became apparent, however, that only the greater resources of the North would enable that section finally to prevail. The town of Ashland came forward in response to every call and provided its full quota. At first it was only necessary to appeal to the patriotism of the citizens to secure the required number of volunteers. Afterward inducements were ofl'ered in the way of bounties to the persons enlisting and aid to th any part in the business in which many of this family had been engaged, so that after leaving the grammar school he attended the High School with the intention of fitting for college. During this stage of preparation for the higher degrees of learning the desire to learn the business of manufacturing frequently showed itself. He finally decided to waive the college course and master the details of woolen manufacture. To do so he entered a woolen-mill in which his father, Charles, was a superintendent, and there learned the business, and in 1862 went to Bellingham, Mass., and there commenced the manufacture of flannels with his father. "In this business he was successful until 1868, when the mill was burned, entailing much loss. He then went to Kansas with the intention of farming on a large scale, but the great drouth of 1869 put an end to his efforts in this direction. Leaving Kansas, he went into Arkansas and built a flour-mill in the vicinity of " Pea Ridge," a location made memorable by the great battle fought there during the War of the Rebellion. Owing to illness caused by the climate, he returned to New England in 1871, and commenced the manufacture of horse blankets in Worcester. This business was very profitable, owing to his using material that had not been utilized before, and also to the prevalence of the " epizootic " distemper among horses that year, which created an unusual demand. In 1873 Mr. Aldrich settled in Ashland, where he commenced the manufacture of satinets and blankets for the New York market. This manufacturing seems likely to continue in the family, as his oldest son, Charles T., Jr., is engaged in the same business in a mill in Worc.ster County> and the other sons are with their father at home. Mr. Aldrich married Emma G., daughter of Smith Aldrich, of Blackstone, in 1864, and from this union there are Charles T. Jr., born July 19, 1806; Henry A., born March 31, 1868 ; Louis H., born November 4, 1870, and Alice M., born June 11, 1873. Mrs. Aldrich died November 23, 1889, deeply mourned by her family and friends. Mr. Aldrich is a Methodist in religion and a Republican in politics. Although interested in public matters, he has avoided political offices and attended closely to his business and built up a pietty home and village about his mills. Mr. Aldrich has recently i-ustained a severe loss in the burning of his mill buildings, October 7, 1890. This water privilege, situated on the Sudbury River, is a very valuable one, and the mills will be rebuilt, unless the city of Boston shall decide to take the wafer, a project now under discussion.

Mr. Aldrich is a specimen of robust manhood from which the lameness of his childhood does not seem to detract, and belongs to the class of New Englanders known as self-made and successful.

Elias Grout

miller of Sudbury, who came to this country as early as 1638. His father, Elias, Sr., was born in Medfield, but settled in Sherborn, and in 1801 removed to the south part of Framingham. He served in the Revolutionary War, was a " minute-man " from Sherborn in 1775, and was in the battle of Bunker Hill.

Elias, Jr., the ydungest son of Elias, Sr., and his wife, Eleanor (Dadmun), was born June 3, 1816. He received a good education at the Framingham j and Leicester Academies, and was a successful teacher in the common schools for many years. At the incorporation of Ashland, in 1846, his farm was included in the new town, which has honored him with most of the offices within her gift. He was representative in the Legislature of 1858, selectman, assessor, overseer of the poor, school committee for many successive years.

Being raised upon a farm he has ever taken an intelligent interest in agriculture; was president of the Middlesex South Agricultural Society, 1861-62, and a member of the State Board, 1863-65.

Mr. Grout has often been intrusted with public and personal matters, where carefulness, integrity and sound judgment were required. In 1852 he was sent to England by the Jennings Heirs Association, to investigate their claims to the great William Jennings estate there. After a careful inquiry and search of the archives of the Library of the British Museum, Doctors' Commons, Chancery Courts, Government State Paper Office, and other sources, he reported to his associates that no claim of real or supposed heirs in America could be sustained - a conclusion fully confirmed by agents since employed.

In 1865, Mr. Grout was engaged by H. J. Sargent and other heirs of the distinguished James Swan, formerly of Boston, to go to Charleston, West Virginia, to examine into the leg.al status of the vast tracts purchased by said Swan in the last century, 1780- 1790. On this trip, in May, 1865, he met a son of the late Josiah Randall, trustee of certain French claimants to these lands, and the following winter he was employed by Mr. Randall, and spent three months exploring the lands in question, and examin- * ing the records in some fifteen counties - reporting in writing to Mr. Randall in Philadelphia.

After disposing of his farm, Mr. Grout engaged in the cotton business from 1867 to 1882, with headquarters at Kingston, N. C. . Since then he has enjoyed the quiet of his pleasant home and family. He married Nov. 21, 1839, Harriet Fiske, daughter of Richard and Betsey Fiske, of Framingham, a lady of good education, rare beauty of person and excellence of character. Their children were : Charles Muzzey, born October 24, 1810, lost at sea off Bahama Islands, October 3,1864; Channing Fuke,hijrn July 24, 1842, married, first, Carrie P. Tilton, second, Sarah Jones; merchant, Ashland; Edgar Follen, born December 24, 1845, owner of cattle ranch, Wyoming ; Mary Rowland, born May 7, 1850, married Samuel

Charles Henky Tilton.'

The Tilton family are of English origin, and Abraham Tilton was the first to emigrate to America, coming with the colony of one hundred and twenty English and Scotch families, which arrived in Boston in 1718. John Morse, who was the maternal ancestor of the Tiltons, also came over with this colony. Among this band of sturdy settlers are to be found the names of many who, as pioneer settlers, laid the foundations of what have since become prosperous towns and villages in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. Abraham Tilton joined bis fortunes with that portion of the colony (eighteen families) which settled Hopkinton, and where to this day are to be found worthy representatives of that name. In the fourth generation from Abraham was Leonard^ the father of the subject of this sketch. Leonard was born in Hopkinton, October 7, 1800. Catherine H. Morse, the wife of Leonard, was born in Dummerston, Vermont, January 7, 1806. They had six children, the first-born being Charles Henry, who was born November 30, 1829. His parents are both deceased, his father June 11, 1841, and his mother September 13, 1877. When Charles H. was three years old the family moved to Bennington, Vermont, and here he remained until the death of his father. It was here that his school-days were passed, his educational advantages being such as were afforded by the district schools of the Green Mountain State. On the death of his father, who left but a very limited estate, Charles, whose assistance in the support of the family was needed, left school and with the family removed to that part of Hopkinton now Ashland, where Charles entered a shoe-shop and for a number of years, by prudence and close attention to all details in the manufacture of boots and shoes, not only became well-versed in the business, but also became an important factor in the family economy. At the - age of twenty-one, being dissatisfied at the prevailing rate of wages paid to competent and skilled operators, Charles started in a small way for himself, his first case of boots (which were children's red-topped boots) being made from stock supplied on credit by a Boston leather merchant, who was a shrewd observer of young men and knew the value to such, of a kind word and kindly assistance ; nor was young Tilton's case the only one where Hon. Lee Claflin gave timely assistance by allowing credit to such as could bring the collateral inherent in an honest face. Mr. Tilton was successful in his business undertakings, and gradually worked his way up to an enviable prominence in this great New England industry, establishing himself in one of the finest and best-appointed shoe factories in the Commonwealth, it being known all over this section of the country as "the model boot and shoe factory," which was built by him on his own land, of which he had bought some one hundred acres, erecting thereon some forty dwellings, laying out streets and, with his own hands, setting out shade and fruit trees, thus making it the most beautiful section of Ashland. October 1, 1850, Mr. Tilton married Caroline M., daughter of Henry and Myra C. (Coggius) Babcock, who has borne him two children - Jennie M., May 23, 1860, and Charles H., Jr., November 30, 1862. Jennie M. was married, May 25,

1889. In politics Mr. Tilton has been a thoroughgoing Republican since that party was first organized. While avoiding political office, he has in town affairs been efficient and useful, being for a number of years on the Board of Selectmen and for four years its chairman, also a member of the Board of Assessors, justice of the peace, a director in the South Framingham National Bank and president of the Middlesex South Agricultural Society.

He retired from the boot and shoe business in 1886. Mr. Tilton is a lover of the horse, as is also Charles H., Jr., and has some fine specimens in his commodious stables at Ashland. He is also a breeder of fine cattle, and his opinion on matters relating to the breeding and care of stock is quite professional.

As a citizen, Mr. Tilton is upright and law-abiding; is a contributor to the support of the Congregational Church ; is well-informed on the general topics of the times, and with easy fortunes is taking a good share of that happiness and contentment which should go hand in hand with merited success in one's life work.

J. Newton Pike

Says an old philosopher, "All men, whatever their condition, who have done anything of value ought to record the history of their lives." Eventful periods occur at rare intervals in the lives of men the most distinguished, but even in their more retired walks of private life there are few whose lives are not marked by some vicissitudes of fortune, which, however trivial they may seem, are yet sufficient to excite great interest.

The events which give the highest interest to biography are of a volatile and evanescent nature and are soon forgotten. It is the part of the biographer to collect these passing events and fix them indelibly upon the pages of history, that succeeding generations may know how their predecessors lived, what ideas governed them, what trials and difficulties they encountered and how they overcame them, and even their domestic relations, for all these teach a lesson that will be serviceable by pointing out what paths led to success, and what roads are to be avoided as leading to failure.

There is none so humble that his life can fail to be an object of interest when viewed in the right light. How much more will this interest be enhanced when we contemi)late the life of a man who, by his own heroic struggles, has hewn out his own pathway to success and compelled the fates to grant him his reward. Most certainly one who by his own efforts has attained affluence and social position, and through all the changing events of life has preserved his integrity unimpaired, is deserving the pen of the historian.

Such a man is the subject of this sketch. He was born August 24, 1824, in that part of the town of Hopkinton, Mass., which is now incorporated in the town of Ashland. Here, too, his father, Benjamin, was born, and his grandfather, Jonathan, lived for many years. The latter was a minute-man, and participated in the famous battles of Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga. At the former engagement he stood within a few feet of the immortal Warren when he received his death-wound.

J. Newton Pike was one of four children and spent his youth at his father's home, enjoying the school privileges of his time, viz., twelve weeks in the winter, and twelve weeks in the summer, at the district school. These opportunities he improved to the best possible advantage until the spring of his thirteenth year, when, hi.s father's health being poor, the boy was obliged to give up the summer term and assist in earning a livelihood for himself and the balance of the family.

In the summer of his fifteenth year he went away from home to work on a farm, returning in the autumn and atteuding the winter school. At twentyone, through the kindness of a friend who loaned him the necessary funds, young Pike attended the autumn term of the Hopkinton Academy, and during the winters of the next four years taught school, being employed on a farm during the summer mouths of '46 and '47, and in the track department of the Boston & Albany Railroad during the summers of '48 and '49. In '50 he was placed in charge of a force of men in this department on this railroad, and continued therein until October, IS66, when he resigned this position, and accepted that of clerk in the office of the Emery Works of Charles Alden, where he remained until 1875. These works were merged into the Washington Mills Emery Manufacturing Company, of which corporation he was chosen clerk. In '74 this plant was purchased by the Vitrified Wheel and Emery Company, and Mr. Pike was made foreman of the emery department of the business, retaining that position until in '78 the city of Boston possessed itself of the Sudbury River, for a part of its water supply, which permanently closed the manufacture of these goods in this section. Superintendent W. H. Barnes, of the Boston & Albany Railroad, learning of Mr. Pike's release from service with this company, tendered him the position of station-agent at

In 18G0 Mr. Pike was elected a member of the Board of Selectmen for the town of Ashland. The War of the Rebellion breaking out, he distinguished himself by his devotion to his country's flag, and his services in raising troops, and in assisting the families of soldiers, caused his townsmen to elect him chairman of the board in 1862, which position he filled for six years with great credit to himself, and to the general satisfaction of his townsmen.

In 1871 he was elected Representative from the Fifteenth Representative District, consisting of the towns of Ashland and Hopkinton, and in 1872 was sent to the Senate from the Fifth Senatorial District, consisting of the towns of Newton, Natick, Framingham, Ashland, Sherborn, Wayland, Weston, Holliston and Hopkinton.

In 1871, Mr. Pike was appointed trial justice by His Excellency, William Claflin, Governor of the Commonwealth, which position he continued to fill until the establishment of the district courts. He has also served repeatedly as member of the School Committee, and overseer of the poor.

May 12, 1851, Mr. Pike married Martha, daughter of Josiah and Martha Burnham, - a fortunate union, for Mrs. Pike proved to be a true helpmeet in the fullest sense of the word, and has, by her wise counsel, ready hand and abiding faith, helped to win the victories of life. And now, as the twilight approaches and the shadows are falling toward the east, together they look back to that May morning with feelings of gratitude that life has yielded them so much of its joys and comforts.

Two children have blessed this union - Edgar A., born May IG, 1864, and died June 19, 1865 ; Willie B., born April 18, 1866. He married Angy, daughter of George and Jane Boutilier, November 9, 1887, and lives with his parents.

Another member of the family who has been as one of their own children to Mr. and Mrs. Pike is Mollie E. Burnham, born October 8, 1869, and whose parents died when she was six years old, since which time she has been a member of Mr. Pike's family.

In 1870, with his wife, he united with the Methodist Church, and has been one of its trustees ever since, and for the past ten years superintendent of its Sabbath-school.

Modest and retiring in his manner, upright and honorable in his business transactions, loyal to his friends, conscientious in the discharge of his life duties, he has won the esteem and respect of all who knew him, and life has been crowned with a generous degree of success. May he long live to enjoy the same.