Archive:Memoirs of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume I
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William Richard Cutter, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (New York, NY: Lewis historical publishing company, 1908), Volume I.
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Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Part 1, Volume IV, Part 2,
[p. vi]
Authorities: . . . . Whitney, S. F., "Historical Sketch of Watertown" (275th anniversary) 1906.
[p. vii]
The birthplace of Ann Whitney, the sculptress, has been removed to Water street. Ann Whitney made the statue of Leif Ericson, and belonged to the same family as Eli Whitney, maker of the cotton gin. The latter was of Watertown stock. The house is now inhabited by the poorer classes.
[p. xlii]
Weston has at least twelve houses that are old, and all possess interesting histories. The old Whitney tavern on North avenue was once owned and occupied by the Mr. Whitney, who once kept the famous "Punch Bowl" tavern in Brookline. The old house has been used as a tenement for seventy-five years or more, and is now owned by Mr. Thomas Coburn.
[p. lvi]
The parsonage house, given to the town by Amos Whitney in 1769 was renovated and wrought into another structure before 1878, and is described as "elegant and unostentatious."
[p. lxv]
Other ancient houses of note mentioned by this author are the house of Mrs. Lucy Holden, the brick house of John Edgarton, the house of Joseph Hazen, and the Whitney residence, built and occupied by Rev. Phineas Whitney, the first settled town minister.
[p. lxxxix]
The Daniel Whitney house, now owned by Joel Parmenter.
[p. 74]
(V) Lieutenant Jacob Robbins . . . settled in . . . Harvard . . . . Before the Revolution he was active in the militia and was sergeant of the "younger company" under Captain Josiah Whitney in 1774.
[p. 93]
Children of Samuel O. and Emily M. [Boynton] Staples: . . . . 3. George Holman, born September 23, 1874; married, November 9, 1904, Amy Louise Whitney, of Milford; no issue. . . . .
[p. 108]
(V) Israel Vinal, Esq., . . . married a daughter of Deacon Joseph Cushing, about 1750. Their children, born in Scituate: 1. Captain Israel, prominent in Revolution; daughter Sophia married Captain John Whitney, of Quincy. . . . .
[p. 110]
Quincy A. Vinal [1826-1904] . . . married Augusta Smith Peirce, daughter of John and Sarah Peirce. . . . . Their children were: . . . , Isabelle Whitney, deceased; . . . .
[p. 148]
Silas Whitney, of Westminster, bought the rights of various [Sweetser] heirs to land in Westminster, March 8, 1777.
[p. 185]
(III) John Parker . . . married, October 2, 1689, Deliverance Dodge . . . . Children: 3. Andrew, born February 14, 1693, married Sarah Whitney, of Lexington. . . . .
[p. 213]
Josiah Puffer . . . married November 29, 1759, Mary Read . . . . Children, born in Westminster: . . . . 4. Eunice, born August 7, 1767, married Nathan Whitney. . . . .
Samuel Read Puffer . . . married . . . Polly . . . Wood. . . . . Children of Samuel and Polly Puffer: . . . .
[p. 214]
. . . . 10. Caroline Abby, born February 28, 1822; married Samuel Whitney, and had four children, of whom William (3) is a Yale graduate.
[p. 219]
(IX) Charles Willard Allen . . . was born at Westminster, Massachusetts, May 14, 1851. He attended the common schools in his native town, removing when he was ten years old to Athol, where he continued his education in the public and high schools. He worked for a year in the bakery of Harrison Whitney, at Westminster. . . . . In 1868 he took a course in the Bryant & Stratton Commercial College in Boston, and in December of that year entered the employ of Foster E. Stuart, a chair manufacturer, 93-97 Fulton street, Boston, and learned every detail of the business. In 1883 he accepted an opportunity to establish himself in this business, and bought the Forbush interests in the firm of Forbush & Clifford, chair manufacturers, Fulton street, Boston. . . . . This concern was finally merged into the firm of Allen, Thompson & Whitney Company in 1898, including also the firms of Orange & Alfred Whitney of Ashburnham, and E. L. Thompson of Baldwinville, as partners, with factories at Ashburnham and Baldwinville, Massachusetts. The Ashburnham plant was later destroyed by fire and the firm was dissolved, Mr. Allen with his brother Theodore F. Allen, who had been admitted to the firm in 1891, retaining the Boston end of the business with the firm name of Allen, Thompson & Whitney Company. They established a factory at Greenville, New Hampshire, operated by the Greenville Chair Company until June, 1906, when the name became the Allen Chair Company, and at that time the son, Willard Stuart Allen, was admitted to the firm. . . . .
[p. 258]
George Breeden, son of Louis and Mary (Baird) Breeden, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, December 29, 1846. He was graduated at the high school in Winchester, Massachusetts, and engaged in the manufacture of novelties in wood in company with J. J. Mcyutt, on Wareham street, Boston, and subsequently in the lumber business with Skillings, Whitney Brothers & Barnes, with offices at No. 7 Kilby street, on the land now occupied by the Exchange Building.
[p. 264]
William Haskins settled in Plymouth in 1633, and was admitted a freeman in 1634. He married, November 2, 1636, Sarah Cushman, and (second) December 21, 1638, Ann Hynes (or Hinds). . . . . Children: William, born about 1637, mentioned below. Son, born November 30, 1647. Samuel, born August 8, 1654. Perhaps others. Mary, married. November 28, 1660, Edward Cobb. Elizabeth (?). A daughter, Sarah, born September 16, 1636, he placed with Thomas and Winifred Whitney, of Plymouth, to remain until she was twenty years old, January 2, 1643-44. The date of her birth indicates that perhaps both she and William were children of a former wife, the name of the mother being unknown. Sarah, married, December 4, 1660, Benjamin Edson.
[p. 273]
Isaac Henry Dyer . . . married Miss Abbie Baker Cook . . . . She is the mother of five children: Minnie Frances, born in Brighton, April 7, 1870, now the wife of Elmer Whitney, of Boston; . . . .
[p. 303]
He was a comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ladd-Whitney Post, No. 185, Lowell, Massachusetts; . . . .
[p. 333]
At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of key finisher in the factory of Sylvester Tower, manufacturer of piano keys at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Here he remained for eighteen months, and then accepted a similar position in the factory of Milo Whitney, organ key manufacturer at 201 West Brookline street, Boston. He worked there six years, residing in the meantime in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
[p. 365]
RICE
Samuel Sanders, father of Harriette A. (Sanders) Rice, was born in Plymouth, England, September 17, 1801. He left his native country when a mere lad, after receiving a fair English education, and landed in Boston, and drifted thence to Cambridge to find a congenial home within his means. He learned the carpenter's trade in Boston, and walked the distance from his home to his work, carrying his tools in a bag flung over his shoulder. He became an expert workman at his trade, and in 1824 was able to take upon himself the responsibility of married life. He married Susan, daughter of John and Mary (Whitney) Dudley, of Weston, Massachusetts. From 1848 to 1857 he served as chief engineer of the fire department of Cambridge, having previous to that time acted as a member of a volunteer fire company, proved his qualities as a fire-fighter, always ready to respond to the call of the fire bell, be it day or night, and performing his duty in an earnest and heroic way. On leaving the position of chief engineer, he was elected a member of the city council of Cambridge and served during the administration of Mayor John Sargent. He then took up the business of fire insurance, and was also an assistant assessor of the city when Dr. Brown was assessor. His wife bore to him two children, and died at their home, on Market street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 31, 1883. One of his children died in infancy, and the other, Harriette A., became the wife of Homer Rice, of Cambridge. Mr. Sanders died at his home, a house which he built about 1826 at No. 11 Market street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 19, 1897, aged ninety-six years, leaving his only daughter a widow with a child, Samuel S.
(II) Harriette A. (Sanders) Rice, daughter and only living child of Samuel and Susan (Dudley) Sanders, and granddaughter of John and Mary (Whitney) Dudley, of Weston, Massachusetts, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 19, 1825. She was married May 29, 1845, to Homer, son of Barnabas and Betsey (Lawrence) Rice, and a descendant from Edmund Rice (1594-1663), of Sudbury. Massachusetts. He was born in Southboro, Worcester county, Massachusetts, February 8, 1821, and was a broker in Boston. They had one son, Samuel S. Rice, also a broker, who died March 9, 1904. Homer Rice died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. August 21, 1893. Her mother's brother, Samuel Whitney Dudley, was born February 17, 1812, in Weston, Massachusetts, and was a carpenter by trade. He married and made his home in Cambridge, where he was highly esteemed, and at the time of his death was superintendent of the Cambridge Water Works. Of his three children a son died young; a daughter, Lucy Jane Dudley, married Frank E. Russell, and was in 1907 a resident of Keene, New Hampshire; and another daughter, Anna Maria Dudley, married William H. Wood, a lumber merchant in Cambridge, who died April 14, 1877. Mrs. Rice is the owner and occupant of the house her father, Samuel Sanders, built about 1826, and in which her mother and father lived and died, and in which she has lived since she was three years old.
Copyright © 2009, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group
