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1239378
GENEALOGY COL-L-ECTlON
flliimil^Mli', PUBLIC I
3 1833 01397 8843
M ^
DESCENDANTS
OF
CHASE WHITCHER
OF WARREN, N. H.
FOURTH IN DESCENT FROM THOMAS WHITTIER
OF SALISBURY (HAVERHILL) MASS.
BY
WILLIAM F. WHITCHER
WOODSVILLE, N. H.-
News Book and Job Print
1907
Only 100 Copies Printed
No.
PREFACE
123S37S
Tracing the descendants of Chase VVhitcher, fourth in
descent from Thomas Whittier, who at the age of sixteen
came in 1638 to Essex County, Massachusetts, has given
the author of the following pages no little pleasure durino-
the past few months. Chase Whitcher came to Warren,
New Hampshire, in 1772, and was one of the pioneer set-
tlers of that mountain town. He did not differ in any
remarkable manner from the other pioneers of his day. He
gave his country patriotic service during the War of the Rev-
olution, rendered his town the service of the ordinary citizen,
and lived to see his large family of children establish them-
selves in homes of their own, in other towns and localities,
none of them settling in Warren. There is nothing remark-
able in the record of his descendants, but each may feel
interested in knowing something of the other. The follow-
ing pages will contribute something to such knowledge. The
author wishes to express his grateful appreciation of the aid
given him in the preparation of his work, by his cousins of
various degrees, without which aid the completion of this
genealogy would have been impossible. Especially is he
grateful for courtesies in furnishing him photos, tintypes,
daguerreotypes and ambrotypes which were in existence of
the grandcliiMrcu of Chase ^^'hitcher. He hopes the albuu)
he has collocti'd of these grandchildren .will be appreciated
by their graiulchildien in tiiin.
WOODSMLLK, X. II.. Dcmuhci-, 1907.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Chask Whitcher Ancestry .... 1-11
II. Settlemt:nt in Waeken 12-24
III. Kmi(;i{Atiox to Coventry-Benton . . 25-37
I\'. Descendants of William and Mary
NoYES Whitcher 38-85
\'. Descendants of Jacob and Sarah
Richardson Whitcher .... 86-98
XL Descendants of Joseph Davis and
Miriam Whitcher Willoughby . 99-101
VII. Descendants of Elisha and Martha
Whitcher Fullam 102-108
VIII. Descendants of David and Phebe P.
Smith Whitcher 109-111
IX. Mlscellaneous and Memoranda . . 112
Errata 118
Index 119-125
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece
Thomas Whittiek Homestead, feont view
Facing- Page
Thomas Whittiek Homestead, rear view
Chase Whitcher Homestead, Warren
William Whitcher
Martha Whitcher Full am ....
Amos Whitcher
Charles H. Whitcher
WiNTHROP C. Whitcher
James E. Whitcher
Albion G. Whitcher •
Louisa Whitcher Eastman ....
Moses Whitcher
Ward P. Whitcher
Henry N. Whitcher,
Milton D. Whitcher
Chase R. Whitcher
Charles C. Whitcher
John W. Whitcher
Samuel Whitcher
David S. Whitcher
6
20
22
24
40
41
42
42
42
46
48
48
48
52
52
52
52
54
56
ot»
Facing Page
DaNIKL J. WHiTCHEIl
Chakles O. Whitcher " 56
IjtA Whitcheu " 60
Frank Whitcher " *32
Scott Whitcher '' 62
William F. Whitcher " 64
Sally Whitcher Wilson " QQ
Hannah Whitcher Mann '' 68
Chase Whitcher '' 70
Mary Whitcher Titus " 72
Ezra B. Mann " 76
George Henry Mann " 76
Orman L. Mann " 76
Edward F. Mann " 78
Daniel Whitcher " 80
Burr Royce Whitcher " 82
George L. Kibbie " 82
Lamar Whitcher " 82
Scott Whitcher " 82
David Whitcher " 84
Phebe Whitcher Brooks " 84
Dorcas Whitcher Chandlki; .... " 86
Levi M. WiirrcHEit " 88
ILazkn Whitcher " 90
Alonzo a. Whitcmki; ....... "■ 92
.fAcoB ('. Whitcmei: "■ 94
Ai:riiri: \\ . Wiiitciiki; - 94
.Iamks II. \ViM,(ir(;iii;v '» 94
vu
Facing Page
William Fkancis Fullam "• 94
Sarah J. Whitchek Cramfoi'.d ... " 96
William W. W^illoughby ..... " 98
Samuel W. Willoughhy '' 100
Francis Fullam '^ 102
William Fullam '' 102
Le.muel Fullam " 104
Harriet Fullam Fair ranks. ... '' 106
David M. Whitcher " 108
Daniel B. Whitcher " 110
CHAPTER I.
CHASE WHITCHER— ANCESTRY.
In his history of Warren, N. H., VVillimn Little has a
moat interesting chapter on the earl_y t?ettlenient of that
mountain town. The proprietors, fearful of h)t'ing their
charter if the town remained without popuhition, began in the
spring of 1768, to make what they regarded as generous of-
fers to induce settlers to go into their wilderness possessions
and establisii for themselves homes. They voted at iheir
annual meeting to give each individual who should settle in
town prior to October 1st of that year, fifty acres of land
and six pounds in money. They ocnt a road clearing com-
mittee to the new township, with instructions to lay out
twenty-five lots of land in such places as they thought
proper, each family settling, as provided for by the vote, to
have one of the lots, the first settler to have first choici;, and
the others choice in order of settlement. Under the terms
of this offer, five families established themselves in town in
the summer of 1768, and with additional inducements of-
fered, two other settlers, John Whitcher and John Morrill
came to town in the spring of 1769. For the next three
years the matter of settlement was at a standstill, when the
proprietors offered still larger inducements, determined that
their charter should not be forfeited for lack of settlers.
They laid out a new highway over the summit to Haverhill
Corner, increased their offer of land to sixty acres, and pro-
[)08ed bounties to those who should fall trees prej)aratory to
CHASE WHITCHER AJSTD
clearing land. As a result in the year 1772, the five who
had made themselves homes were reinforced by nearly a
dozen othcre;, most of whom brought their families with
them.
Among those, and youngest of them all, was Chase
Whitcher, younger brother of John Whitcher, who was one of
seven first settlers. He was born in Salisbury, Mass., Oct. 6,
1753, son of Joseph and Marthr. Whittier, and was fourth
in descent from Thomas Whittier, the first of his name in
America, and supposed to be of Huguenot descent. The
name almost from the first is variously spelled. There is
evidence that for several generations it was pronounced as of
two syllables — "VV hit-tier' — the "ti" of the second syllable
having the sound of ''ch." The most common spelling of
the name in the 1 7th century records is Whittier, though
the name of Nathaniel, one of the sons of Thomas, b. Salis-
bury, 1G58, appears frequently in the Salisbury records as
"Whitcher." This form of spelling, and a similar one,
"Whicher, which seem to have been espescially frequent in the
Salisbury records, later became quite common, and some
branches of the family came to adopt it uniforml}'^.
Thomas Whittier was born in England in 1622. Little
is known of his antecedents. His name first appears in con-
nection with that of John Rolfe, spelled also Ralfe, Roffe,
and Roafe, "who came to America in the ship Confidence in
1638, from Melchett Parke, Wilts, via Southampton with
wife Ann, daughter Hester, and 'servant', Thomas Whit-
tier.'' Rolfe's will, dated March 29, 1663-4, after sundry
items makes bequests: 5th, to '•'■Thomas Whittier's five
children," * * * 7th to Richard Whittyer, my sister's son,
and her son John Whittier." Thomas Whittier^ according
to the Haverhill records, married Ruth Green. Just her
HIS DESCENDANTS.
rel;ition to John Rolfe and Henry Rolfe his brother, who
mentions Thomas Whittier n^ "kinsman" is uncertain. She
may have been a half-sister, or a widow when she married
Whittier, or po;?sibly a sister of John Rolfe's wife. Thomas
Whittier, in the latter event may have been a nephew of
the Rolfe's, as is stated by Pickard in his life of John
Greenleaf Whittier. He was certainly thirty years younjifcr
than John Rolfe. This much is certain, he came to America
with the Rolfes, and was their relative either by blood or
marriage.
Thomas Whittle?-, the boy of sixteen, lived with the
Rolfes, probably with John, who settled in Salisbury, until
the time of his marriage sometime in 1646, when he was
about twenty-four years of age. It is a tradition in the fam-
ily that as a young man he was of gigantic size, weighing
more than three hundred pounds before he reached the age
of twenty-one, and that he was also possessed of proportion-
ate physical and muscular strength. From facts obtained
from the early records it is certain that he possessed both
moral and physical courage in a high degree.
He received his grant of land and settled at first, on attain-
ing his majority, or previously, in Salisbury, on land which
is now within the limits of the town of Amesbury and bor-
dering on the Powow river, a tributary of the Merrimac.
Included in the grant which he received was a hill which
still bears his name. He lived in Salisbury until early in
1649, serving the town in various offices of trust, and was
sent as a deputy from the town to the General Court. He
lived for a few months in that year across the river in New-
bury, but some time in that same year, 1649, must have
taken up his residence in Haverhill, about ten miles up the
river from his former home, as the Haverhill records show
CHASE WHITGHER AND
that his ehlest son, John, was born in that town, December
23, 1649. He lived in Haverhill the remainder of his life,
where all hi;* children were born, except his eldest daughter,
Mary, born Oct. 1), 1647 in Salisbury. That Pickard's
statement that he went to Haverhill in 1647 is incorrect is
evidenced l)y the fact that he was given liberty by Salisbury
to make three barrels of tar in that town early in 1649.
Chase, in iiis history of Haverhill, states that he went from
Xewbury to Haverhill about 1650, but as already noted, his
son, John, was born in Haverhill in December, 1649. He
settled some mile or more away from the Merrimac in the
eastern part of the town, upon the bank of a small stream
now known as "Country Brook," but then as "East
Meadow Brook." In his first house, which was built of
loo-s, and which was situated about a mile southeast of the
one he built later, all but the eldest of his ten children were
born. His five sons all possessed the stalwart proportions
of their father, each of them being more than six feet in
height. He lived in this log house with his large family
until he was about sixty-six years of age, when he began to
hew the oaken timbers for a new dwelling, selecting the site
upon the banks of a pretty rivulet running along the base of
what is known as Job's Hill. His new and commodious
house, which has sheltered generation after generation of his
descendants, and which, still standing, has acquired fame as
the birthplace of his great-great grandson, John Greenleaf
Whittier, was erected in 1688-89, and was occupied by
Thomas Whittier until his death, Nov. 28, 1696, and by
his widow until her death in July, 1710. The spot is a
picturesque one but has always been isolated. Hei'e in the
northeast corner of the town, and only three miles from the
city with its 30,000 inhabitants, was such seclusion from the
HIS DESCENDANTS.
outside world, that from the time of the erection of the
Whittier house, to the present, no neighbor's roof has been
in sight. The scene of "Snowbound" is laid here, and in
this idyl of New England life, the poet says, referring to
the isolation of the home :
"No social smoke
Curled over woofis of snow-hung oak,"
In his life of the poet Whittier, Pickard gives a descrip-
tion of the surroundings of the [)ioneer Thomas, and also
some insight into the life and character of one who was no
ordinary man in the world and times in which he lived.
He says :
"Haverhill was first settled in 1640, and was for seventy
years a frontier town, an unbroken wilderness stretching to
the north for more than a hundred miles. During the first
forty years of the settlement, there was no trouble from the
Indians who fished in the lakes and hunted among the moun-
tains of New Hampshire ; but during the next thirty years
they were frequently hostile, and Haverhill suffered all the
horrors that accompany savage warfare. When these hos-
tilities began, in 1676, Thomas Whittier had been living in
his log house on East Meadow Brook for nearly thirty years,
receiving frequent visits from the Indians, whose respect and
friendship he won by the fearlessness and justice he dis-
played in his dealings with them.
"When friendly intercourse with the pioneers was broken '
and the savages began to make their forays upon this ex-
posed settlement, several houses in the town were fitted up
as garrisons, and we find that in 1675 Thomas Whittier was
one of a committee appointed to select the _ houses that
should be fortified as places of refuge. But though many of
his townspeople were killed or carried into captivity, he
OHASE WHITOHER AND
never availed himself of this shelter for himself or his fam-
ily, and it is the tradition that he did not even bar his doors
at ni^^ht. His frame house, now standing, was built in the
midst of the Indian troubles, and he had occupied it several
years before the principal massacres, the records of which
make the bloodiest pages in the annals of Haverhill. The
Hannah Dustin affair occurred in 1697, a year after the
death of the pioneer. The Dustins lived in the western part
of the town, remote from the Whittiers, and nearly all the
traffic events of these troublous times in Haverhill were
beyond the limits of the East Parish. But the Indians in
their war paint occasionally passed up the Country Brook,
and the evening firelight in the Whittier kitchen would re-
veal a savage face at the window. But this household was
never harmed.
"Thomas Whittier was a contemporary of George Fox,
and appears to have had much respect for the doctrines of
the new Society of Friends. In 1652, he was among the
petitioners to the General Court for the pardon of Robert
Pike, who had been heavily fined for speaking against the
order prohibiting the Quakers Joseph Peasley and Thomas
Macy from exhorting on the Lord's Day. The meetings of
the Quakers had been held in their own dwelling-houses.
A petition against this order had been signed by many of
the residents of Haverhill, and when it was presented in the
General Court, a committee of that body was appointed to
wait upon the petitioners, and command them to withdraw
it or suffer the consequences. Some of them did retract
when thus callen upon, but two of the sixteen who refused
were Thomas Whittier and Christopher Hussey, both of
them ancestors of the poet. The only punishment they re-
ceived was withdrawal for some years of their rights as
O g
CO "
< B
O -i
H
HIS DESCENDANTS.
"freemen." The disability in the case of Whittier was re-
moved in May, 1666, when he took the oath of citizenship.
The franchise at this time was granted only to those who
were named as worthy by the General Court. He not only
had the right to vote, but was an office-holder and njan of"
mark in Salisbury and Newbury for many years previous to
his residence in Haverhill, and had also been a member of
the General Court ; and there can be little doubt that the
delay in conferring upon him the full rights of citizenship in
the last-named town was due to doubts respecting his ortho-
doxy. It may be that his interest in the doctrines of the
new sect carried him beyond the point of desiring for its
preachers fair play and freedom of uti;erance, but there is no
evidence that he joined the Society of Friends. Indeed, we
find him in his later years acting upon the ecclesiastical com-
mittees of the church then dominant in the colony.
His capacity for civic usefulness was recognized for years
before the right to vote was conferred upon him. In laying
out roads, fixing the bounds of the plantation, and in other
ways, his engineering skill was drawn upon. When he
came to Haverhill from Newbury, in 1647, it was consid-
ered of sufficient importance to note in the town records the
fact that he brought with him a hive of bees that had been
willed to him by his uncle, Henry Rolfe. This incident
seems emblematic of the industry and thrift which have so
largely characterized his posterity ; and it has furnished a de-
vice which has been woven by some members of the family
into the Whittier monogram."
CHILDREN OF THOMAS AND RUTH GREEN WHITTIER.
2. I. Mary, b. Salisbury, Oct. 9, 1647, m. Haverhill,
Sept. 21, 1666, Benjamin Page.
CHASE WHIT CHER AND
3. II. John, b. Haverhill, Dec. 23, 1649, m. Jan. 14,
1685-6, Mary Hoyt.
4. III. Ruth, b. Haverhill, Nov. 6, 1651, m. Salisbury,
Apr. 20, 1675, Joseph True.
5. IV. Thomas, b. Haverhill, Jan. 12, 1653-4, resided
in Haverhill, d. Haverhill, Ort. 17, 1728, no chil-
dren.
6. V. Susanna, b. Haverhill, March 27, 1656, m. July
15, 1674, Jacob Morrill.
7. VI. Nathanieh b. Haverhill, Aug. 14, 1658.
8. VII. Hannah, b. Haverhill, Sept. 10, 1660, m. May
30, 1683, Edward Young of Haverhill.
9. VIII. Richard, b. Haverhill, June 27, 1663, resided
Haverhill, d. March 5, 1724-5, no children.
10. IX. Elizabeth, b. Haverhill, Nov. 21, 1666, m.
June 22, 1699, James Sanders, Jr., of Haverhill.
11. X. Joseph, b. Haverhill, May 8, 1669, m. Mny 24,
1694, Mary Peasley.
(7). Nathaniel Whittier, (or as the name is some-
times spelled in the records, Whitchei\) son of Thomas and
Ruth (Green) Whittier, b. Aug 11, 1658, settled in Salis-
bury, and married 1st, Aug. 26, 1685, Mary, widow of
John Osgood of Salisbury. Her maiden name was Mary
Stevens, b. 1647, daughter of John and Katherine Stevens
of Salisbury. She m. Nov. 5, 1668, John Osgood of Salis-
bury, who d. Nov. 7, 1683-4. They were the parents of
six children. She d. May 11, 1705. Nathaniel m. 2d, Mary,
widow of Joseph Ring of Salisbury. Her maiden name
was Mary Brackett, daughter of Capt. Anthon Brackett
and Anne his wife, and granddaughter of "Michel"
and Elizabeth Mitten, formerly of Casco Bay. Nathaniel
HIS DESCENDANTS.
Whittier took the oath of iillegiance at Haverhill in 1677,
and was admitted a freeman in 1690. His first wife, Mary,
was a witness in the Susanna Martin trial in 1692.
"Goodwife" Martin was tried for witchcraft at Salem, June
29, and executed July 19, 1692. Both Nathaniel and
Mary, however, signed the petition in favor of xMary Brad-
bury, who was also convicted of witchcraft in that year, hut
was not executed.
Nathaniel died in Salisbury, July 18, 1722, his widow.
Mary, surviving him until July 19, 1742.
CHILDREN OF NATHANIEL AND MARY OSGOOD
WHITTIER.
12. I. Reuben, b. Salisbury, March 17, 1686-7.
13. II. Ruth, b. Salisbury, Oct. 14, 1688, m. Apr. 9,
1723, Benjamin Green, probably of Dover, N. H.
There is a record of the baptism of Ruth Whitcher.
adult, Aug. 1716, Salisbury church.
(12) Heuhen Whittier or Whitcher made his home in
his native town, Salisbury, until his death at the age of 36
in 1722, a few months after the death of his father. He
was married to Deborah Pillsbury of Newbury in the latter
part of 1708, the record of publishment being dated Nov. 13
in that year. He was a member of the Salisbury militia,
and was one of the "one-half of the company" which was
"imprest for her majesties' service in the field," in 1710.
In the list of the men thus "imprest" and who went to Exe-
ter, N. H., July 5, 1710, his name appears as "Rubin
Whicher." In the order to sergt. Thos. Bradbury of Salis-
bury, who had charge of the Exeter expedition, he is ex-
horted by Capt. Henry True, to be "very Kerfull of your-
14.
I.
15.
II.
16.
III.
17.
IV.
18.
V.
U).
VI.
20.
VII.
10 CHASE WHITCHER AND
self & men in your March." Reuben Whittier died in
Salisbury, Nov. 18, 1722. His widow, Deborah, m. Sept.
1724, Zechariah Eastman of Salisbury, son of John and
Mary (Boynton) Eastman.
CHILUKEN OF REUBEN AND DEBORAH PILLSBURY
WHITTIER.
Mary, b. Salisbury, Sept 25, 1709.
Nathaniel, b. S;ilisbury, Aug. 12, 1711.
William, b. Salisbury, Nov. 20, 1714.
Reuben, l>. Salisbury, 171(3.
Richard, b. Salisbury, 1717.
Jd.'itph, b. Salisbury, May 2, 1721.
Benjamin, b. Salisbury, May 4, 1722.
The records of the West Church, Salisbury, show that
Dec. 2, 1722, just subsequent to death of Reuben, his seven
(•hildren received the sacrament of baptism, the name ap-
pearing ill the record as "Witcher." In the final settle-
ment of his estate the committee on the division reported
that it could not be divided without loss. Nathaniel
Whittier, eldest son, who was heir to a double portion,
bought out the others and gave his bond to pay, dated May
'1^, 1733. With the consent of their mother, Joseph Os-
good was appointed May 24, 1733, guardian of the three
youngest children, Richard, Joseph and Benjamin.
(19) Joseph Whittier, son of Reuben and Deborah
Pillsbury Whittier, also resided in Salisbury. He m. in
Salisbury, Jan. 13, 1743, .Martha, daughter of John Evans,
Esq., of Nottingham, N. H. They were quiet, God-fearing
people, and the records show that they were connected
with the Second Church, being received into its communion
HIS DESCEJ^DANTS. 11
Jan. 4, 1756, the name being spelled on the record
"Whitcher." Previously, Nov. 13, 1748, Joseph and
Martha had "owned the covenant" on the occasion of ihe
baptism of their three little daughters, Deborah, Dorothy
and Sarah. The children of Joseph and Martha Evans
Whitcher were all born in Salisbury, but it is not probable
that any of them settled in their native town, as the names
of none of them appear in the records of the town, either
church or civil, after the year 1756. Three of the four sons
certainly went to Warren, N. H., one daughter, Sarah, died
in 1748, and it is not unlikely that the parents, Joseph and
Martha, may have, late in life, made their homes with some
one of their children, if they had not, as will subsequently be
suggested, removed to Kingston, N. H.
CHILDREN OF JOSEPH AND MARTHA EVANS WHITTIEK
OR (whitcher).
Deborah, b. Salisbury, Sept. 4, 1744.
Dorothy, b. Salisbury, Nov. 30, 1745.
Sarah, b. Salisbury, Sept. 18, 1747, d. Dec.
29, 1748.
John, b. Salisbury, June 19, 1749.
Reuben, b. Salisbury, Sept. 19, 1751.
Chase, b. Salisbury, Oct. 6, 1753.
Joseph, b. Salisbury, Oct. 31, 1755.
For four generations the family had been, at least in the
branch which has been thus far traced, identified with the
town of Salisbury.
21.
I.
22.
II.
23.
III.
24.
IV.
25.
V.
26.
VI.
27.
VII
12 CHASE WHITOHEB AND
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT IN WARREN.
As hus been previously noted, Chase VVhitcher came to
Warren, as nearly as can be ascertained, in the spring of
1772. His brother, John, had come three years previously,
and two other brothers, Keuben and Joseph, came a little
later than Cha^e. The question naturally arises, why did
these brothers leave Salisbury and make their way, for a
long (lis^tMUce through an almost unbroken wilderness into
northern New Hampshire, to establish homes for themselves
in the wilderness town of" Warren ? Several answers sug-
gest themselves. Salisbury had become a comparatively
(dd town, having been settled for more than one hundred
and twenty-five years. The land available for farming pur-
poses had been taken up, improved, and much of it had
been worn out. The young men of the town had become
re^tles8 and were seeking new openings and fields for their
activity. Many of the previous generation had left the
town for newer settlements in the southern part of New
Hampshire and in eastern Maine. Governor Benning
XN'entworth of the New Hampshire province was granting
numerous charters of townships, so numerous that a large
section of the Connecticut valley, especially west of the Con-
necticut river where he claimed jurisdiction, was known as
the New Hampshire Grants. Land was cheap in these new
townships, indeed was to be had for the asking, on condition
that it be occupied and improved, so eager were the grant-
ees or proprietors to secure the settlement and improvement
HIS DESCENDANTS. 13
of their possessions. The sons of Joseph and Martha
Whittier, if they had the pioneer spirit, would naturally be
attracted by the inducements offered in some of these new
towns, and (Jhase Whitcher, the hoy, not quite nineteen,
evidently had this spirit. It may be interesting to quote
the account given of him by Little, the historian of Warren :
"Chase Whitcher came next, and although a mere boy he
took possession of a lot of land in the north part of the
town, fell a few acres of trees, and built himself a log camp
covered with bark. He was sent by the proprietors, they
observing that he was a resolute youth, that they might if
possible fulfill the first condition of the charter.
"He was a tall, bony, rawhuilt fellow with a spare face,
red hair, fond of the forest, and given to hunting and trap-
ping. The mink, muskrat and otter he caught by the foamy,
roistering Oliverian : beaver he trapped at Beaver-Meadow
ponds, the head waters of the Wild Ammonoosuc, and his
sable lines ran here and there upon the sides of the moun-
tains. The cry of his old hound-dog in the woods was
music to him, and following a moose one day he climbed
on Moosehillock, (or Moosilauke) being the first settler
that ever stood on its bald summit.
"At another time he was chasing a wild buck, which ran
down on the rocky crest of Owl's Head mountain. Whitcher
heard the baying of his faithful hound in the distance, at
regular intervals, each time coming nearer, and cocking his
rifle got behind a rock, thinking to shoot the stag as he
passed. He did not have to wait long. The deer burst out
of the thin woods fifty rods away, too far off for a shot, and
bounded towards the edge of the precipice. He whistled to
the old dog following closely behind, whose three wild yells
rang out regularly upon the clear mountain air, but could
14 CHASE WHITCHER AND
not make him hear. Neither deer nor hound heeded where
they were going, and when they reached the brink of the
mountain, in the excitement of the moment the hunter held
his breath, as he saw the buck, unable to stop, and the great
black hound, intent only on his prey, both leap far out over
the edge of the precipice, then falling swift as lightning dis-
appear in the abyss a hundred fathoms down.
*'In an hour the young man had climbed down through
the woods by a roundabout way to the foot of the mountain,
where he found the deer dead, and his hound with one leg
broken and otherwise terribly bruised. The dog had lighted
on the top of a great pine, which broke the force of his fall.
In time he got, well, but could never be induced to run
another deer on the top of Owl's Head mountain."
But the question, why did the Whitcher brothers choose
Warren in preference to other towns, is still unanswered.
The family records are silent on this subject, but the early
records of Salisbury, Haverhill and Amesbury, throw some
light on the matter, enough to warrant drawing some con-
clusions which may be helpful. The town of Warren was
granted January 28, 1764, to John Page, Esq., of Kings-
ton and 56 others. John Page was a prominent citizen of
Kingston, and the others mentioned in the grant were his
friends and neighbors in Kingston and adjoining towns, and
friends in Salisbury, Haverhill, and Amesbury, Mass.,
towns which had been the homes of his parents, grandpar-
ents and great grandparents. He was himself a native of
Haverhill, born about 1710-11, and was a great-grandson of
John Page who settled in Haverhill about 1652. His
granduncle, Benjamin, son of John, m. Sept. 21, 1666,
Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas and Ruth Green Whittier.
The descendants of John the first were numerous, not only
HIS DESCENDANTS. 15
in Haverhill, but also in Salisbury and Amesbury. Then,
too, among the associate grantees ot Warren are found the
names of William Whitcher and Joseph Whitcher. The
former was a son of Reuben and Deborah Pillsbury Whit-
tier, born in Salisbury, Nov. 20, 1714. William Whitcher
removed to Kingston contemporaneously with John Page,
who went there from Haverhill. The Joseph named was
probably the father of John, Reuben, Chase, and Joseph,
and brother of William. This much is certain, there is no
trace of Joseph and Martha Evans Whittier to be found in
Salisbury after about 1760, and it would have been only
natural that they should have followed his brother, William,
to Kingston, a New Hampshire town which was but a few
miles distant from Salisbury. There is also another hint
which may be helpful in suggestion as to why Ohase Whit-
cher in seeking a new home went to Warren. The names
of no less than four .VIorrills appear among the Warren
grantees. Increase Morrill, of Amesbury, who died in
June, 1777, left to his children a grant of land in Warren.
Among his children was a daughter, Hannah, born June 19,
1753, baptized July 14, 1753, as appears by the Amesbury
church records. Chase Whitcher, after he came to Warren
in 1772, made more or less frequent trips to his old home,
and in the summer of 1777 went down to Amesbury, mar-
ried July 6, Hannah, daughter of Increase and Sarah Her-
bert Morrill and brought her to the home he had established
in the north part of the new town.
The reasons why Warren became the objective point for
these four pioneer brothers, are thus made comparatively
clear. It was not an accident that Warren was chosen in-
stead ot some of the other nearby chartered towns.
16 0HA8E WHITOHER AND
Hannah Morrill* was no ordinary woman, as her chil-
dren, and those of her grandchildren who remembered her,
bore abundant testimony. Like her husband, she came of
(rood, sturdy, early New England stock as the record of her
ancestry proves. (1) Abraham Morrill (or Morrell) came
from England, and settled first in Cambridge in 1632-3,
He probably came in the ship "Lion" which arrived in Sep-
tember, 1632. He is first mentioned in the Cambridge
records, Jan. 1632-3, where he was proprietor in 1636.
He was a planter, millwright and ironfounder, and was a
member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company
of Boston in 1638. He was fined in 1641, for "seling his
servant his time." He removed to Salisbury about that
time and received land in the first division of that town, was
a commoner and was taxed in 1650. In company with
Henry Say wood he built a corn mill on the Powow in 1641.
Only four men were taxed for a larger amount in Salisbury,
and his estate at death inventoried £564. He married June
10, 1645, Sarah, daughter of Robert Clement, of Haverhill.
He died June 20, 1662, while on a visit to his brother Isaac
in Roxbury.
*The record in the town clerk's office in Warren gives the date of
the birth of Hannah Morrill, wife of Chase Whitcher as June 19,
1758. This record was not made till at least thirty years after her
marriage, and occurs in the family record of Chase and Hannah
Morrill Whitcher in which the name and date of birth of each of
their children are given. In the Salisbury and Amesbury records of
the Morrill family there are found numerous "Hannahs," but none
in the records of either town, anywhere near the age of Chase
Whitcher except one "Hapnah" of Salisbury, b. in 1752, and
"Hannah," daughter of Increase, of Amesbury, b. June 19, 1753.
It would be comparatively easy to mistake a "3" for an "8," and
by such mistake, what is undoubtedly an error in the Warren
records was made. The Warren, N H. and Amesbury, Mass. records
agree bo far as they go, except in this single particular, and all
other evidence available indicates beyond doubt that Hannah Mor-
rill, wife of Chase Whitcher, was the daughter of Increase Morrill,
of Amesbury,
2.
I.
3.
II.
4.
III.
5.
IV.
6.
V.
7.
VI.
«.
VII.
9.
VIII.
10.
IX.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 17
CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM AND SAKAH CLEMENT MORRILL.
Isaac, b. Salisbury, July 10, 1646.
Jacob, b. Salisbury, Aug. 24, 1648, in. July
15, 1674, Susanna, daughter of Thomas
and Ruth Whittier.
Sarah, b. Salisbury, Oct. 14, 1650.
Abraham, b. Salisbury, Nov. 14, 1652.
Moses, b. Salisbury, Dec. 28, 1655, m. Kt -
becca Barnes.
Aaron, b. Salisbury, Aug. 9, 1658.
Richard, b. Salisbury, Feb. 6, 1660.
Lydia, b. Salisbury, March 8, 1661.
Hepzibah, b. Salisbury, Jan. 1663 (pos-
thumus).
(6). Lieutenant Moses Morrill of Amesbury, b. Dec.
28, 1655, m. Rebecca, daughter of William and Rjichel
Barnes of Salisbury and Amesbury. She was dismissed
from the Salisbury to the Amesbury church, Feb. 8, 1699,
and with her husband was living in Amesbury as late as
1726. She died Apr. 3, 1727, and her husband died in
Salisbury, May 20, 1731.
CHILDREN OF MOSES AND REBECCA BARNES MORRILL.
11. I. Rachel, b. Amesbury, Aug. 12, 1686.
12. II. William Barnes, b. Amesbury, March 19,
1688, m. June 6, 1717, Lydia Pillsbury oi'
Salisbury.
13. III. Sarah, b. Amesbury, Jan. 30, 1689-90.
14. IV. Hannah, b. Amesbury, Aug. 14. 1692.
15. V. Ann, b. Amesbury, Oct. 9, 1694.
16. VI. Judith, b. Amesbury, Dec. 20, 1696.
18 CHASE WHITCHER AND
(12). William Barnes Morrill of Ainesbury, East
Parish, b. March 19, 1688, son of Moses and Rebecca
Barnes Morrill, m. let, June 6, 1717, Lvdia Pillsbury of
Salisbury; 2nd in 1733, Judith
CHILDREN OF WILLIAM BARNES AND LYDIA PILLSBURY
MORRILL.
Moses, b. March 9, 1717-18.
Rebecca, b. Nov. 9, 1719.
Increase, b. Oct. 15, 1721.
Mary, b. Oct 20, 1723.
Simeon, b. May 9, 1726.
Hannah, b. Sept. 28, 1728.
William, b. Nov. 18, 1730.
Lvdia, (by second wife) b. June 4, 1734.
Eliot, b. May 2, 1737.
Lvdia, b. July 13, 1739.
The above named were all born in Amesbury, East Par-
i!^h. The record of the baptism of the four younger chil-
dren appears in the East Parish Church records.
(19). Increa.'^e Morrill, b. Oct. 15, 1721, m. Nov.
22, 1744. Sarah Herbert of Salisbury. She owned cove-
nant in First Church, Amesbury, May 17, 1747, and was
received to full communion the same day. His will is
dated May 15, 1777, and was proved June 14 the same
year, about three weeks previous to the marriage of his
daughter, Hannah, to Chase Whitcher. He gave land in
Warren to children. Mrs. Morrill was a devoted member
of the first Amesbury church, in the records of which the
baptism of each of her children appears.
17.
I.
18.
11.
19.
in.
20.
IV.
21.
V.
22.
VI.
23.
VII.
24.
vin
25.
IX.
26.
X.
27.
I.
28.
II.
29.
III.
30.
IV.
31.
V.
32.
VI.
33.
VII
HIS DESCENDANTS. 19
CHILDREN or INCREASE AND SARAH HERBERT
MORRILL.
Rebecca, b. Jan. 27, 1746.
Richard, b. March 29, 1748.
Sarah, b. Nov. 1, 1750.
Hannah, b. June 19, 1753, baptized July 14,
1753.
John, b. Oct. 13, 1755.
William, b. baptized,. Sept. 3, 1758.
Samuel, b. Feb. 4, 1761.
The above were all born in Amesbury, and it was from
her Amesbury home that Hannah Morrill went with her
husband in July, 1777, just after the death of her father,
to her new home in Warren. That home was a log hout^e
in a clearing of a few acres on the Oliverian, at what is now
known as Warren Summit, or GlencliflP. The house was
but a tew rods from the present Gleiicliff railroad station,
and near that occupied so many years by Mr. and Mrs.
James Harriman and known as the Karriman place. Neigh-
bors were few. A settleuient had just been made on Coventry
Meadows, nearly two miles away through the forest ; John
Whitcher was established on Pine Hill, a mile and a half
distant , there were four or five other families within a ra-
dius of two miles, and that was all. It was a humble home,
with furniture and household utensils of the most primitive
sort, where luxury was unknown, and where the barest ne-
cessities of life were often scarce and scanty. Nearly every-
thing was of home production, and life in this wilderness
settlement and home was a struggle for existence. In this
home of hardship and poverty, for life could have been little
else than hardship and poverty, the eleven children of Chase
20 CHASE WHITCHEB AND
iitul Hamiiih Morrill Whitcher were born ;ind reared.
There were no schoola, at least none for the older of the
children, but the mother found time to give them each a fair
education. The father was too busy felling trees, clearing
land, gathering his scant crops, to say nothing of his trap-
pinw and hunting, to give much attention to the education
(tf his children, and even had he not been too busy, the
luiither was better equipped for the task of teaching.
The War of the Revolution was in progress when Chase
W'iiitcher brought hif bride home, and he had already taken
an active part in that struggle. He was on one of his trips
"down country," probably vitfiting his relatives in Kingston,
when the jiews came of the fiyht at Concord and Lexington,
April 19, 1775. He was not long in deciding his course,
and .V|>ril 23, 1775 found him a member of Capt. Henry
Dearltitrn's company, Col. John Stark's regiment, on his
wav to Charlestown. His three months' service lasted till
August 1, and as a member of Col. Stark's regiment he par-
ticipated in the battle of Bunker Hill. After the failure of
Arnold's ex|)edition to Canada, there was much excitement
in \\'ancn as well as all along the frontier in the summer of
177b over a threatened invasion from Canada, and there was
a great demand for arms and ammunition. The number of
thirteen gtms was needed in the Warren settlement, and
they could be obtained only at Exeter. Chase Whitcher
was given by the Coos Committee of Safety the sum of
twenty-four pounds to make the necessary purchase, he giv-
ing security to pay the same when demanded. He went to
Exeter, secured the guns and ammunition, and loading them
on his horse, led his beast thus loaded, through the wilder-
ness over a rough bridle path for most of the way, until he
brought them safely to Warren, where they were quickly
HIS DESCENDANTS. 21
distributed among the settlers. Again, only a little time af-
ter his marriage when the call came for volunteers to join
John Stark at Bennington, he became Sept. 8, 1777, a
member of Capt, Nathan Sanborn's company in Col.
Stephen Evans' regiment and served till December 16th in
that same year.
In the same spirit that moved him to join the ranks of
those fighting for independence, the early records show that
he bore his part in the affairs of the frontier town.
The scant records of the early town meetings show that he
served in the offices of' constable, then a highly important
position, tax collector, moderator, and for years filled the
various minor offices of his tovvn with fidelity and usefulness.
He was also prominent in the militia of the town, the title
"Lieut." being given him in the town records. He was al-
ways poor. The inventory of his taxable property was never
in any one year, more than five hundred dollars, but there is
evidence that he avoided debt, and met the modest obliga-
tions he incurred. Famous as a hunter, he shot and
killed the only caribou ever killed in his section, was the
first white man to stand on the summit of Moosilauke, a
mountain afterward owned by one of his grandsons, was the
first to welcome the Methodist itinerant to the North Coun-
try, and was a member of the first class formed by that
pioneer itinerant, Elijah R. Sabin, who was appointed by
the New York Conference to the Landaff circuit in 1800.
The account given by Little of Sabin's visit is an interesting
one. He says :
"One day in July, 1800, a solitary horseman was seen
riding up the road. He stopped at Joseph Merrill's inn,
baited his horse, and while he was eating his own dinner
casually dropped a few words upon religious matters. They
22 CHASE WHIT CHER AND
seemed to make but little impression, and saying something^
about stony ground and hardness of heart, he rode away
over Pine hilF to the Summit. That horseman was the Kev.
Elijah R. Sabin, a missionary ot Methodism. Hundreds of
them were riding the country through, preaching in the
houses, the barns, in the forests, or out in the broad open
air, anywhere they could get a congregation to hear them,
bringing new religious ideas to the people.
"That night he stopped with Mr. Chase Whitcher, by the
wild roistenng Oliverian. The morrow was the sabbath,
and after the morning meal a meeting was sugijested. Mr.
Whitcher was pleased with the idea. A messenger went to
the settlers on Pine hill, down on old Coventry meadows,
and to Mr. Eastman's, the first settler of High street.
'*By ten o'clock, quite a congregation had assembled, and
under the maples — they grow there now — by the laughing
stream, the first religious meeting was held on the summit.
They had no choir, but the reverend man sang in clear
sweet voice, one of those stirring revival hymns of John V^es-
ley, which were then waking men's souls through all the
land. His discourse took powerful hold on his little con-
gregation, and before he left this valley, hollowed between
five peaks of the mountains, he had laid the foundation for a
society, and formed a class consisting of three members —
Chase Whitcher, Dolly Whitcher, afterwards the widow
Atwell, and Sarah Barker. When he was gone his words
were not forgotten. Many believed his doctrine was true,
and before the year passed more than thirty persons had
joined the class."
This was the beginning of Methodism in Warren, where
it has been for nearly a century the leading religious society.
The lives of Chase and Hannah Morrill Whitcher, must,
WILLIAM WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 23
from the very circumstances of the time, have been filled
with hardship and toil, but they lived to see their children
grow up and make homes for themselves, and to see the
town in which they were among the few pioneer settlers,
become one of the prosperous mountain towns of the state.
Hannah Morrill Whitcher died Oct. Slst, 1826, at the age
of 73, and Chase Whitcher died in Feb. 1836, in his 83<J
year. Above their graves in the little cemetery at Warren
Summit there was erected by their grandson, the late Ira
Whitcher, in 1889, a substantial marble monument.
CHILDREN OF CHASE AND HANNAH MORRILL
WHITCHER,
(All born in Warren, N. H.)
28. I. Levi, b. Sept. 22, 1779, died in infancy.
29. II. Dolly, b. Jan. 22, 1781, m. John Atwell of
Haverhill, and resided in Benton. They
had one son. Chase Whitcher Atwell, who
died in Boston about 1889 without issue.
William, b. May 23, 1783.
Molly, b, Apr. 16, 1785, died unmarried.
Chase, Jr., b. Sept. 5, 1787, m. March 21,
1813, at New Holderness, N. H,, Mary
Green, of New Holderness. They resided
in Warren until about 1830, when they
removed to Coventry (Benton), afterwards
returning to Warren, where he died, Jan. 26,
1850. His widow died in Benton, Decem-
ber 14, 1863. They left no children.
Levi, 2d, b. Aug. 31, 1789, d. unmarried.
Jacob, b. June 22, 1791.
Miriam, b. March 18, 1794, m. Joseph Davis
30.
Ill
31.
IV.
32.
V.
33.
VI.
34.
VII.
35.
VIII
24 CHASE WHITQHEB AND
Willoughby of New Holdernees, N. H., b.
Oct. 19, 1788, d. Aug. 27, 1853 and resi-
ded in that town until their death. They
had three children :
(1). William Whitcher, b. Feb. 26,
1816, d. Somerville, Mass., Aug. 10,
1877, m. Sept. 21, 1845, Harriet M. True
■ of Holdernes8,N. H., b. April 10, 1823.
Their two children were, George T., b.
Somerville, June 28, 1846, and Harriet
M., b. Somerville, Jan. 23, 1856.
(2). Fatima, b. Oct. 19, 1818, d.
Chelmsford, Mass., Sept. 23, 1867, m.
Samuel Putney, Chelmsford, Mass. They
had one daughter, Ella Putney.
(3). Samuel W.. b. May 6, 1822, d.
Boston, Sept. 20, 1860, m. ,
left two sons, James H., and Charles.
Hannah, b. March 16, 1796, died unmarried.
Martha, b. July 18, 1798, m. Elisha Fullam.
David, b. Jan. 15, 1803.
None of the children of Chase and Hannah Morrill
Whitcher settled permanently in Warren. Chase, Jr.,
spent some years in town after reaching his majority, but
about the year 1830, removed to Coventry, (now Benton),
where his three brothers had previously gone, and where
Dolly and Martha, two of the three daughters who maVried,
also lived for a time. For the first half of the eighteenth
century, the children and grandchildren of Chase Whitcher
were prominent factors in the history of that town.
36.
IX.
37.
X.
38.
XL
1
^3
1
P^SB
n
m 1
M
MRS. MARTHA (WHITCHER) FULL AM.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 25
CHAPTER III.
EMIGRATION TO COVENTRY-BENTON.
Chase VVhitcher had never acquired real estate in Warren
suitable for settlement, aside from that of his homestead.
This, a part of which is now, as has before been said, the
so-called Harriman place, was lot numbered eighteen in the
seventh range, which, in the second division of lots had been
drawn by Abraham Morrill of Salisbury one of the grantees
of the town, was sold by him to Chase Whitcher for the sum
of five pounds, lawful money, by deed of March 14, 1775.
Chase Whitcher was named in the deed as of Nottingham.
which was then the residence of his father, Joseph Whittier,
who, it will be remembered, had married his wife, Martha
Evans, in that town. Joseph, as has before been noted,
was also one of the original proprietors of Warren. Chase
was then in his 22d year, and not having acquired title
to land in Warren, where he had spent much of the previous
three years with his brother, John, and being unmarried, was
naturally described as having domicile with his father. The
date of this deed, March 14, 1775, also accounts for his
presence "down country" that spring, and for his becoming
a member, April 23, of Captain Henry Dearborn's company
on its way to Charlestown and Bunker Hill. On his re-
turn to Warren in the late summer, he began clearing his
land, and making ready for a home. His father had con-
siderable holdings of land in town, not only as original pro-
prietor, but also by acquisition of what remained of the origi-
26 CHAiSE WHITCHER AXD
nal share ur right of his brother, William of Kingston, hav-
ing purchased this, Oct. 2, 1776, of Isaac Whitcher and
Nathaniel Whitcher, executors of the estate of William.
These holdings he from time to time disposed of to his sons,
John, Reuben, Chase, and Joseph, Jr. One of his convey-
ances bearing date of Feb. 14, 1783, is that of "lot num-
bered eighteen in the eighth range of lots in the second
division in Warren," and was "in consideration of the love
and good will that I baire to my son. Chaise Whitcher of
Warren, in the County of Grafton, and in further consid-
eration of the sum of thirty pounds, lawful money, to me in
hiind, paid before the delivery hereof by the said Chaise
Whitcher." This lot lies up on the mountain to the south-
west of \\'arren Summit station, and has never been avail-
able for settlement. It now belongs to the estate of the late
Ira Whitcher, a great-grandson of Joseph, though it passed
through many hands before it came into his possession.
Chase Whitcher also became possessed of land in Cov-
entry. By deed of Sept. 30, 1788, he purchased of Sam-
uel Atkinson of Boscawen, a hundred acres in Coventry for
the sum of thirty pounds, this being described as a tract
which had been "deeded to one John Marston, February 5,
1780, on condition that he settle in that town," which con-
dition, Marston had failed to fulfill. He had thus become
interested in Coventry lands, and when his eldest son,
William, came to man's estate, the almost unbroken wil-
derness of the north part of Coventry, seemed to offer a
better chance for settlement than what remained of lands in
Warren, that had not been taken up for improvement. It
was, therefore, in the year 1805, that William Whitcher
went over the pass between the mountains, follow-
ing a rough path which had been surveyed for the building
mis DESOENBANTS. 27
of a road, and began clearing land for a home, afterwards
the homesteads of his sons, Moses, William, Jr., and Ira.
Later he was followed by his brothers, Jacob and David,
who had at first settled in Warren, and by his sister, Dolly,
who had married John Atwell of Haverhill, whither he had
come from the State of Maine.
Jacob WHiitcher at first established himself in W^arren,
purchasing a farm of his father-in-law, Stephen Richardson,
of thai town, in February, 1815, but he later removed to
Groton, Vt., and still later to Coventry, where he j)ur-
chased of Benjamin Knight, of Landaff, a farm of fifty acres.
David Whitcher, youngest son of Chase, arranged to take
the homestead farm of his |)arents, and to remain with them
to care for them in their declining years, for, December 19,
1823, a few weeks before he reached his majority, his
father deeded to him "all that j)art of my farm which
lieth on the easterly side of the road leading from Haverhill
to Warren, except one acre and a half where the buildings
now stand, occupied by Chase Whitcher, Jr." Still later,
Oct. 12, 1827, Chase Whitcher deeded to him a hundred
acres on the mountain to the southwest, the consideration
being $100.
John and Dolly Whitcher Atwell removed from Haverhill
to Coventry about 1819, and settled on a lot near Landaff
line, afterwards the farm owned by Samuel Whitcher, and
later by Stephen C. Sherman, — which had been purchased
by W^illiam W'hitcher of Elisha Tyler in 1813. After the
death of her husband, about 1829, Dolly Whitcher Atwell
returne«i to the home of her father, in Warren, and arrange-
ments were made which led to the removal of David
Whitcher to Coventry. Her mother had died in 1826, and
it was felt that she and her sister, Molly, who had remained
28 CHASE W HIT Q HER AND
at home unmarried, were perhaps better fitted than others
to o-ive their father the care he needed, now that he had
passed hid three-score years and ten. That William
Whitcher came from Coventry and assisted in making the
arrangements, is evident from the fact that the deeds of real
estate which were made October 20, 1830, appear to have
hocn acknowledged by him as justice of the peace. On this
<l;it<>, David Whitcher deeded to Dolly At well and Molly
Whirclier, both of Warren, fur the consideration of five
hundred dollars, that portion of the homestead of his father
which had been deeded to him seven years previously, and
they, in turn, executed a mortgage of the property to their
father, the condition of this instrument being in the follow-
ing language : "if we, the said Dolly and Molly, shall at all
tinics maintain and support the said Chase Whitcher, our
father, Iioth in sickness and health, provide him with con-
venient accommodations, a sufficiency of good, wholesome
food, and doctoring, clothing, and lodging, good fires, and
a physician and proper nursing in sickness and health, and
take prudent and good care of him at all times during his
natural life, and shall be at all his funeral charges, then this
deed sK.all be void and of none effect.'* William Whitcher,
in writing this instrument, certainly did not intend that any-
thing which would safeguard the comfort of his father,
should be omitted, even though those who were to care for
him were his own daughters. David Whitcher, with his
wife and infant son, removed almost immediately to Coven-
try, and settled just to the south of his brother, Jacob, on
a lot of land which he purchased of Ira Goodall, and which
was later known as the Curtis farm. It appears that
when David deeded to his sisters, his wife did not join in
the deed, since subsequent to his death, his widow, Phebe P.,
HIS DESCENDANTS. 29
then of New Hamptoii, in consideration of one hundred
dollars, by deed of October 1, 1835, released to Dolly and
Molly, her rights of dower in the land previously deeded by
her husband. In this deed, Molly is called Polly, the
names seeming to be interchangeable, •
Chase Whitcher, Jr., had as early as 1814, acquired
a lot of land in Coventry, where he cleared a small farm on
which he lived at various times, until a few years before his
<lr;ith. when he returned again to Warren. This farm,
whicli has l)een for the past thirty or forty years a forest,
was about three-fourths of a mile to the southeast of the
Orrin Marston homestead, and a fourth of a mile to the east
ot the North and South road, being reached by a private
way.
(30). William Whitcher, eldest son of Chase and
Hannah Morrill Whitcher, was like his father, a genuine
pioneer, and proved himself such when he began life for him-
self in the almost unbroken forest of the north part of
Coventry. He secured land near the Landaff line, and pro-
ceeded in the years 1805 and 1806, to clear away the forest
and build his home. His original homestead was made up
of jjarts of lots numbered thirteen, fifteen, twenty-two, and
fifty-nine in Gerrish survey. His first house, built of logs,
was erected on lot numbered fifteen, on the same spot where
nearly forty years later, his son, Ira Whitcher, built his
home. To this house he brought his wife in February,
1807, and here or in the house he afterward built, were
born his ten sons and six daughters, all of whom with a
single exception, lived to marry and establish homes of their
own. From the beginning he was active in town affairs,
hie name first appearing among the town officers as highway
surveyor in 1807, and from that time until he removed to
30 CHASE WHITCHER AND
LandafF, on the banks of the Wild Ammonoosue, in 1856,
he was one of the leading spirits of his town, and filled at
different times all the various town offices. The town when
he came to it was without roads, and no citizen accomplished
80 much as he in constructing them, thus giving means of
communication with the adjoining towns of Bath and
Haverhill, which in the early part of the century were the
leading business, social, and political centres of the North
Country. He had himself, considering his time and cir-
cumstances, a good education, and appreciating its value,
did all in his power to secure the establishment of schools,
that his children might receive their advantages. He ac-
quired quite large tracts of land by purchase from non-resi-
dent owners, and at tax collector's sales, and some of these
acquisitions involved him in litigation. This naturally gave
him a knowledge of the forms of law, and early commis-
sioned a justice of the peace, he was familiarly known as
"the Squire," and later as the "Old Squire." In this
capacity he became the conveyancer for the town, drew up
their wills for his townsmen, the petitions for building high-
ways, presided at justice courts, and in his later years was
the confidential adviser of his neighbors on almost all ques-
tions affecting them. Prudent, cautious, far-sighted, his
advice was recognized as eminently sound and trustworthy.
He was a man of deep piety, imbued with the old New
England religious faith and principles, and was foremost
among his townsmen in seeking to promote piety and religion
among them. He did not as a boy of seventeen join that first
Methodist class, formed by the pioneer and saddlebag itine-
rant in his father's house in Warren in 1800, but he received
on that occasion, religious impressions which moulded all
his after life. He became a member of the Methodist
HI8 DESCENDANTS. 31
Episcopal denomination early, and for many years before
the "Union meeting house" was erected in 1846, he fre-
quently, as licensed exhorter, or local preacher of his denom-
ination, conducted religious meetings in barns, schoolhouses,
or private dwellings, or assisted the early circuit riders, who
occasionally made appointments in Coventry, in making their
horseback pilgrimages through the backwoods towns. There
are many living who remember him in his later years, sitting
reverently in his wing pew in the meeting house, listening
attentively to the sermon of the Methodist or Baptist
preacher, as the case might be, and then as the sermon
ended, rising in his place to add to the sermon a few pithy
sentences in reinforcement of what had been heard. He
was a man who took life seriously, and with a family of
sixteen children to provide for, with the discomforts and dis-
couragements of a backwoods mountain town to be met,
overcome, or endured, he naturally had little time or dis-
position for levity.
A few years after his marriage his log house was replaced
by a frame building, and about the year 1830, he built the
house still standing, afterwards owned and occupied by his
sons, first by Moses Whitcher, then by Chase Whitcher, and
now owned by William W. Eastman. He lived here until about
1835, when he purchased the Nathan Coburn place, where
he liv^'d wirii his son, Daniel, until about 1855 he removed to
Landiiff, where he died March 5, 1859, having nearly com-
pleted his seventy-seventh year. His old age was gladdened
bA' the prosperity of his children, most of whom were settled
around him, and in the welfare of whose families he was
deeply concerned. In his domestic life he was fortunate and
happy. He married, February 15, 1807, Mary, eldest
daughter of Samuel and Sarah Collins Noyes of LandafF,
S2 CHASE WHITCHER AJS^B
who was born in that town, November 5, 1787, and who
died in Benton, September 27, 1848, in her sixty-first year.
She wae one of a large family. Of her seven brothers, all
like herself born in Landaflf, James, Samuel, Daniel, Jona-
than and Amo&, spent the greater part of their lives in that
town. Moses became a resident of Haverhill, and Nathan-
iel of Lyndon, Vt, Her father, Samuel Noyes, was one of
the early settlers of Landaflf. With his brother, Jonathan,
he went to LandaflP from Plaistow in the autumn of 1782,
having purchased of Nathaniel Peabody of Atkinson, for the
8um of 50 pounds, one of the original rights or shares of
land which was granted to Gershom Bates in the charter of
1764. His deed was dated August 16, 1782, and a part
consideration, in addition to the fifty [)ounds, was that he
should take possession of one of the one hundred acre lots
which had been laid out, within three months from the date
of the deed, and should begin immediate settlement. He
chose a location near the spot where the old town and meet-
ing house was afterwards erected, and cleared his farm,
which remained in his possession during his life, and after-
wards, in the possession of some of his descendants until the
year 1903. His wife Sarah Collins, was a member of one
of the oldest New England families, a woman of great
courage, of devoted piety, and of abounding cheerfulness
and hopefulness.
Mary Noyes was not twenty years of age when she went
to Coventry as the wife of William Whitcher. As has been
noted, she went with him into a home in the wilderness,
where but a few acres of land had been cleared, and where
they began life together with no other capital than good
health and willing hands. In the next twenty-four years
they became the parents of ten sons and six daughters, for
HI^ DESCENDANTS. 33
all of whom «?he cared, alinotit unaided, and lived to st^e thcui
all grow to the estate of voun«' nuinhood and woinanhtxid.
One son died at the age of seventeen, but all the others
married and settled in homes ot their own. Mnry Noycs
Whitcher was m remarkable woman.
William Whitcher married second, October 3, 184i>.
Catherine Moore, widow of Fr;incis Knight, of Bath, Sjip
died October 19, 1874.
CHILDREN OF WILLIAM AND MARY NOYES AVHITCHER.
{All Born in Coventry-Denton.)
Moses, b. December 26, 1807.
William, Jr., b. December 26, 1808.
Amos, b. May 18, 1810.
Louisa, b. December 22, 1811.
Winthrop Chandler, b. February 20, 1813.
Sanmel, b. August 24, 1814.
Ira, b. December 2, 1815.
Sally, b. May 25, 1817.
Hannah, b. April 4, 1819.
James, b. October 1, 1820, died August 20,
1838.
Chase, b. January 20, 1822.
Mary, b. October 28, 1823.
Susan, b. May 20, 1825.
Daniel, b. January 20, 1827.
David, b. June 17, 1828.
Phebe, b. February 24, 1831.
(34). Jacob Whitcher, (b. June 22, 1791), married
November 11, 1813, Sarah, daughter of Stephen Richardson,
39.
I.
40.
II.
41.
III.
42.
IV.
43.
V.
44.
VI.
45.
VII.
46.
VIII.
47.
IX.
48.
X.
50.
XI.
51.
XII.
51.
XIII.
52.
XIV.
53.
XV.
54.
XVI.
34 CHASE WHITOHER AND
Jr., of Warren. She died May 9, 1834. He married 2d,
July 16, 1834, widow Rebecca Allen, of Lisbon. As has
been previously stated, he settled at first in Warren, on a
farm purchased of his father-in-law, but about 1826, re-
moved to Groton, Vt., where he remained until 1828, when
he removed to Coventry, settling on a half one hundred acre
lot near the Haverhill line, afterwards known as the Charles
M. Howe place, and where his youngest child was born.
Here his wife, Sarah, died May 9, 1834. An index to her
character may be found in the brief obituary notice which
appeared in the Democratic Republican, printed at Haver-
hill, May 28, 1834. "Death :— In Coventry, N. H., of
the consumption. May 9th, Mrs. Sarah Whitcher, wife of
Mr. Jacob Whitcher, in the 46th year of her age. She
made a profession of religion in the 13th year of her age,
and maintained a good life and died a happy death. She
has left seven children to mourn the loss of a kind mother,
after a sickness of 18 months which she bore with patience
and Christian forbearance."
Jacob Whitcher was a man of impulsive temperament,
but a good citizen, a kind neighbor, and loyal in his friend-
ships. As will be noted, he remarried a few weeks after the
death of his wife, a fact which occasioned some criticism.
It is related that his brother, William, felt called upon to
remonstrate with him, and his answer to the remonstrance
was a characteristic one. He said in substance: "William,
my wife was a good woman, but she was sick a long time,
and I've some children who need a woman's care and train-
ing. You say that folks will talk ; let 'em talk. I know
my business and am competent to take care of my own af-
fairs ; Sarah is as dead as she ever will be, and I'm going to
bring home a woman to be a mother to my children." He
HIS DESCENDANTS. 35
did 80, but the marriage was not an ideally bappy one, and
his expectation that the widow Allen would fill a mother's
place was disappointed. Previous to his death, which oc-
curred January 11, 1841, he made his will under date of
November 6, 1840, appointing his nephew, Moses Whitcher.
as sole executor, and naming Isaac Morse, of Haverhill, as
the guardian of his minor children. He made specific be-
quests to each of" his children, authorized the sale of his real
estate, consisting of his homestead, and two forty-acre lots
in the town of Haverhill, and directed that as soon as it should
be sold, his widow, Rebecca, should be paid a specific sum
in lieu of dower, and that the residue of his estate should be
divided equally among his children. His estate was not
large, but at that time the sum of the fourteen or fifteen
hundred dollars which it amounted to, placed its possessor in
what were regarded as comfortable circumstances in
Coventry.
1239378
CHILDREN OF JACOB AND SARAH RICHARDSON
AVHITCHER.
Dorcas, b. Warren, July 10, 1814.
Levi M., b. Warren, October 29, 1815.
Hazen, b. Warren, May 21, 1817.
Stephen R., b. Warren, June 18, 1819, d. at
Benton, January 1, 1843.
Alonzo A., b. Warren, June 8, 1821.
Lorinda, b. Warren, August 3, 1825, d, at
Groton, Vt., September 3, 1826.
Jacob, Jr., b. Groton, Vt., June 8, 1827.
62. VIII. Sarah Jane, b. Coventry, August 31, 1830.
55.
I.
56.
II.
57.
III.
58.
IV.
59.
V.
60.
VI.
61.
VII
36 CHASE WHITCHER AND
(37). Martha Whitcher^ youno^est daughter of Chase
and Hannah Morrill VVhitcher, b. Warren, July 18, 1798,
ui. at Warren, November 16, 1820, Elisha FuUam, who
was born in Fitzwilliani, N. H., November 21, 1794. She
died in West Brookfield, Mass., March 8, 1870. He died
at Worcestesr, Mass., May 15, 1872.
They lived tor about tour years after their marriage in
Warren, when they removed to Holderness, where Miriam
Whitcher Willouijhby was living, living there for nearly ten
years, when they went to Granby, Vt., and after a few
years there, lived in various places, until in their later years
they made their home with their children in North Brook-
field and West Brookfield, Mass. A daughter-in-law writes
of her : "Mr. Fullam's mother, who spent the last years of
her life with us, I know to have been a woman of unusual
strength of character and honesty of purpose, never at any
sacrifice stepping one jot from the path of duty, and with a
disposition so sweet and gentle that she was loved by all who
knew her. She was worthy of the children and grandchil-
dren who also give her memory reverence." They never
had a permanent home in Benton, though Mrs. Fullam
about 1849-1851, with her youngest daughter, Harriet,
occupied a tenement in the house of her brother William,
and later for a few years in Woburn, where her daughter
married. Elisha Fullam suffered for years from poor health,
and to his wife fell in a large degree the support and care of
her children in their early years.
CHILDREN OF ELISHA AND MARTHA WHITCHER FULLAM.
63. I. Francis, b. Warren, August 5, 1821.
64. II. William, b. Warren, February 14, 1823.
*64. III. Maria, b. Holderness, April 7, 1825, d. Hoi-
HIS DESCENDANTS. 37
derness, April 21, 1826,
65. IV. Darius, b. HoidernesB, July 21, 1827, d. Hoi-
derness, September 2^, 1828.
66. V. Lemuel, b. Holdernese, May 23, 1830.
67. VI. Mary, b. Holderness, July' 18, 1834, d. Hol>
derness, September 7, 1834.
68. VII. Harriet, b. Granby, Vt., August 23, 1836,
(38). David Whitcker, youngest son of Chase and
Hannah Morrill Whitcher, b. Warren, January 15, 1803,
m. March 20, 1828, Phebe P. .Smith, b. March 7, 1799.
He resided in Warren, living with his father till the autumn
of 1830, when he removed to Coventry, settling as previous-
ly stated. He was a man of rigid integrity of character, of
devoted piety, and gave promise of great usefulness as a
citizen. He was elected in 1835 one of the selectmen, but
died after a brief illness from typhoid fever, April 3, the
same year, in the 33d year of his age.
CHILDREN OF DAVID AND PHEBE P. SMITH WHITCHER.
69. I. Joseph Smith, b. Warren, August 25, 1828.
70. II. David Marston, b. Coventry, June 30, 1831.
71. III. Daniel Batchelder, b. Coventry, July 6, 1833.
The families of these children of Chase and Hannah Mor-
rill Whitcher, except that of William Whitcher, settled for
the most part in other towns and in other states. Nearly
all of his children made homes for themselves in Benton,
though later in life one after the other removed from town.
At the present time not one of the name Whitcher resides in
town, and but four of the grandchildren of William and
Mary who bear other names are among its residents.
3:8 OHA8E WHIT CHER AND
CHAPTER IV.
I>ESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM ANI> MARY NO YES
WHITCHEK
(39). Moses Whitcher, eon of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. December 26, ISQI, m. 1834, Sarah,
daughter of Samuel and Dorcas Foster Royce of Haverhill.
She was born in Landaff, October 19, 1813. On attaining
his majority, Moses Whitcher engaged in business tor him-
self, and a little later formed a partnership with his brother
William, Jr., which continued until the death of the latter
in 1839. They engaged extensively in farming, clearing
large tracts of forest land, and in the manufacture of lumber.
The firm acquired an enviable reputation for energy, enter-
prise and thrift, and they were not only successful them-
selves from a financial standpoint, but did much to improve
the condition of affairs in the town. After the death of
William Whitcher, Jr., Moses Whitcher purchased his
brother's interest in the partnership, and carried on business
alone, being without doubt the leading business man in the
town. He had received a better education than fell to the lot
of his brothers, and at an early age became prominent in
town affairs. He was for several years superintending
school committee, town clerk, and selectman, and represented
Benton in the legislature 1842, 1843 and 1844. He was
public spirited, believed in the possibilities of Benton as a
prosperous community, and did everything in his power to
promote its welfare and prosperity. He was one of the
chief promoters of the erection of a meeting house, and it
HIS DESOENDANTS. 59
was while engaged in superintending the cutting of trees to
•fee sawed into the frame of the building, that he was instantly
killed by the falling of a tree, March 18, 1846. His sud-
den death was a shock to the whole community, which rec-
ognized that it had lost its leading t^itizen, a loss that
seemed irreparable. His estate amounting to upwards of
■eleven thousand dollars at his death, was a large one for
Jiis time and was a monument to his thrift and business
ability. He left no children.
(40). William Whitcher, Jr., son of William and
Mary Noyes Whitcher, b. December 26, 1808^ m. 1835,
Lucinda C, born in Lisbon, February 9, 1815, daugh-
ter of James Noyes. He died after a brief illness, October
16, 1839, leaving one daughter, Betsey N., b. 1837, d.
April 14, 1842. His widow, Lucinda C, m. 2d, William
Harrison Blake of Lisbon, November 12, 1841, d. at Lis-
bon, November, 30, 1860.
William Whitcher, Jr., was a man of stalwart physical
proportions, of great powers of endurance, and of untiring
activity and industry. In his partnership with his brother
Moses, each supplemented the activities of the other, making
the partnership a most effective one. At his death their
farm comprised more than four hundred acres, and they were
the owners also of other large tracts from which they were
engaged in cutting the lumber for manufacture.
(41). Amos Whitcher, son of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. May 18, 1810, d. Stoneham, Mass.,
February 13, 1880 ; m. December 20, 1835, Polly, daugh-
4a CHA8E WHITCHER AND
ter of Joseph and Eunice Priest Young, b. Lisbon, Septem-
ber 26, 1815, d. Stoneham, Mass., May 22, 1821.
After his marriage, Amos VVhitcher settled in what wa&
afterwards known as "Whitcher Hollow," where he built
his house and shop for the manufacture of butter firkins, sap
buckets, pails, and other utensils made by the coopers of his
time. He was captain in the militia, and later was carpen-
ter and builder, superintending the erection of large farm
buildings, the building of dams, and the erection of saw and
starch mills. Afflicted from his young manhood with a
lameness caused by ulcers, he discovered a remedy, which
greatly relieved, if it did not entirely cure him, and gave
him a reputation among those similarly afflicted for some re-
markable cures. He served his town as its postmaster for a
period of twenty-five years or more, and was town clerk for
five years. He was a devoted member of the Free Will
Baptist church, and for many years held the ofiice of deacon.
His home was a free hotel for the ministers of his denom-
ination, and during all his life he was untiring in his efforts
to promote the moral and religious welfare of the community
in which he lived. About the year 1878 he removed with
his wife to Stoneham, Mass., where most of his children had
preceded him, and they both resided there during the re-
mainder of their lives.
CHILDREN OF AMOS AND POLLY YOUNG WHITCHER.
(All horn in Coventry-Benton.)
72. I. Lucinda Coburn, b. October 7, 1836, d.
Stoneham, Mass., October 27, 1871; m.
November 5, 1854, Horace Webber, son
of Sylvester and Lucy Webber Gordon, b.
LandaflP, May 7, 1833, d. Stoneham, Mass.,
March 26, 1886.
AMOS WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 41
After their marriage they resided in
Landaff, Bath, and Benton, until about
1868, when they removed to Stoneham,
residing there until their death. He was
engaged much of the time dealing in coun-
try produce, and later owned a boarding
house at Weirs.
73. II. Amaret A., b. June 23, 1840 ; m. January 14,
1862, Emery Barnes, son of Jacob March
and Malinda Cox White, b. Irasburgh, Vt..
October 26, 1833.
They resided in Landaff for several years
after their marriage, but removed to Stone-
ham, Mass., previous to 1870, where he
has since been engaged in the express busi-
ness between Stoneham and Boston and
Stoneham and Lynn for a period of more
than thirty-five years. He has always ta-
ken a deep interest in political matters, and
has been affiliated with the Republican
party from its organization. They are ac-
tive and useful members of the Methodist
Episcopal church. Previous to his mar-
riage, Mr. White spent several years in
California, engaged in a search for the elu-
sive gold, and has in the years since, paid
two or three visits to the Pacific Coast.
74. III. Charles Henry, b. February 10, 1843, d.
Stoneham, Mass., April 12, 1887; m.
January 1, 1868, Minerva Judith, daughter
of David and Hannah Parker Bowman, b.
42 CHASE WHITOHER AND
in Lyman, February 20, 1850, d. Stone-
ham, Mass., March 6, 1886.
Charles H. Whitcher on attaining his
majority, engaged in the blacksmithing and
wheelwright business in his native town un-
til about the year 1871, when he removed
to Stoneham, Mass., entering the employ
of Hazen Whitcher and Oliver H. Marston,
in the manufacture ot window and door
screens, picture frames, etc. He was an
active member of the Methodist Episcopal
church. Before leaving Benton he served
for several years as town clerk. He died
after a brief illness of paralysis, leaving one
son, Milton Durgin, born in Benton, Octo-
ber 5, 1869.
75. IV. VVinthrop Chandler, b. March 22, 1845; m.
September 22, 1875, Eliza Eleanor,
daughter of Moses and Emily S. Spofford,
b. in Danville, August 6, 1849.
Winthrop C. Whitcher completed his
education at the New Hampton Institution,
New Hampton, and after spending some
little time in Benton, went to Stoneham,
Mass., about 1872, entering at first the
employ of his brother-in-law, E. B. White,
in the express business, but later formed a
partnership with his brother James E., in
the grocery business, which continued until
about 1888, when his brother retired from
the firm, and he has since conducted it very
CHARLES H. WHITCHER.
WINTHROP WHITCHER.
JAMES E. WHITCHER.
ALBION G. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 43
successfully alone. He has been active in
town affairs, filling various official positions
and has been for some time a member of
the Stoneham school committee. He is an
active and prominent member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal church, superintendent of
the Sunday school, interested and active in
all matters looking to the growth and de-
velopment of his adopted town, recognized
by all as a valuable and useful citizen.
He has no children.
76. V. James Edgar, b. November 29, 1847, d. Au-
gust 27, 1891 ; m. September 8, 1875,
Susan Relief, daughter of Person C. and
Lucy S. Thompson, b. Holderness, Jan-
uary 28, 1851. James E. Whitcher at-
tended school at Newbury, Vt., and at
New Hampton, and soon after reaching his
majority went to Stoneham, Mass., being
employed for a time in a grocery store un-
til he went into business for himself in part-
nership with his brother. He was a lead-
ing member of the Methodist Episcopal
church, and was active in the affairs of the
town. He served on the board of select-
men, and represented Stoneham twice in
the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
He was a Republican in politics. A little
previous to his brief illness and death in the
summer of 1891, he had successfully passed
an examination for a clerkship in the Bos-
44 CHASE WHITGHER AND
ton Custom House, to which he was to
have been appointed by collector Beard.
He was a man of pleasing address, of un-
impeachable integrity, and was held in the
highest esteem by his large circle of friends.
He left no children.
77. VI. Florence Victoria, b. May 3, 1852 ; m. Wil-
liam C. Young of Bath, b. January 1,
1838. They have lived since their mar-
riage on their farm near Swiftwater village.
Children: (1) Clarence E., and (2)
Carrie E., b. December 25, 1870. Clar-
ence E. d. in Bath, April 21, 1881. (3)
Walter, b. January 27, 1877, d. near
Norfolk, Va., June 7, 1907. (4) Ada,
and (5) Arthur, b. September 19, 1878.
(6) Austin, b. October 26, 1880. (7)
Homer, b. January 7, 1884. (8) James,
b. March 9, 1887. Of these children of
William C. and Florence Whitcher Young,
Ada, Arthur, and Homer reside on a farm
they own near Norfolk, Va., where their
brother Walter died in June, 1907. His
mother was on a visit to him at the time of
his death and his remains were brought
north for burial in the cemetery at Swift-
water.
78. VII. Albion George, b. August 28, 1854; m. Nov-
ember 21, 1885, Ella Josephine, daughter
of Eli D. and Mary S. (Hawkins) Rich-
ards, b. Woodstock, Vt., December 13,
HIS DESCENDANTS. 45
1857. Albion G. Whitcher followed his
brothers to Stoneham, Mass., after reaching
his majority, but later removed to a farm in
Montpelier, Vt. He is engaged in farming
there at the present time. He has no chil-
dren,
(72).
CHILDREN OF HORACE W. AND LUCINDA WHITCHER
GORDON.
I. Ella, b. October 28, 1855 ; d. July U, 1858.
II. Ada, b. March 25, 1857 ; m. 1877, Daniel Webster,
son of George W. and Mary Hunt Cloutman of
Stoneham, Mass. Reside in Stoneham : children,
(1) Ethel Kate, b. October 29, 1877; (2) May
Ella, b. July 23, 1879, d. July 27, 1879. Ethel
Kate, m. October 29, 1902, Edward Amos, son of
Amos and Ellen Joy Jarvis of Cambridge : chil-
dren, (1) Bessie Cloutman, b. February 27, 1904,
d. February, 1904; (2) Dorothy May, b. Sept.
9, 1905.
III. Elmer Eugene, b. August 2 1858 : m. January 13,
1878, Ella C, daughter of John and Lydia Rod-
man Walker of Stoneham; m. 2d, March 12,
1884, Nellie M. Howe of Lincoln, Neb. Chil-
dren, George Scott, b. Sept. 8, 1888, d. Febru-
ary 16, 1890 ; (2) Irma May, b. June 6, 1890.
IV. May Ella, b. May 18, 1860: m. May 18, 1882,
Joseph Henry, son of Joseph S. and Charlotte
Chase of Maiden, Mass., child, Elmer Brown
Chase, b. April 6, 1884, d. July 22, 1884.
46 CHASE WHITCH^R AND
V. Carrie, b. March 15, 1862, d. June 30, 1865.
VI. Wilbur Cratts, b. May 22, 1864, m. June 15, 1898,
Lillian Little Noyes, daughter of Joseph M. an(J
Eliza J. (Crockett) Little, b. Warren, July 8^
1866. Reside in Warren.
VII. James Whitcher, b. October 12, 1871, m. August
12, 1892, Louise B., daughter of Alonzo and
Louise Caswell of Stoneham. Children, (1) Les-
lie Clayton, b. November 16, 1893 ; (2) Law-
rence Nickerson, b. October 28, 1903.
my-
CHILDKEN OF* EMERY B. AND AMARET WHITCHER
WHITE.
I. Lulu Frances, b. LandafF, June 9, 1864 : m. Febru-
ary 7, 1885, Homer C, sod of Cyrus and Abbie
Hay of Stoneham, Mass. One child, Dana Percy,
b. June 24, 1885, m. October 8, 1906, Mad-
eline Lemay.
II. Lewis Bailey, b. LandafF, September 18, 1865, m.
October 26, 1885, Isadore Frances, daughter of
William E. and Sarah A. Cook Weston, b. Read-
ing, Mass., March 22, 1865. Children, (1) Vera
Lewis, b. Woburn, Mass., April 6, 1887 ; (2)
Arthur Francis, b. Stoneham, Mass., July 7, 1889,
d. February 9, 1891 ; (3) Florence Mae, b. Stone-
ham, October 22, 1893 ; (4) William Emery, b.
Stoneham, Mass., December 19,1897; (5) Mil-
dred Evelyn, b. Stoneham, Mass., August 25,
1899; (6) Leon Weston, b. Cliftondale, Mass.,
MRS. LOUISA WHITCHER EASTMAN.
HIS DESOEJSTDANTS. 47
June 19, 1904; (7) Elsie Hazel, b. West New
York, N. J., January 10, 1907. Lewis B. White
is a book-keeper in New York City.
III. Elvah Grace, b, Landafl, December 7, 1867, d.
Stoneham, Mass., May 25, 1904.
79. Milton Durgin Whitcher, son of Charles H. and
Minerva Bowman Whitcher, b. Benton, October 5,
1869, m. Stoneham, Mass., August 15, 1906, Julia
Ellen, daughter of Calvin and Cecilia Fell Kinnear,
■b. in Sackville, New Brunswick, April 10, 1883.
Reside in Stoneham.
Children :
80. Milton, b. Stoneham, Mass., June 10,
1907.
(42). Louisa Whitcher, daughter of William and
Mary Noyes Whitcher, b. December 22, 1811, d. May 4,
1889 ; ra. March 1, 1841, Sylvester, son of James and
Polly Eastman, b. Coventry, August 3, 1814, d. January
19, 1860. After their marriage they resided in Piermont,
Benton, and in north-eastern New York, until about 1852,
when they returned to Benton. He was an invalid during
the last fifteen years of his life, and his care and support as
well as that of their children, fell largely to the lot of the
wife. She was a woman of great energy, who accepted al^
ways hopefully a life which abounded in toil and hardship.
She was a loyal and enthusiastic Methodist, as devoted and
loyal to her denomination as was her brother Amos to his,
the Free Will Baptist, and this was devotion and loyalty
indeed.
48 CHASE WHITCHER AND
CHILDREN OF SYLVESTER AND LOUISA WHITCHER
EASTMAN.
I. George Edward, b. Piermont, December 8, 1841 r mv
Ist, March 14, 1866, Rebecca W., daughter of
David and Azubah Judd Bronson, Children, (1)
Louisa Ellen, b. June 21, 1868 ; (2) Mary Eliza-
beth, b. May 20, 1874- She m. Ist, July 2, 1894,
William F. Policy of Quebec, P. Q., who d. in
New Mexico, September 17, 1895, m. 2d, June 6,
1906, Walter J. Trafton of Lynn, Mass, b. 1875,
8on of Edward S. and Lizzie A. Peckham Trafton.
George E. m. 2d, September 17, 1906, Susan S.
Clark, daughter of Sylvester and Lucretia Egule-
ston Clogston, b. 1840. Reside in North Haver-
hill, where he is engaged in farming and manufac-
ture of sleighs and wagons.
IL Ruth Jane, b. Benton, September 7, 1845, m. at
Benton, March 2, 1870, Charles A., son of Amos
L. and Mahala DollofF Veazey, b. Bridgewater,
March 23, 1842. Was a successful farmer in Ben-
ton for several years, but for the last fifteen years
has owned the country store at Benton, Mrs.
Veazey holding the position of post-mistress. They
have two children : 1 William Dana Veazey, b.
Benton, July 7, 1871, m. at Laconia, October 18,
1899, Winnifred Alice, daughter of Jefferson and
Mary Smith Gilbert. Children: (1) Alice
Winnifred, b. October 8, 1900, d. June 24, 1901 ;
(2) Allen Gilbert, b. March 18, 1903. 2 Jen-
nie F. Veazey, b. Benton, April 13, 1874, m. at
Benton, November 28, 1900, Willis Allen Brown
MOSES WHITCHER.
WARD P. WHITCHER. HENRY N. WHITCHER
HIS DESCENDANTS. 49
of Springfield, Vt. ; reside at Bellows Falls, Vt.,
one child, Donald Allen Brown. — William D.
Veazey graduated at New Hampton Institution,
studied law with Judge Charles F. Stone of Laeo-
uia. On his admission to the bar, became a member
of the law firm of Jewell, Owen and Veazey of that
city, having a large and lucrative practice. Has
been County Solicitor of Belknap County for three
terms, and in addition to his law business is exten-
sively engaged in lumbering, having an extensive
mill plant in Thornton in the Pemigewasset Valley.
HI. William Whitcher, b. in Jay, New York, November
14, 1850, came to Benton with his parents about
1852, where he has since resided : m. 1st, May 28,
1878, Georgie A. Aldrich of Haverhill, b. April 16,
1861 ; d. April 19, 1892 ; m. 2d, February 6, 1893,
Edna Ann Morse, widow of Josiah J. Eastman
and daughter of Welton and Mary Ann Morse of
Easton. William W. Eastman owns the farms
formerly owned by Moses and William Whitcher,
Jr., and later by Chase and Ira Whitcher, and has
been engaged in farming and lumbering. He has
been active in all the affairs of the town, has served
as selectman, road agent, tax collector, town clerk,
and was a member of the Constitutional Convention
of 1889. He is justly recognized as one of the
most influential citizens of his town.
(43). Winthrop Chandler Whitcher, son of William
and Mary (Noyes) Whitcher, b. February 20, 1813, d. in
Landafl, March 20, 1844: m. January 28, 1836, Mercy
50 CHASE WHITCHER AND
Priest Noyes, widow of Samuel Noyes, Jr., ot LandafF. She
died October 24, 1889.
After his marriage he resided until his death on the farm
in LandafF, owned in part by his wife, the farm where his
mother was born and which was cleared and settled by his
grandfather, Samuel Noyes. He was a man of stalwart
frame, capable of untiring energy, and his early death after a
brief illness from blood poisoning Caused by a slight wound,
terminated a career which gave promise of being greatly suc-
cessful. His wife was a woman of sterling qualities of char-
acter, evinced when twice widowed, by her training of, and
care for a family of young children, one of whom was born
subsequent to the death of her husband. She lived to see
all her children, by both her first and second husbands, set-
tled and established in homes of their own, and to be in some
measure repaid for her devoted care lavished upon them, by
a like loving care given her by them in her later years.
CHILDREN OF WINTHROP C. AND MERCY (PRIEST)
WHITCHER.
(All born in Landaff.)
Moses, b. December 10, 1836.
Ward Priest, b. December 27, 1837.
Henry Noyes, b. March 24, 1840.
Mary Jane, b. April 5, 1842, d. April 28, 1843.
Sarah H., b. Nov. 29, 1844, m. Sept. 21,
1862, Lafayette McConnell of Landaff.
Children : 1 N. Kate, b. Nov. 24, 1863, d.
Nov. 10, 1880 ; 2 b. June 10,
1865, d. June 25, 1865 ; 3 Mercy Ann, b.
November 7, 1867, d. September 3, 1868 ;
4. Erailie W., b. January 20, 1872.
81.
L
82.
n.
83.
m.
84.
IV.
85.
V.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 51
(81). Moses Whitcher^ son of Winthrop C. and Mercy
Priest Whitcher, b. December 10, 1836; d. in Lisbon,
April 30, 1903; m. 1st, June 5, 1861, Julia E., daughter
of Orrin and Lavina Wallace Bronson, b. LandafF, August
3, 1842, d. May 7, 1885 ; m. 2d, April 5, 1894, Amanda
S., daughter of John C. and Mary Simonds Atwood, b.
Landaff, April 6, 1852.
Until a year or two before his death, Moses Whitcher was
always a resident of LandafF, where he was a successful far-
mer, owning the farm upon which he was born, and which
had been cleared from the forest by his own great-grand-
father, Samuel Noyes. He was also engaged at various
times in lumbering operations, and was was one of the lead-
ing and influential citizens of the town. Though averse to
holding public office, he served for several years as one of
the selectmen, and filled all the various town offices. He
was a genuine type of the hard-working, successful New
Hampshire farmer, recognizing that success on hilly New
Hampshire soil is only accomplished by hard work.
CHILDREN OF MOSES AND LAVINA ( BRONSON ) WHITCHER.
(All born in Landaff.)
86. I. Pheeb. P., b. October 18, 1863, m. Daniel J.
Whitcher.
87. II. Maud, b. December 21, 1866, d. June 23, 1869.
88. III. Jennie N., b. January 27, 1871. Is a success-
ful teacher in the public schools of Quincy,
(82). Ward Priest Whitcher, son of Winthrop C.
and Mercy Priest Whitcher, b. December 27, 1837, d. in
Lisbon, May 14, 1892 : m. at Concord, September 8, 1859.
52 CHASE WHIT CHER AND
Pheeb H., daughter of Levi and Hannah Sanborn Perkins,
b. Loudon, September 16, 1837, d. in Lisbon, April 10,
1899.
Ward P. Whitcher graduated from New Hampton Insti-
tution in 1859, and soon after his marriage had charge of
the express and telegraph office at Tilton, remaining there
until 1866, when he established himself as a druggist in
Lisbon. Besides this he also conducted an extensive insu-
rance business, this being continued by his widow after his
death. He took an active part in the affairs of his village
and town, but being an uncompromising Democrat, political
preferment in the Republican stronghold of Lisbon did not
naturally fall to his lot. He was, however, twice elected
treasurer of Grafton County, and was one of the recognized
leaders of his party in the North Country. He was a
Mason, an Odd Fellow, and member of various fraternal
and benevolent orijanizations.
CHILDREN OF WARD P. AND PHEEB PERKINS WHITCHER.
89. I. Frank P., b. New Hampton, July 23, 1863.
90. n. Chase Roy, b. Lisbon, December 8, 1876.
(89). Frank P. Whitcher, son of Ward P. and Pheeb
Perkins Whitcher, b. New Hampton, July 23, 1863: m.
1886, Hattie Louise, daughter of Edward Dean of
Haverhill, b. 1858, d. in Lisbon in 1891. He resides in
the State of Washington. Daughter :
91. Edith Aldeane, b. Lisbon, May 6, 1887. She is a
stenographer, resides No. Haverhill.
(90). Chase Roy Whitcher, son of Ward P. and
Pheeb Perkins Whitcher, b. Lisbon, Dec. 8, 1876: m. July
MILTON D. WHITCHER. CHASE R. WHITCHER.
JOHN W. WHITCHER.
CHARLES C. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 53
20, 1898, Eda M., daughter of Foster M. and Susan M.
Cakes Aldrich, b. Lisbon, Sept. 4, 1876. Daughter:
92. Pheeb H., b, Lisbon, February 16, 1906.
Chase R. Whiteher pursued the study of architecture at
the Institute of Technology in Boston, and with private in-
structors in that city, and established himself in Manchester.
He has designed and furnished plans for some of the most
important public buildings in the state, is enthusiastically
devoted to his profession, and is recognized as one of the
leading and most successful architects of northern New
England. He resides in Lisbon and has his business office
in Manchester,
(83). Henry Noyes Whiteher, son of Winthrop C. and
Mercy Priest Whiteher, b. March 24, 1840: m. 1863,
Emilie E., daughter of John C. and Mary Simonds At-
wood, b. LandafF, February 21, 1845. He is a prosperous
farmer in his native town, his farm being a valuable and
productive one. His farm buildings are modern and de-
lightfully located, are among the finest in town.
CHILDREN OF HENRY N. AND EMILIE ATWOOD WHITCHER.
(All born in Landaff.)
Charles C, b. February 19, 1864.
Mary A., b. July 4, 1869 : m. June 17, 1896,
Harry E. Heath. They have one child,
Doris, b. Ponemah, December 30, 1902.
John Winthrop, b. September 9, 1876.
Stark F., b. December 24, 1878, d. May 22,
1897.
97. V. Mercy F., b. July 8, 1885.
93.
I.
94.
n.
95.
m.
96.
IV.
54 CHASE WHITCHER AND
(93). Charles C. Whitcher, son of Henry N. and
Emilie Atwood Whitcher, b. February 19, 1864 r ra. April
24, 1890, Carrie, daughter of Lorenzo D. and Lomira
Noyes Hall of LandafF. Son ;
98. Mark H., b. Woodsville, December &, 1894.
Charles C. Whitcher who is at present engaged in busi-
ness in the West, was ior two years, 1895-1896, treasurer
of the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank, when he re-
signed to go West ; later returned and in company with his
brother, John W., was engaged in the lumber business m
Vermont, later engaging in the insurance business at Lisbon.
(95). John Winthrop Whitcher, eon of Henry N. and
Emilie Atwood Whitcher, b. September 9, 1876 : m. June 22,
1898, Queenie, daughter of Oscar W. and Lydia O. Straw.
Has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber,
since attaining his majority, in Landaff, in Vermont, and
Woodstock.
(44). Samuel Whitcher, son of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. August 24, 1814, d. in Easton, Octo-
ber 8, 1879 : m. at Lisbon, May 4, 1840, Emily, daughter
of Joshua and Lydia Jesseman Quimby, b. Lisbon, January
25, 1818, d. in Easton, May 5, 1888.
Samuel Whitcher, after attaining his majority, was em-
ployed for a time on a farm in Bath, and about the time of
his marriage purchased the farm in Coventry formerly occu-
pied by John Atwell, and later known as the Stephen C.
Sherman farm, where he remained engaged in fatming until
about the year 1845, when he removed to East Landaff, now
SAMUEL WHITCHER.
HI8 DESCENDANTS. 55
Easton, where he engaged in farming and the manufacture
of lumber until his death. He was a man of unimpeachable
integrity, devoted to his family and home, industrious and
prudent, and secured by these qualities of character for him-
self and family a substantial competence. Denied by the
strenuous circumstances of his early life the. advantages of the
schools, he saw to it that the education of his children in the
common schools of his town was supplemented by academic
instruction, and lived to see them well established in life.
In religious matters he thought for himself, and accepted
from the kindness and goodness of his own nature the Uni-
versalist faith, shaming by his life and example many who
held to more rigid theological beliefs. A life-long Democrat
in his political faith, he never held public ofHce, but never,
on the other hand, shirked his duties as a citizen of his town
and community. He was a useful citizen, a good man.
CHILDREN OF SAMUEL AND EMILY QUIMBY WHITCHER.
99. I. Lydia Emily, b. in Benton, June 22, 1841 :
m. November 23, 1864, William Harvey
Policy, son of David and Mary Neal Polley,
b. Haverhill, June 22, 1841. They lived for
a time in Beverly, Mass., where W. H. Pol-
ley was engaged in the manufacture of shoes.
He sold his business in Beverley about 1870,
and went to Michigan to engage in the same
business. Later he removed to Montreal,
Canada, and later still to Quebec, where
for about thirty years he has been engaged
in the manufacture of shoes, doing for many
years a large and extensive business through-
out the Dominion. After the death of his
56 CHASE WHITCHER AND
son he disposed of his factories, and for the
few past years has been employed as superin-
tendent of a large shoe manufactory. Mr.
and Mrs. Polley are well and favorably
known in the English speaking community of
the French city, have been, as the apostle re-
marks, "given to hospitality," and Mrs. Pol-
ley is earnest and efficient in her charitable
and benevolent activities.
Their son, William Flint Polley, b. De-
cember 28, 1865, in Beverly, Mass., m. J>dy
21, 1894, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of
George E. and Rebecca Bronson Eastman,
b. May 20, 1874. He was associated in
business with his father until compelled to re-
linquish work because of ill health. He d.
in New Mexico, September 17, 1895, and
was buried in the family lot in the west ceme-
tery, Benton.
100. n. Betsey Samantha, b. Benton, February 5,
1844, m. February 10, 1869, William, son
of George and Electa Cowan Kendall, b.
Winchester, April 16, 1835. William Ken-
dall was engaged in business in New York
previous to his marriage, but subsequently
became a partner of his brother-in-law, D. J.
Whitcher in the lumber business, their mill
being situated on the Wild Ammonoosue in
Easton. They continued this very success-
fully until about 1890, when they sold their
mill and lands to the Fall Mountain Paper
DAVID S. WHITCHER.
DANIEL^ J. WHITCHER. CHARLES O. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDAJSJT8. 57
Co., and he retired from business purchasing
a small farm in Benton, where with his wife
he has since resided. He made extensive im-
provements on his residence, which is finely
located, conynanding one of the finest views
of hill and mountain in a town which is unsur-
passed among New Hampshire towns for its
beauty and charm of scenery. In politics he
is a staunch Republican, and has filled the
various town offices, besides representing
Benton in the legislature of 1897, the first
and only Republican ever elected as represen-
tative from that overwhelmingly Democratic
town. They have no children.
101. III. David Simeon, b. in East Landaff, now Eas-
ton, November 30, 1846, d. in Easton,
March 14, 1881. He graduated at New
Hampton Institution, and studied law in the
oflfice of Hon. Harry Bingham of Littleton.
Admitted to the bar, he began practice in
that town with good prospects, but failing
health compelled him to relinquish his profes-
sion, and he returned to his home in Easton
shortly before his death.
102. IV. Daniel James, b. Easton, February 2, 1849 :
m. February 1, 1894, Pheeb Perkins (86),
daughter of Moses and Julia E. (Bronson)
Whitcher of Landafl. They reside in Easton
on the former homestead of his father, Sam-
uel Whitcher. They have one child :
103. Lucile Betsey, b. Easton, August 11, 1897.
58 CHASE WHITGHER AND
Daniel J. Whitcher, was educated in the
schools of Easton, at Tilton Seminary, and
New Hampton Institution, and soon after
attaining his majority engaged in the lumber
business with his brother-in-law in Easton,
under the firm name of Whitcher & Kendall.
When this plant was sold to the Fall Moun-
tain Paper Co., and the partnership was dis-
solved, he purchased the mill and homestead
formerly owned by his father, and is still en-
gaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber.
He has served the town in various capacities,
and represented Easton in the legislature of
1878. He is a successful business man, giv-
ing careful attention to his business affairs,
and is devotedly attached to his family and
home, and is influential in all matters pertain-
ing to the interests of his town.
104. V. Charles Ora, b. Easton, November 21, 1852:
m. July 2, 1874, Josephine Viola, daughter
of Abner and Deborah Thompson Kimball,
b. Franklin, December 11, 1852. Reside in
\^'^ood8ville, have one daughter :
105 Kate Deborah, b. Easton, Febuary 13, 1885,
is engaged in the millinery business in
Woodsville.
Charles O. Whitcher, like his brothers, at-
tended the New Hampton Institution, and af-
ter his marriage engaged in the lumber
business with his father, in Easton, until he
entered the employ of the Boston, Concord &
HIS DESCENDANTS. 59
Montreal Railroad and removed to Woods-
ville about 1886, where he still resides.
Leaving the employ of the railroad in 1898,
he purchased the business of Stickney Bros.,
in what was known as the "Brick Store" in
Woodsville, which he conducted till the au-
tumn of 1903, when he closed the business
out, and has since been variously employed.
Is an active supporter of the Universalist
church, and is an Odd Fellow and a member
of the Masonic fraternity.
106. VI. Susan Editha, b. Easton, April 20, 1859 : m.
April 21, 1877, George Harvey, son of Jere-
miah A. and Lydia Howe Clark of Benton ;
d. in Benton, April 24, 1900. George H.
Clark began the practice of dentistry, but
abandoned it on account of his health and
purchased the Peter Howe farm in Benton,
opposite the residence of his brother-in-law,
William Kendall, where he still resides.
Since the death of his wife he has lived with
Mr. and Mrs. Kendall.
(45). Ira Whitcher, son of William and Mary Noyes
Whitcher, b. December 2, 1815, d. in Woodsville, Decem-
ber 9, 1897 : m. at Haverhill, November 27, 1843, Lucy,
daughter of Samuel and Dorcas Foster Royce, b. Haverhill,
October 11, 1814, d. Woodsville, September, 26, 1885.
Ira Whitcher had only the educational advantages of a
backwoods town, and only limited use of these, his school
education ending with a few weeks in each of two or three
60 CHASE WHITOHER AND
winters. There were few or no books accessible, and even
had there been plenty, he would have had little time for
reading. The few books to which he did have access, how-
ever, the Town Officer, the New Hampshire Statutes, the
Bible, Webster's Spelling book, and one or two of the old-
time readers, he knew, and with their aid obtained a practi-
cal if not liberal education. On reaching his majority he
entered the employment of his brother Moses, for whom he
worked six years for the compensation of twelve dollars and
a half a month and board. He clothed himself by extra
jobs, and saving his entire wages, purchased the farm on
which he lived until the spring of 1870, and built the house
in which he established his home in the autumn of 1843.
Becoming the administrator of the estate of his brother
Moses, on the death of the latter in the spring of
1846, he naturally became engaged in the lumber
business, which he successfully followed during the remain-
der of his life, farming becoming a secondary consideration.
He was a believer in the gospel of hard work and practiced
his belief. He was far-sighted, thrifty, practiced rigid
economy, but was also open-handed and public spirited.
He advocated liberal appropriations for roads, schools, and
other matters of interest to his town, and was a liberal sup-
porter of the institutions of the church. Although actively
identified with the Methodist Episcopal church, he was no
sectarian, and gave the other religious denominations of his
town his hearty support. He was elected one of the select-
men of Benton in 1842, and during the next twenty-nine
years was constantly in its service, holdmg at various times
every possible office, except that of superintending school
committee. He represented the town six times in the legis-
lature, served for six years as one of the Coramiasioners of
IRA WHITCHER.
ffI8 DESCENDANTS. 61
Grafton County, was a member of the Constitutional Con-
vention of 1850, and was one of the commission elected by
the legislature to supervise the rebuilding of the State House
in 1864. He was the agent of Benton for a series of years
in the management of litigation in which the town was en-
gaged, and was frequently appointed referee in cases to be
settled out of court. Benton had no resident lawyer, and he
did for his townsmen much of the work for which in the lar-
ger towns of the state, legal talent is employed. He was
conveyancer, writer of wills, administrator and executor of
estates, guardian of minors and insane, legal adviser in cases
involving large and small interests, and all this for the most
part with little or no compensation. In 1870 he removed to
Woodsville in order to be close to railroad facilities, but re-
tained and added to his landed interests in Benton, though a
few years previous to his death he sold several thousand
acres of forest to the Fall Mountain and Winnipesaukee
Paper Companies. He increased his lumber business, erect-
ing in company with the late Lewis C. Pattee a steam saw-
mill at Woodsville, and the year after his removal, erected
his commodious residence on Court Street, now occupied by
his son, William F. Whitcher. Woodsville in 1870 was
little more than a straggling collection of a dozen or more
houses, a store, and railroad station. To him more than to
any other individual was due its growth and prosperity dur-
ing the twenty-five years. Successful in business, he accu-
mulated a handsome property, and was in its use generous
and helpful to those needing aid, and was possessed of a
broad public spirit. He was largely instrumental in secur-
ing for the village its water works and electric light service,
the removal of the County seat from Haverhill Corner to
Woodsville, the erection of the substantial Court house on
62 CHA8E WHITCHER AND
the lot given by him to the county, the structure being built
under his personal supervision, the establishment of the Sav-
ings and National banks, while the Free Public Library
building with its thousand volumes of well selected books as
a beginning of a library, a Methodist Episcopal church
property free from debt, the gift of a fine pipe organ, and a
fund for the support of the church services are among the
monuments he left to his memory. On removing to Woods-
ville he made himself an active factor in Haverhill town life,
serving for several years on the board of selectmen, and rep-
resenting the town in the legislature of 1891, when he was
in his seventy-sixth year. In his political affiliations he was
a life-long Democrat, though during the war of the Rebel-
lion he was an ardent supporter of the war measures of the
administration, and gave of his time and energy to keep full
the quota of soldiers from his town, where opposition to the
war was rife. Given to hospitality, the latchstring to his
home was always out. After the death of his wife to whom
he was devotedly attached, in 1885, his daughter, Mrs.
Mary E. Whitcher Abbott, presided in his home until her
death, but a few months before his own. Reserved and
quiet in his manners, severely unostentatious in his mode of
life, hating pretence and indolence alike, his long life was
one of ceaseless activity. His integrity was never questioned,
and his tenacity of purpose was such that he knew no such
word as failure in the accomplishment of his plans.
CHILDREN OF IRA AND LUCY ROYCE WHITCHER.
(All born in Benton.)
107. I. William Frederick, b. August 10, 1845.
108. H. Mary Elizabeth, b. July 17, 1847, d. April 15,
1897: m. November 1, 1877, Chester, son
FRANK WHITCHER.
SCOTT WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 63
of Moses and Lucia Eastman Abbott of Bath,
b. October 13, 1850. She was educated in
the schools of her native town and at Newbury
and Tilton Seminaries. Devotedly attached
to her home, she remained a member of it
after her marriage, her husband entering the
employ of her father. She gave her parents
untiring care and service, and was a deserved
favorite in the social and religious circles of
the village. A lover of music, she was the
leading spirit of the church choir, and aside
from her home duties, was active in charitable
work. Childless herself, her home was a fa-
vorite resort of children, who cherished for
her the warmest affection. Her death fol-
lowed an illness of only a few days, and was
a blow most sadly felt by her aged father and
by her wide circle of relatives and friends.
109. III. Frank, b. June 21, 1849, d. November 7,
1875 : m. April 27, 1875, Lizzie A., daugh-
ter of Russell and Ann Walker King of
Haverhill, b. February 5, 1848, d. January
9, 1881.
Frank Whitcher, after a short time spent
in the business department of New Hampton
Institution, entered into business with his
father, but fell a prey to New England's
scourge, consumption, and died but a few
months after his marriage in his twenty-sev-
enth year.
64 0HA8E WHITCHER AND
110. IV. Scott, b. November 2, 1852, d. January 22,
1875. Was educated at Tilton Seminary and
the State Normal School, became clerk in the
National Bank of Newbury at Wells River,
Vt., retiring some months before his death on
account ot failing health. The summer of
1874 he spent in the Adirondacks, going to
Florida in the late fall in hope of warding off
what proved to be pulmonary consumption.
He lived but a brief month after his return
home in December, 1874.
(107). William Frederick Whitcher, eon of Ira and
Lucy Royce Whitcher, b. August 10, 1845 ; m. 1st, Decem-
ber 4, 1872, at Middletown, Conn., Jeannette Maria,
daughter of Dr. Ellsworth and Maria T. Haling Burr, b.
Middletown, Conn., December 6, 1845, d. Maiden, Mass.,
September 25, 1894; m. 2d, November 4, 1896, at Stone-
ham, Mass., Marietta Amanda, daughter of Darius and
Mary A. Dean Hadley, b. Woburn, Mass., July 21, 1858.
William F. Whitcher, on reaching his majority, abandoned
the saw mill and lumber yard, fitted for college at Tilton
Seminary in one year, entered Wesley an University, Mid-
dletown, Conn., in the autumn of 1867, graduating with the
class of 1871, with honors, Phi Beta Kappa rank, and win-
ning prizes for excellence in debate and oratory. Studied
theology in Boston University, joined the Providence, (now
the New England Southern) Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal church, and filled pastorates in South Yarmouth
and New Bedford, Mass., and Newport and Providence,
R. I. In 1881 he became a member of the staff of the
WILLIAM F. WHITCHER.
HIS DESC:E]SIDANT8. 65
Boston Traveller, and its editor-in-chief four years later.
In 1892 he became literary editor of the Boston Daily Ad-
vertiser, and three years later took charge of the court re-
ports, which have for many years been a special feature of
that paper. Resigning this position after the death of his
father, he removed to Woodsville, where he now resides.
Besides devoting himself to the affairs of the Ira Whitcher
estate, he is editor and proprietor of the Woodsville News,
and is actively engaged in literary work. Is especially in-
terested in genealogy, American local, and political hie^tory
and biography, and his collection of books and pamphlets
bearing upon these subjects is one of the most extensive and
valuable in the state. During his eighteen years residence
in Maiden, Mass., he served for nine years on the Maiden
School Committee, was its chairman, and took an active
part in political affairs. Since his removal to New Hamp-
shire he has been a member of the legislatures of 1901,
1903, 1905, 1907, serving each session on the Committee
on Judiciary, in 1903 on State Library, and in 1905 and
1907 on Banks. Has been trustee of the State Library
since 1903, of the Woodsville Free Library since 1898. Is
a trustee of the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank. Is
a member of the Masonic fraternity. New England Metho-
dist Historical Society, the New Hampshire Historical So-
ciety, Sons of the American Revolution, and other
organizations fraternal and literary. His political affilia-
tions have been with the Republican party since 1887. Has
one son :
111. Burr Roy ce Whitcher, M. D., son of William F.
and Jeanette M. Burr Whitcher, b. New Bedford,
Mass., November 6, 1878. Prepared for college
66 0HA8E WHITOHER AND
in the Maiden, Mass., High School, graduated from
Dartmouth College in the class of 1902, from the
Dartmouth Medical School, class of 1905. En-
gaged in hospital work in Boston, Mass., and
since 1906 has practiced his profession in that city.
Is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
(46). Sally Whitcher, daughter of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. May 25, 1817, d. in Bath, March 12,
1893: m. November 11, 1849, Amos, son of Daniel and
Lovisa Wilson, b. LandafF, August 29, 1826, d. Woods-
ville, November 20, 1906.
After their marriage they resided in Benton until about
1866, when they removed to Bath, purchasing a farm about
one mile from Swiftwater village, upon which they lived un-
til about 1886, when they purchased a farm nearer the vil-
lage, where Mrs. Wilson spent the remainder of her life.
This was subsequently sold, Amos Wilson making his home
thereafter with his daughters. Sally Wilson was a woman
of great strength of character, of cheerful disposition, of the
warmest sympathies, which found expression in a life filled
with helpfulness for others. Her life was one of rare un-
selfishness. Both her husband and herself were members of
the Methodist Episcopal church and their lives were consis-
tent with their profession.
CHILDREN OF AMOS AND SALLY WHITCHER WILSON.
(^All born in Benton.)
I. William Francis, b. April 27, 1852, d. Bath, May
11, 1873.
MRS. SALLY (WHITCHER) WILSON.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 67
II. Susan Mann, b. April 24, 1854: ni. Ist, January 15,
1873, Alvah E. Haywood of Haverhill ; 2d, Febru-
ary 26, 1891, Harvey Dean of Haverhill; 3d,
James M. Spinney of Woodsville. Have no chiL
dren. They reside in Woodsville.
III. George Mann, b. October 8, 1855, d. Benton, De-
cember 17, 1863.
IV. Alice Isabel, b. August 19, 1857: m. December 26,
1877, John Adams, son of George Ray and Susan
Gould Noyes, b. Walden, Vt., October 20, 1857.
they resided with her parents, purchasing the farm
about 1886. In 1903 they sold the ftirm and re-
moved to Woodsville, where they still reside, Mr.
Noyes being in the employ of the Boston & Maine
railroad. They have two children, both born in
Bath: (1) Leoua Agnes, b. June 11, 1880; (2)
George R., b. August 28, 1887.
47. Hannah Whitcher, b. April 4, 1819, d. July 21,
1896, in Woburn, Mass. : m. March 11, 1837, James
Austin, son of Samuel and Mary Howe Mann, b. LandafI,
August 13, 1816, d. Woburn, Mass., March 23, 1874.
For a few years after their marriage they resided in New-
bury, Vt., but in 1849 removed to Woburn, Mass., where
they resided until their death. Mr. Mann was a carpenter
and builder, and was engaged in building houses until within
a few months of his decease. The street upon which he re-
sided for the last eighteen years of his life, and where hie
widow lived till her death, bears his name, and the buildings
upon it were erected by him. They were among the ten
original members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of
Woburn, and Mrs. Mann was the last survivor of these.
68 CHASE WHITGHER AND
CHILDREN OF JAMES AUSTIN AND HANNAH WHITCHER
MANN.
I. George Henry, b. December 11, 1837, d. February
11, 1839. *
II. Moses Whitcher, b. Newbury, Vt., February 11,
1846.
III. Lucy Etta, b. Woburn, Mass., October 14, 1855.
Unmarried. Resides in Lexington, Mass.
IV. Abbie Louise, b. Woburn, Mass., January 16, 1860;
m. June 11, 1885, Simeon Edgar of Woburn^
Mass., b. February 15, 1849, in Harwich, Mass.,
son of Simeon and Betsey Smith Kendrick. He is
a leather dresser, and they resided at Woburn until
1901, when they removed to Sault Ste. Marie,
Mich., where they still reside. They have no chil-
dren.
(II). Moses Whitcher Mann, son of James A. and
Hannah Whitcher Mann, m. June 20, 1870, Elizabeth
Jenkins Clapp, b. Boston, Mass., November 16, 1847,
eldest daughter of Samuel Socrates and Tryphena (Clapp)
Holton of Winchester, Mass. Moses W. Mann engaged in
business with his father as a builder, for some two years
after reaching his majority. At the time of his marriage was
in charge of improvements in the western part of Medford,
building the first house in the section then opening up, now
almost entirely filled with residences, many of which were
erected by him, a section now one of the most attractive of
the city. He has been actively engaged in building, and
has nearly all the years since been a resident of West Med-
ford, doing much to promote its growth and prosperity. He
MRS. HANNAH WHITCHER MANN.
HI8 DESCENDANTS. 69
is a member of the Medford Historical Society, and was one
of the founders of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, bear-
ing heavy burdens in its early years of growth and develop-
ment. Their children were all born in West Medford,
Mass:
(1). James Whitcher, b. March 13, 1871, m. May 29,
1895, Christina, daughter of Thomas and Isabella
Clarke, b. Halifax, N. S., January 6, 1874.
Reside Glens Falls, N. Y. They have children :
1, Mildred Isabella, b. West Medford, Mass.,
September 7, 1896; 2, William Holton, b. West
Medford, Mass., August 3, 1901 ; 3, Grace Eliza-
beth, b. Glens Falls, N. Y., June 13, 1904.
(2). Georgianna Holton, b. February 7, 1874: m.
December 16, 1896, Harvey Scott, son of Dana
Francis and Adella Maria Bacon of Lexington,
Mass. Is real estate agent and lives at Arlington
Heights, Mass.
(3). Mabel Maria, b. July 22, 1875 : m. Charles C, son
of Hopkins H. and Mary Toppan Meloon of Med-
ford, Mass. Is a glass-worker, resides Medford
Hillside, Mass. They have children : 1, Ivy Car-
men, b. November 1, 1895; 2, Myrtle May, b.
September 6, 1898 ; 3, Ernest, b. May 6,
1900, d. May 12 ; 4, Everett, b. May 6, 1900, d.
May 6.
(4). Franklin Merritt, b. Feb. 13, 1879: m. August 6,
1902, Mabel, daughter of George and Mabel
Pitts. Is an architect. Resides in Kansas City,
Missouri.
70 CHASE WHITCHER AND
(5). Ruby Grace, b. March 7, 1880. Milliner in Glens
Falls, N. Y.
(6) David Whitcher, b. September 17, 1887.
Ohase Whitcher, son of William and Mary Noyes
Whitcher, b. January 20, 1822, d. Benton, May 4, 1883 :
m. June 3, 1848, Sarah Royce Whitcher, widow ot his
brother Moses (39), b. Landaff, October 19, 1813, d. Con-
cord, February 17, 1878.
Chase Whitcher, the third to bear that name, was during
his active and energetic life one of the most prominent and
influential citizens of his native town. He was, after his
marriage, engaged extensively in farming, and also in the
lumber business in partnership with his brother Ira, until
about 1857, and thereafter, until his death, conducted suc-
cessfully a large business of his own. He owned, in whole
or in part, several sawmills on the Wild Ammonoosuc in
LandafF, now Easton, as well as in Benton, and was also a
large owner of real estate. Of a generous, impulsive dis-
position, with warm sympathy for those in distress or in
need of financial assistance, he was the constant helper of
many, who in their shiftlessness and improvidence abused
his friendship and generosity. He became for this very rea-
son in his later years, involved in expensive litigation,
which seriously affected the value of his otherwise large
property. He represented Benton six times in the state leg-
islature, in 1852, '53, '65, '66, '69 and '70, and was, during
a period of more than twenty-five years, almost continuously
in the service of his town in various capacities, such as town
clerk, postmaster, and selectman. He was a liberal sup-
porter of the Methodist Episcopal church of which his wife
CHASE WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 71
was a devoted member, and was always ready to promote
any movement which he believed to be for the welfare and
prosperity of the community. In his political affiliations he
was a life-long Democrat, was active in the councils of his
party, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with politicians
and men in public life. In 1875 he removed his family to
Concord, erecting a house on Court Street, now owned by
his daughter, Mrs. Edward F. Mann. Much of his own
time was, however, spent in Benton, where he still retained
large property interests, and where in his old home his last
illness and death occurred in 1883.
CHILDREN OF CHASE AND SARAH ROYGE WHITCHER.
(All horn in Benton.)
112. L Frances Catherine, b. August 22, 1849, d.
Woodsville, October 4, 1889. Was a grad-
uate of Tilton Seminary, an accomplished mu-
sician, greatly beloved by a large circle of
friends for rare and loveable qualities of char-
acter. Was unmarried.
113. 11. Elvah Geneva, b. November 19, 1850, m.
Providence, R. I., January 10, 1881, Ed-
ward Foster, son of George W. and Susan
Whitcher Mann, b. Benton, September 7,
1845, d. Concord, August 19, 1892. She
graduated at Tilton Seminary, and after her
marriage resided in Concord, then for a time
in Woodsville, returning to Concord, where,
since the death of her husband in 1892, she
still resides. Is a member of St. Paul's
72 0HA8E WHITCHER AJSFD
Episcopal church, and enjoys a wide acquain-
tance in church and social circles. Her only
daughter, Marian, died in 1896.
114. III. Hannah, b. November 15, 1853, d. October
15, 1854.
(50). Mary Whitcher, dauj^hter of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. October 28, 1823, d. Lisbon, March
31, 1895 : m. June 1, 1841, Jason, son of John Smith and
Sally Boynton Titus of Lyman ; b. Lyman, September 25,
1814, d. Lisbon, September 3, 1895.
Immediately after her marriage, she went to reside with
her husband on the farm in Lyman, about a mile and a half
from the village of Lisbon, owned by his father, and which
became her husband's on the death of his parents. Their
seven children were born there, and received their education
in the Lisbon schools. Mr. Titus was a successful farmer?
and about 1880, disposed of his farm and took up his resi-
dence in Lisbon village. His wife was a woman of great
energy of character, and her devotion to her church, the
Methodist Episcopal, was second only to her devotion to
her family. The church in Lisbon never had more loyal,
enthusiastic, self-sacrificing supporters than Jason and Mary
Whitcher Titus.
CHILDREN OF JASON AND MARY WHITCHER TITUS.
(All born in Lyman.)
1. Charles Harvey, b. October 25, 1842, d. West Som-
erville, Mass., April 24, 1906: m. January 1,
1865, Lizzie J. Brisson of Boston.
Charles Harvey Titus, on reaching his majority,
went to Boston, entering the employ of an express
MRS. MARY (WHITCHER) TITL
HIS DESCENDANTS. 73
company, and running as messenger for some
years between Boston & Albany. About 1869, he
went West and was conductor on several railroads,
residing a part of the time in Iowa, and in Colo-
rado. He came East about 1894, and entered the
employ of the Concord & Montreal railroad, and
later of the Boston & Maine, becoming night super-
intendent of the North Union station, until fail-
ing health compelled his resignation a few months
before his death. He was an efficient railroad
man, of fine personal presence, deservedly popular
with his associates, and his long railroad service
both in the East and West gave him a large range
of personal acquaintance. His children — (1) Mary
Elizabeth, deceased; (2) Charles H., deceased;
(3) Jay Sterling Morton, b. July 13, 1875 ; (4)
Bessie, b. July 9, 1880. Jay Sterling Morton
resides with his mother in North Deering, a suburb
of Portland, Me.
2. Holman Drew, b. August 31, 1845, m. November
7, 1871, Mary A., daughter of John C. and Mary
Simonds Atwood, b. LandafF, October 19, 1847.
Is a prosperous farmer in Landaflf. They have
three children : (1) Lizzie, b. LandafF, Novem-
ber 14, 1877, m. October 25, 1898, George F.
Clement of Landaff . He is a farmer ; represented
Landaff in the legislature of 1907. Have one
child, Edgar T., b. January 30, 1901. (2) Clara,
b. LandafF, February 16, 1881 ; m. June 3, 1902,
Gerald T. Clark. They have one child : Neal, b.
May 18, 1903. (3) Harry, b. June 17, 1890.
74 CHASE WHITCHER AND
3. Herman Prescott, b. December 2, 1848, d. Lisbon,
October 19, 1889. Was a machinist and inventor.
Was unmarried.
4. George Wendell, b. November 14, 1850, d. Low-
ell, Mass., February 11, 1901 ; m. Ist, at
Amesbury, Mass., March 13, 1877, Ida M.,
daughter of William and Rebecca Jones of Ames-
bury ; d. March 9, 1881. They had one child,
Cora F., b. January 12, 1879; m. 2nd, at
Amesbury, December 28, 1882, Mattie J. Run-
nels. They had three children : (1) Mary Ethel,
b. March 13, 1884, m. November 22, 1905,
Charles D. Kidder of Lowell ; (2) Oscar Bradford,
b. February 8, 1886; (3) Jason Wendell, b.
August 6, 1894.
George W. Titus was in the nickel plating busi-
ness for several years at Amesbury and later at
Lowell. Was a man greatly respected and an
active member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
His widow and children reside in Lowell, Mass.
5. Theron Woolson, b. May 27, 1855, m. May 10,
1877, Emma E., daughter of James Clough of
Lyman. They have three children: (1) Grace
May, b. June 15, 1878, m. July 5, 1903, Frank
Rymes, and have one son ; (2) Florence E., b,
March 7, 1885; (3) Ardelle, b. February 10,
1891. Theron W. Titus resides in Ayer, Mass.
6. Fred Milon, b. August 20, 1860, m. let, Eva A.
Wheelock and they had two children : (1) Mabelle
Frances, b. December 4, 1882 ; (2) Herman Eu-
HIS DESCENDANTS. 75
gene, b. February 23, 1885. He m. 2nd, Mary
Rogers, and they have one daughter, Irene. He
is now in the employ of one of the largest electrical
plants in the world at Schenectady, N. Y., where
he now resides.
7. Bertha May, b. December 13, 1864, m. at Lowell,
Mass., August 30, 1899, Gardner, son of Henry
C. J. Wills, b. May 20, 1859, in Salem, Me.
He is a clerk and bookkeeper and they reside in
Lowell, Mass.
(51). Susan Whitcher, daughter of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. May 20, 1825, d. Benton, October 6,
1854; m. January, 1843, George W., son of Samuel and
Mary Howe Mann, b. LandafF, February 19, 1821, d. Ben-
ton, January 6, 1901.
Mrs. Mann was a woman of most attractive personality,
and her early death in her thirtieth year, leaving five young
children, was a sad blow, not only to her own immediate
family, but to a large circle of devoted friends. Her husband
resided in Benton till his death, and was one of the leading
citizens of the town. He filled at different times all the vari-
ous town offices, was six times elected to the state legisla-
ture, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1876,
and served for several years as a member of the State Board
of Agriculture. He was a Universalist in his religious
belief, and an enthusiastic Democrat. For years the con-
ventions of his party would hardly have recognized them-
selves as such except for his presence. He combined the
business of carpenter and builder with that of farmer, and he
had large real estate interests in Woodsville.
76 CHASE WHITCHER AND
CHILDREN OF GEORGE W. AND SUSAN WHITCHER MANN.
{All born in Benton.^
1. Ezra Bartlett, b. November 2, 1843, m. January 7,
1868, Ellen Sarah, daughter of George W. and
Sarah Glazier Bisbee of Haverhill, b. August 8,
1844.
Ezra B. Mann entered the employ of the Boston,
Concord & Montreal Railroad in 1863, and re-
mained with the road in the capacity of freight
conductor until 1872, when he entered into part-
nership with George S. Cummings in the drug
business in Woods ville, under the firm name of
E. B. Mann & Co., and has since continued in
this business. Besides the regular business of a
druggist, he is also a dealer in paints and oils,
drain pipe, explosives, wall paper, newspapers,
periodicals and stationery, his store being one of
the largest and best appointed in the North Country.
He has been an active promoter of every enter-
prise which has led to the rapid growth and devel-
opment of Woodsville. He has served the town
of Haverhill for several years on the board of select-
men, represented it for two years in the legislature,
and is one of the recognized leaders of the Demo-
cratic party in the state. He was one of the organ-
izers of the Woodsville Aqueduct and Electric
Light Company and is its president. Has been a
trustee of the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank
from its organization and for several years its pres-
ident. He is president of the Woodsville Opera
Building Association, and has been its manager
EZRA B. MANN.
GEORGE HENRY MANN. ORMAN L. MANN.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 77
since the large and commodious opera block was
erected. His residence is one of the finest in the
village and he is a large owner of real estate. He
is an Odd Fellow, Elk, a 33d degree Mason, raem-
ber of the Raymond consistory, Scottish rite, and
of New Hampshire's most famous military organi-
zation, the Amoskeag Veterans. He has visited
all sections of the country and enjoys a wide
acquaintance with prominent men. Has five child-
ren, all born in Woodsville :
(1). George Edward, b. May 7, 1874. Resides in
Woodsville, and is superintendent of the Aqueduct
and Electric Light Co, Is a Knight Templar and
member of other fraternal organizations.
(2). Ira Whitcher, b. January 8, 1877, m. Janu-
ary 8, I90I, Josephine, daughter of Frank E. and
Nellie E. Kibbie Thayer, b. Manchester, July 5,
1879. They have two children: 1, Margaret
Burns, b. October 22, 1901 ; 2, Luvia Jeanette,
b. April 30, 1905. Resides in Woodsville and is
member of the firm of E. B. Mann & Co.
(3). Harry Bingham, b. April 22, 1880; is in
employ of Boston & Maine R. R. ; locomotive
fireman.
(4). Luvia Ellen, b. April 1, 1884; graduate of
"V^'oodsville High School and Emerson School of
Oratory, Boston ; is instructor in elocution, and
has fine reputation as reader.
(5). Henry Carbee, b. July 21, 1886; graduate of
Woodsville High School, and Clark University,
Worcester, Mass., class 1907. Will study law.
78 OHASE WHITCHER AND
2. Edward Foster, b. September 7, 1845, d. Concord,
August 19, 1892; m. Providence, R. I., January
10, 1881, Elvah G. (112), daughter of Chase and
Sarah Royce Whitcher, b. November 19, 1850.
They had one child, Marian, b. February 13, 1882,
d. November 5, 1896.
Edw^ard F. Mann was educated in the schools of
his native town and at Tiiton Seminary. Entered
the employ of the Boston, Concord & Montreal
Railroad in 1865, in the passenger service; was
baggage-master, conductor, train despatcher at Con-
cord, assistant superintendent with office at Woode-
ville, and after consolidation of the road with the
Concord, under the name of Concord & Montreal,
was general superintendent of the system with
office at Concord, until his death, w^hich followed
an illness of several months from pulmonary con-
sumption. Of genial manners, thoughtful always
for others, he was recognized as one of the most
popular of railroad conductors and efficient of rail-
road officials during his long term of railroad ser-
vice. No one, however lowly his position, ever
asked a reasonable favor of "Ed" Mann and was
denied. A Democrat in his political affiliations,
he stood high in the councils of his party, and was
known as one who did things when he undertook
them. He represented Benton in 1871 and 1872
in the New Hampshire House, the North Country
senatorial district twice in the State Senate, was
the candidate of his party for Congress in 1888,
and ran largely ahead of his ticket, being defeated
only by a narrow plurality in a district strongly
Republican.
EDWARD F. MANN.
HI8 DESCENDANTS. 79
3. George Henry, b. February 19, 1848; m. January
26, 1874, Elnora, daughter of David and Myra
Clifford Gove, b, Wentworth, December 9, 1850.
G. Henry Mann entered the employ of the Bos-
ton, Concord & Montreal Railroad in 1869, and
remained in its service as freight, cattle train and
passenger train conductor for a period of thirty-two
years, when he left in 1901 to become a partner
with his son, Fred H., in the business of a general
store in Woodsville, under the firm name of Mann
& Mann. He is a Democrat of the radical variety,
who never hesitates to express his opinion of cor-
porate trusts and monopolies. He represented
Haverhill in the legislature of 1885, being elected
after a prolonged contest, while there was no elec-
tion for the other representative to which the town
was entitled. Of his seven children, all born in
Woodsville, five are living :
(1). Luna Ardelle, b. October 22, 1874; d. Octo-
ber 22, 1875.
(2). Fred Henry, b. July 6, 1876; m. .Tune 16,
1900, Daisy Margaret, daughter of Frank and
Laura Richardson Colby, b. Lunenburg, Vt.,
December 5, 1881. Is in business in Woodsville
with his father, under the firm name of Mann &
Mann.
(3). Eda Frances, b. January 1, 1879 ; d. March 9,
1907; m. September 4, 1901, Dr. Selwyn K.,
son of Kenson E. Dearborn of Bristol, b. Septem-
ber 10, 1879.
80 CHASE WHITCHER AND
(4). Ada Myra, b. December 25, 1881. Is a teacher
in the public schools of Concord.
(5). Harley Elmer, b. October 21, 1883 ; m. Octo-
ber 9, 1905, Martha Alvina, daughter of William
and Sarah Smalley Hardy, b. Haverhill, December
29, 1885. Train despatcher, Woodsville.
(6). Scott Whitcher, b. December 9, 1885; is a
student in Dartmouth College.
(7). Ida, b. January 15, 1894.
4. Osman Oleander, b. December 18, 1852; d. Octo-
ber 20, 1870.
5. Orman Leander, b. December 18, 1852; m. De-
cember 24, 1873, Ella Josephine, daughter of
Benjamin and Aurilla Bisbee Haywood, b. Novem-
ber 30, 1852. Is a prosperous farmer in Benton
and prominent citizen of the town. They have one
child: Grace May, b. November 18, 1876; m.
Ist, June 30, 1896, Charles P., son of Charles T.
and Sarah Pike Collins. Two children ; Eva F.,
b. February 8, 1900, and Osman M., b. July 18,
1902; m. 2d, July 17, 1904, Charles C, son of
Alfred E. and Mary Clark Tyler. Reside in
Benton.
(52) . Daniel Whitcher, son of William and Mary Noyes
Whitcher, b. January 20, 1827, d. March 2, 1894; m.
October 20, 1850, Nancy Royce, daughter of Francis and
Catherine Moore Knight, b. July 27, 1829.
Daniel Whitcher was a marked personality, of fine physi-
cal presence, and endowed with an aggressive activity, he
made himself felt as a potential factor in whatever circle he
DANIEL WHITOHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS.
moved. On reaching the estate of manhood he associated
himself in business with his father, who then resided on the
homestead farm in Benton. They were also owners of a
saw-mill on the Wild Ammonoosuc in the town of Landaff,
where they afterwards resided and where a hamlet grew up
subsequently known as Whitcherville. The value of this
saw-mill and other property depended upon the construction
of a highway down the Wild Ammonoosuc valley, giving the
products of this locality, and of others up the river in a sec-
tion of the town known as "Bunga," access to markets. The
opening up of the highway was the reasonable thing, and it
now seems strange that the towns of Landaff and Bath ever
opposed its construction. Daniel Whitcher became the chief
party to the litigation caused by the petition for the road, and
fought through a period of twelve years the controversy to a
successful issue, the road being constructed in 1860. This
was perhaps the most famous road case ever known in
Northern New Hampshire, and there is little doubt that the
towns involved on the one hand, and the petitioners on the
other, expended money enough during the process of the con-
troversy to have built the road two or three times over. The
litigation became a dominant factor in the politics of several
towns for years, and much bitterness of feeling was engen-
dered. Daniel Whitcher was also engaged in the manufac-
ture of potato starch at a mill which he owned in Whitcher-
ville, and at several other mills which he owned wholly or in
part in Bath and Haverhill. He was part owner in a tan-
nery which was in successful operation for several years, and
he also opened and conducted a general store. In his varioua
activities he was always aggressive, resourceful, never a quit-
ter and usually a winner. Upon the decadence of the potato
starch industry and the abandonment of the tannery busi-
82 CHASE WHITGHER AND
nes8 he removed with his family from Whitcherville to Bath,
purchasing a valuable farm property near " Rum Hill," and
carried on an extensive lumber business until a short time
before his death. He was an ardent and devoted advocate of
the Unitarian faith, and was the prime mover in the organi-
zation of the Unitarian Society in Bath, and the erection of
its house of worship. In politics he was a Democrat. He
represented Benton in the legislature of 1858 and 1859, his
election each time being the result of a heated and bitter
" Bunga Road " campaign, in which he won out by a single
vote over the late George W. Mann. After his removal to
Landaff and the termination of the road controversy, he rep-
resented that town in the legislature, though he had spent
the energy of years and much money in fighting the town,
not only in road case, but also in its finally successful efforts
to secure a division into two townships. His widow resides
with her daughter in Salem, Mass.
CHILDREN OF DANIEL AND NANCY R. KNIGHT WHITCHER.
115. I. Kate Kiamesh, b. Benton, May 16, 1853; d.
Landaflf, December 20, 1880. Was a gradu-
ate of Tilden Seminary, West Lebanon, and
a successful teacher.
116. II. Moses Knight, b. Benton, November 28, 1855 ;
d. Landaflf, April 9, 1862.
117. III. Nellie Grace, b. Benton, October 22, 1857;
m. September 3, 1888, John D. H., son of
Stephen and Rebecca G. Gauss of Salem,
Mass., b. January 4, 1861. Mr. Gauss is
proprietor of the Saturday Evening Observer
and an extensive job printing establishment in
BURR ROYCE WHITCHER. LAMAR WHITCHEK
GEORGE L. KIBBIE. SCOTT WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 83
Salem. He is interested in political affairs, is
one of the leading members of the Republican
party in his section of the state, and has rep-
resented his city in the Massachusetts House
and his Essex district in the Massachusetts
Senate. They have three children : (1) «Tohn
Whitcher, b. April 1, -1890; (2) Katherine
Ferncroft, b. February 25, 1892. (3) Grace
Josephine, b. June 1, 1894. They reside in
Salem, Mass.
118. IV. Elizabeth Rowena, b. Benton, July 16, 1859;
m. December 20, 1881, Charles E. George,
son of Isaac K. George. She has two child-
ren : (1) Lamar, b. September 15, 1882.
(2) Scott, b. June 5, 1884. She resides
with her mother and her two sons, who have
taken the name of Whitcher, in Salem, Mass.
118.* Lamar Whitcher is in the employ of the New
England Telephone and Telegraph Co., hav-
ing supervision of the offices in Northern New
England.
118.** Scott Whitcher is private secretary to the
trustee of the estate of the late Matthew
Stickney of Salem.
119. V. Carrie Ardelle, b. Landaff, July 6, 1861.
Artist, unmarried ; resides in Boston.
120. VI. Josephine Lucy, b. Landaff, April 8, 1863 ; d.
Salem, May 10, 1907.
121. VII. Ira Dana, b. Landaff, October 4, 1865 ; d.
Landaff, February 14, 1867.
84 OHASE WHITOHER AND
122. VIII. Mary Belle Bailey, b. Landaff, February 10,
1869; m. in Bath, May 24, 1891, William
v., son of George and Mary Hill Ashley, b.
Milton, Vt., May 26, 1864. Reside in
Woodsville. Mr. Ashley is train despatcher
in the Woodsville railroad office, and his wife
conducts a successful millinery business. They
have one son, Daniel Whitcher, b. March 15,
1894.
123. IX. Dan Scott, b. Landaff, November 22, 1873 ;
d. Bath, May 17, 1878.
(53). David Whitcher, son of William and Mary
Noyes Whitcher, b. June 17, 1828 ; m. February 23, 1853,
Sally Ann, daughter of Amos and Huldah Bronson Noyes,
b. Landaff, December 29, 1829. He engaged at first in
farming in Benton, but just before his marriage purchased
the Moses Noyes farm near North Haverhill Village, which
he owned for nearly fifty years, and was recognized as one
of the most successful farmers in Haverhill, the banner farm-
ing town of the state. He never devoted himself exclusively
to any single line of farming, always watching his opportu-
nity and devoting his acres to that which offered the greatest
profit. During the war of the rebellion, when wool was
nearly dollar wool, he utilized nearly all his farm facilities
in sheep raising, but when wool growing was less productive
his farm became a dairy. He proved that farming, even
in Northern New Hampshire, can be made to pay. A few
years since he purchased a fine estate in North Haverhill
village, where he has since resided, and a little later retiring
from active farming, has devoted himself to looking after his
investments. He forms his own opinions, is a man of
DAVID WHITCHER.
MRS. PHEBE M. (WHITCHER) BROOKS.
HIS DESCENDANTS, 85
decided convictions, political, temperance and religious ,
which he never hesitates to avow. He has never been
candidate for public office, is a Democrat, a prohibitionist,
a Methodist Episcopalian. He has been a trustee of the
Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank from its organization.
Is the last survivor of the sixteen children of William
Whitcher.
CHILDREN or DAVID AND SALLY A. NOYES WHITCHER.
{Born in North Haverhill,)
124. I. Quincy Noyes, b, December 14, 1853 ; d.
April 1, 1864.
125. n. Hattie Blanche, b. March 28, 1860; m. Sim-
eon Sanborn. She lived after her marriage for
some years in Contoocook, but a few years since
returned to North Haverhill and established
herself in a pleasant home presented to her by
her father. She has three children : (1) Roy
E., b. October 29, 1894; (2) Carl R., b.
February 19, 1896; (3) Marion L., b.
November 22, 1898.
(54). Phehe Marston Whitcher, daughter of William
and Mary Noyes Whitcher, b. February 24, 1831 ; d. Bos-
ton, June 4, 1870 ; m. in Woburn, Mass., Moseley N., son of
Timothy and Eveline Grimes Brooks of Franconia. They re-
sided in Woburn until 1869, when they removed to Boston.
She was a woman of attractive personality, a favorite in her
family and the social circles of which she was a member. She
was a member of the First Congregational Church in
Woburn.
S6 CHASE WHITCHER AND
CHAPTER V.
DESCENDANTS OF JACOB AND SARAH RICH-
ARDSON WHITCHER.
(55). Dorcas Whitcher, daughter of Jacob and Sarah
Richardson Whitcher, b. July 10, 1814 ; d. 1873 ; m. about
1841, Joseph Chandler of Lisbon. For the most part of
their married life they lived in the towns of Landaff and Lis-
bon. They were hard-working, honest. God-fearing people,
respected by their neighbors in the communities in which
they lived, lacking only in the "faculty" of becoming fore-
handed. They had five children :
1. Joseph, Jr., b. Lisbon, December, 1843 ; d. White-
field, March 26, 1906; m. March, 1881, Nancy
Jane, daughter of Adams and Mary Morris Streeter
of Lisbon, b. May 16, 1856. Joseph Chandler,
Jr., enlisted August 13, 1862, in Company G,
Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers, and was
honorably discharged July 6, 1865. He was
severely wounded in the battle of Fredericksburg,
December 13, 1862, and was transferred to the
invalid corps September 17, 1863, rendering
service there until his discharge. His widow
resides in Lisbon.
2. George, b. 1846, d. 1897 ; m. Ellen Blair of Haver-
hill. They had two children : George, who \%
deceased, and Lona, who is living.
MRS. DORCAS WHITCHER CHANDLER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 87
3. Ellen, b. 1848 ; in. Noble Donahoe of Littleton,
where she resided until her death.
4. Mary. 5. Martha. Neither of the latter married
and both died in their young womanhood, Martha
having fitted herself for teaching, and was engaged
as a teacher at the time of her death. None of
the family are now living. The family record had
been carefully kept in the family bible belonging
to Dorcas Chandler, and was in the possession of
her daughter, Ellen, whose home in Littleton was
destroyed by fire a short time before her death. It
has been impossible to obtain anything like a satis-
factory record of the family.
(56). Levi Morrill Whitcher, son of Jacob and Sarah
Richardson Whitcher, b. Warren, October 29, 1815 ; d.
Manchester, March 3, 1883; m. Bradford, Vt., Mrs. Eliza
(Simonds) Niles, daughter of Elizur and Susan Jenkins
Simonds, b. Bradford, Vt., January 14, 1815 ; d. Manches-
ter. March 18, 1907.
Levi M. Whitcher suffered from an attack of scarlet fever
when about eighteen months old, from the results of which
he became a deaf mute. When about eighteen years of age
he attended school at the A-inerican Asylum for the Educa-
tion and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb at Hartford, Conn.,
where he obtained a good common school education, and
learned his trade of cabinet maker, which he followed during
life. He was a good workman, an intelligent citizen, who
kept himself well informed of the events of the day, and was
devoted to his family. Availing himself of the best oppor-
tunities offered for work at his trade, he lived in Bradford,
Vershire and Chelsea, Vt., in Warren, Orford, Lyme and
88 CHASE WHIT CHER AND
Tilton, N. H., and Quincy, Mass., finally locating in Man-
chester, where he died. His widow, a woman of great force
of character, survived him by nearly twenty - five years,
retaining her mental faculties to a remarkable degree until
just before her death in her 93d year. She was survived by
two daughters, four grand-children, four great-grand-child-
ren, and a half brother, State Senator Elizur Southworth of
Illinois, ten years younger than herself. She was the grand-
daughter of Indian and Revolutionary War soldiers ; her
father fell in the war of 1812, and she gave two sons by
her former husband to the war for the union.
CHILDREN OF LEVI MORRILL AND ELIZA SIMONDS
WHITCHER.
12Ik I. Emma Jane, b. Vershire, Vt., December 16,
1849.
She m. 1st, Howard Kibbie. They had one
child, George Levi Kibbie, b. Tilton, October
16, 1866 ; m. 1st, Emily J. Elkins of Man-
sonville, P. Q., who died in 1904. He m.
2d, Olive M. Porter, of Manchester, N. H.
They have no children. Reside in Manches-
ter. He '8 and has been for some years city
editor of the Manchester Union.
Emma Jane, m. 2d, A. W. Hayford.
Reside in Manchester. They have two child-
ren :
(1) Albert H. b. July 4, 1870. He has been
twice married ; 1st to Hattie Wingate of Man-
chester. Two children : George Harold, b.
LEVI M. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 89
Manchester, March 10, 1892 ; 2 Warren
Clinton, b. Manchester, October 2, 1893 :
m. 2(1, Minnie O. Cummings of Roxbury,
Mass. Two children : 1, Mildred Cora, b.
Boston, September, 1903 ; 2, Nellie Louise,
b. Boston, September, 1905. They reside in
South Lyndeboro.
(2) Nellie Mabel, b. Quincy, Mass., March 13,
1873 ; m. John Wesley Smith of Manches-
ter. They have no children.
127. II. Sarah Ellen, b. Chelsea, Vt., January 12,
1851 ; m. Clarence Leslie, eldest son of Gil-
bert and Abigail Robinson Jeffers of Orford.
They lived in Orford till about 1877, when
they removed to Manchester, residing there
until 1905, when they removed to New Bos-
ton, where they now reside. They have one
child, Emma Frances, b. Manchester, October
19, 1879. Is unmarried and resides with her
parents.
(57.) Hazen Whitcher, son of Jacob and Sarah Richardson
Whitcher, b. Warren, May 21, 1817 ; d. Stoneham, Mass.,
May 14, 1891 ; ra. Benton, February 12, 1838, Sally,
daughter of Kimball and Sally Streeter Tyler, b. Benton,
May 27, 1810; d. Stoneham, Mass., October 20, 1899.
Hazen Whitcher received his education in the schools of
his native town, and went to Benton with his father, where
he learned the carpenter's trade and engaged in farming,
his farm being near that of his father, until 1846, when he
went to Stoneham, Mass., where he engaged in business as
90 CHASE WHITCHER AND
a carpenter and builder, following this for a number of
years, becoming one of the principal builders of the town.
In connection with this he carried on the undertaking busi-
ness, and later the manufacture of picture frames until 1871,
when he engaged in the hardware business, having pre-
viously sold the frame manufacturing business to his son-in-
law. He continued this business till about 1886, when he
retired to look after his real estate holdings in Woburn as
well as in Stoneham. In his early business years in Stone-
ham he served as deputy sheriff for four years, and was on
the police force of the town for sixteen years, and for more
than half of this time was chief. He was successful in his
business ventures and accumulated a handsome property.
Quiet and reserved in his bearing, unostentatious in manner
of life, he had the uniform respect of his fellow townsmen,
and was always faithful to trusts committed to his hands. In
religious belief he was a Universalist, and was sexton of the
Universalist Church until the property was sold in 1869,
after which he worshiped at the Unitarian Church until his
death.
CHILDREN OF HAZEN AND SALLY TYLER WHITCHER.
128. I. Hannah H., b. 1839 ; d. 1847.
129. II. Betsey Tyler, b. 1841 ; d. in infancy.
130. III. Sarah Richardson.
(130.) Sarah Richardson Whitcher, daughter of Hazen
and Sally Tyler Whitcher, m. July 1, 1862, Oliver Hutch-
ins, son of Caleb Morse and Betsey Hubbard Marston, b.
Sandwich, December 17, 1837.
HAZEN WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 91
The early education of Col. Oliver H. Marston was
obtained in the schools of his native town and later in the
high school of Stoneham, to which town he first came in
1855. Returning to Sandwich on reaching his majority, he
engaged in the manufacture of pails, continuing in this busi-
ness until 1862, when he raised the larger part of a com-
pany of volunteers in Sandwich, was commissioned captain,
and his company went to the front as a part of the Four-
teenth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. In the memo-
rable battle of Cedar Creek, Capt. Ripley, the officer in
command of the regiment, was taken prisoner, and the com-
mand fell upon Captain Marston. He was wounded early
in the morning in the left arm, but retained command durino-
the battle, and his wound was not dressed until twelve hours
after he was shot. A few months later he was commissioned
lieutenant-colonel and was placed in command of the regi-
ment. His regiment was in Augusta, Ga., at the time of
the capture of eTefferson Davis, and it was detailed to escort
him, with Alexander H. Stevens and several of Davis' cabi-
net officers, who had also been captured, from the railroad
station to the steamboat by which they were taken to Savan-
nah. After being mustered out in July, 1865, he engaged
in trade in Sandwich in a general store until 1869, when he
went to Stoneham, and shortly afterward went into business
with his father-in-law, Hazen Whitcher. He is still in busi-
ness in that town, making a specialty of manufacturing-
machines for measuring medicinal powders, and machine-
folded powder papers for laboratories, druggists, etc. He
has been a member of the Stoneham school committee and
chief of police for two years. He is a prominent member of
the Congregational Church, a charter member and first
Worshipful Master of King Cyrus lodge F. & A. M., a
92 OHASE WHITCHER AND
member of J. P. Gould Post 75, G. A. R., and of various
fraternal and benevolent organizations. Mr. and Mrs. Mars-
ton have one child :
Mary Williamine, b. April 17, 1863 ; m. Stoneham,
October 18, 1888, Arthur Libbey, son of Emery
and Hannah Lincoln Souther, b. Stoneham, July 11,
1865. The reside in Stoneham. Have two children :
(1) Oliver Marston, b. August 22, 1889; (2)
Harriet Whitcher, b. February 3, 1893.
(59.) Alonzo Addison Whitcher, h.W&xvew ^5 \xnQ^,\^2\ ;
d. Stoneham, Mass., January 16, 1854; m. July 20, 1848,
Jerusha, daughter of Joseph and Mehitable Towns of Lis-
bon, b. April 25, 1825; d. Philadelphia, Pa., December
19, 1901.
Alonzo A. Whitcher went from Benton to Stoneham
when a young man, where he was employed in the shoe busi-
ness at the time of his early death, giving promise of a suc-
cessful career. His widow, a woman of sterling qualities of
character and highly esteemed by all who knew her, survived
hitn for nearly fifty years.
CHILDREN OF ALONZO A. AND JERUSHA TOWNS WHITCHER.
131. L Elvah J., b. 1849 ; d. October ( ?) 1851.
132. n Ella Frances, b. October 7, 1852; m. June
28. 1877, William Solomon of Baltimore,
Md They have one child, Sarah S., b.
Baltimore, Md., December 27, 1882. They
resids in Philadelphia, Pa.
ALONZO A. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 93
(61). Jacob Whitcher, Jr.^ b. Groton, Vt., June 8,
1827; d, Woburn, Mass., J.anuary 17, 1878; m. Ist,
Stoneham, Mass., April 24, 1851, Sophronia G., daughter
of Jeremiah and Mary Jaques, b, Sanbornton, May 27, 1827 ;
d. Woburn, Mass., August 31, 1863; m. 2d, Woburn,
Mass., April 24, 1864, Celenda Thompson, daughter of
Warren and Eliza R. Fox, b, Woburn, Mass., July 27,
1840.
Jacob Whitcher, Jr., went from Benton to Stoneham
about 1849, having previously learned the trade of carpenter,
but a year or so later established himself as a carpenter and
builder in Woburn, where he remained in business until
shortly before his death, when failing health forced him to
retire. He did a successful business in building by contract,
and about 1860 established a lumber yard in Woburn,
becoming a large distributor of lumber, while at the same
time he was actively engaged in building by contract. He
was a man of great energy, of thorough-going integrity in
business matters, and had gained a solid business success when
stricken with the dread disease cancer. On beginning busi-
ness for himself he inserted an initial in his name, and was
always known as Jacob C Whitcher. By his first marriage
he had one child :
133. Helen Sophronia, b. Woburn July 27, 1852; d.
January 17, 1863.
CHILDREN OF JACOB C. AND CELENDA T. FOX AVHITCHER.
(All born in Woburn, Mass.)
134. I. Arthur Warren, b. October 3, 1865.
94 CHASE WHIT CHER AND
135. II. Jacob Franklin, b. March 31, 1869, d. Decem-
ber 7, 1875.
136. III. Jeannie Eliza, b. December 13, 1870, d. May
137. IV. Mary Celenda, b. October 29, 1874; d. West
Newton, Mass., April 20, 1902: m. April
5, 1898, Henry A. T. Dow. One child,
Henry Kenneth, b. February 18, 1901.
138. V. Carrie Louise, b. June 28, 1877; d. March
10, 1900.
(134). Arthur Warren Whitcher, b. October 3, 1865 :
m. June 17, 1896, Edith May, daughter of George E.
and Arvilla Nickerson of East Madison, N. H., b. Novem-
ber 8, 1874. They reside in Woburn, Mass. ; have no
children.
Arthur War)en Whitcher served his apprenticeship in the
drug business during his high school vacations and high
school course. Graduating from the Woburn high school
in 1883, he took a four-year course in the Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy, graduating in 1887. He entered busi-
ness for himself in 1891, purchasing a drug store in W^oburn,
where he enjoyed a liberal patronage until he sold his busi-
ness in February, 1898. In 1889 he became secretary,, and
in the following year treasurer of the Woburn Cooperative
Bank, holding these positions until 1898, when he resigned.
It was early in this year that he was attacked by the Klon-
dike fever, and disposing of his business, he headed an expe-
dition comprised of nine men and penetrated the wilds of
Alaska. They wintered in latitude 66'^ ^° north, on the
Hogatsakakat river, a branch of the Koyukuk river, a north-
JACOB C. WHITCHER.
ARTHUR M. WHITCHER.
JAMES H. WILLOUGHBY. WILLIAM FRANCIS FULLAM.
BIS DESCENDANTS. 95
ern tributary of the Yukon. They secured vastly more expe-
rience than gold, and the expedition from a financial stand-
point \A'as a failure. He returned to Wohurn in the summer
of 1899, and, on regaining his health, somewhat Ijroken by
the hardships of the previous winter, re-purchased his former
business early in 1900, and has conducted it successfully
since. He has never held public office, but has been actively
interested in many movements for the public good. In
1893 he became interested in the much discussed renewal of
the lease of the post office building, and was active in secur-
ing the removal of the office to its present leased location.
In 1900 he first suggested securing a Congressional appro-
priation for the erection of a Federal building in Woburn.
In 1901, a Mr. L. M. Harris had Woburn entered upon the
calendar, and in 1906 an ai)pro{)riation of $12,000 for the
purchase of a site was secured. The appropriation for the
building, $63,000, will doubtless be made the coming winter.
As in all such cases there was at once more or less of dis-
agreement as to a site. A number of sites were offered, but
all were declared unavailable except one in the rear of the
main business street of the cily, and inconvenient of ap-
proach, and this met with the decided disaj)proval of a major-
ity of the citizens. The day the deal was to be closed by the
government for this site, a delay was granted in resj)onse to
the following telegram: "15,000 residents Woburn and
Burlington insist on further consideration post office. Await
advice." After four months of persistent but quiet work a
proposal, offering for the sum of $10,000 a lot near the
public library building, conveniently accessible from ail
points, was made the Treasury department and was accepted
by the department August 6, 1907. The Woburn Jour-
nal of August 9 says of the contest relative to the site :
96 CHASE WHITCHER AND
"It must be conceded that the favorable termination was
due to the activity of Mr. A. W. Whitcher and Mr. Charles
F. Remington. They worked hard but not in the interest
of any one of the several bidders." The Daily Times said :
"It appears that one of the most interesting wire-pulling
matches of the town has come to a head." The Woburn
City Council, after a flash-light photograph had been taken
of the assembled citizens in the council chamber, approved
at 10.05 p. m. of the construction of a new street made nec-
essary by the selection of this lot of land, and in a few
days was read from the sign post the name adopted at his
suggestion, ''Federal Street,'" done in gold, overlaying
a bright red post card, green stamped, and cancelled, Sep-
tember 26, 1907, the date of birth of a new era in the city's
history. Mr. Whitcher is interested in the collection of
historical relics, and among articles of the Colonial and Rev-
olutionary period has the bayonet belonging to the flint lock
musket which was carried by Chase Whitcher at the battle
of Bennington in August, 1777.
(62). Sarah Jane Whitcher, b. Coventry, August 10,
1830; d. Windsor Locks, Conn., April 19, 1864; m.
Middletown, Conn., June 21, 1860, the Rev. Andrew Kerr
Crawford, b. Economy, Nova Scotia, April 22, 1830; d.
Oakland, Calif., October 11, 1897.
Sarah Jane Whitcher was not quite four years of age at
the death of her mother and but ten years old when her
father died. She lived in the families of her father's rela-
tives until she was fourteen or fifteen, when she secured
employment in the mills at Lowell, Mass., where she saved
from her earnings a sufficient sum to give her a few terms in
Wesleyan Academy at W^ilbraham, Maes. While there she
met Andrew K. Crawford, who was preparing for college,
MRS. SARAH J. WHITCHER CRAWFORD.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 97
and an attachment was formed, resulting in their marriage
on the day of his graduation from Wesleyan. Of devoted
and self-sacrificing piety, they had each consecrated them-
selves to the service of foreign missions, and it was a griev-
ous disappointment to them that when they had fitted them-
selves for this work, they had passed the age limit at which
the Methodist Episcopal Church accepted missionaries for
the foreign field. They entered the home work, Mr. Craw-
ford joining the New York East Conference, and filled
important pastorates in that conference until 1869, when he
was transferred to the California Conference. His wife was
his devoted and helpful co-worker until her early death. He
filled appointments in the California Conference until 1884,
and was subsequently professor in the University of the
Pacific. Was principal of an academy in Olympia, Wash.,
in 1894-95, and returning to California became a Congre-
gational clergyman until his death. His grandfather settled
in Nova Scotia during the latter part of the eighteenth cen-
tury, and by so doing was unable to present hie claim to the
Earldom of Crawford and Lindsay, to which he believed
himself the rightful heir on the extinction of the titular line
in 1809. They had two children :
(1) Sarah Adalette, b. Windsor, Conn., June 28,
1861; m. June 20, 1894, Benjamin Fred Hall,
I druggist and real estate broker in Palo Alto, Cal.,
where they now reside. She graduated from the
University of the Pacific, San Jose, Cal., in the
class of 1884, and until her marriage was engaged
in teaching in Olympia, Wash., and in Cali-
fornia. Children: 1, Lucy Alice, b. November
7, 1895 ; 2, Myron Crawford, b. May 8, 1897.
98 CHASE WHITOHER AND
(2) John Wesley, b. Windsor Locks, Conn., April
19, 1863 ; m. about 1890, Mrs. Belle Athern.
Is a house painter and decorator at Clements,
San Joaquin Co., Cal. One child, Ilene, b.
September 1, 1900.
WILLIAM W. WILLOUGHBY.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 99
CHAPTER VI.
DESCENDANTS OF JOSEPH DAVIS AND
MIRIAM WHITCHEK WILLOUGHBY.
SEE PAGES 23-24.
35. (1). William Whitcher Willoughby, Boxio^ 5 os,e^\\
Davis and Miriam Whitcher Willoughby, b. February 26,
1816 ; d. Somerville, Mass., August 10, 1877 ; m. Septem-
ber 21, 1845, Harriet M. True, of Holderness, b. April 10,
1823.
Mr. Willoughby established himself in business in Somer-
ville, Mass., as carpenter and builder, v^^as successful in his
business and a highly respected citizen. His widow still
resides in that city, making her home with her son, George
T. Willoughby.
Children :
(1). George T., b. Somerville, Mass., June 28,
1846; m. September 11, 1878, Ann Maria
Field, daughter of Moses and Malinda
Sprague of Boston, who died December 7,
1903. Two children: 1, Mabel S., b.
September 4, 1879, d. April 1, 1892; 2,
Bertha T., b. March 26, 1888. Mr. Wil-
loughby succeeded to the business of his
father which he conducts successfully.
(2). Harriet M., b. Somerville, January 23, 1856.
Resides with her mother and brother in the
family residence on Central street.
100 CHASE WHITGHER AND
35. (2). Fatima Willoiighby, daughter of Joseph
Davis and Miriam Whitcher Willoughby, b. October 19,
1818; d. Chelmsford, Mass., September 23, 1867; m.
Samuel Putney, b. (Woodstock, N. H., 1817) ? d. Chelms-
ford, Mass.
Children :
(1). Mary Ella, b. Chelmsford, Mass., 1852 ( ?) ;
m. Luther C. Upham, and resides at Old
Orchard, Me. They have tvk^o children : 1,
George W., who is married and resides in
Biddeford, Me., and 2, Ruby M., who lives
with her parents in Old Orchard, where they
are proprietors of the Sea Side House, a
well-known summer hotel.
(2). Josephine, b. Chelmsford and died at the age
of eighteen months.
35. (3). Samuel W. Willoughby, son of Joseph Davis
and Miriam Whitcher Willoughby, b. May 6, 1822 ; d.
April 20, 1860 ; m. 1848, Elizabeth Ann Merrill, b. 1828,
d. April 22, 1852.
Mr. Willoughby was associated with his brother William
W. as carpenter and builder and resided in Boston, where
his two sons were born.
Children :
(1). James Henry, b. Boston, October 27, 1848 ;
m. June 30, 1874, Jennie Lind Howard of
Chelmsford, Mass. He fitted for college at
New Ipswich, N. H., and graduated at Dart-
mouth College in the class of 1873. En-
SAMUEL W. WILLOUGHBY.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 101
gaged in teaching. Was principal of the
high school in Middleborough, Mass., for
thirteen years, and subsequently principal of
the high school in Dover, N. H., lor one
year, and of the high school in Nashua for
two years. Is at present with the New
England Telephone and Telegraph Co. with
headquarters in Boston. His ff.miiy reside
in Nashua. He has been actively interested
in public affairs in the city of his residence ;
is a Republican in" politics, and in some
campaigns has taken an active part. Is a
member of the Masonic and other frater-
nities. Children: 1, Maude Howard, b.
June 10, 1875 ; 2, Ruth Marion, b. Sep-
teinbr21, 1876; 3, Blanche Sullivan, b.
June 11, 1878 ; 4, Edith Hapgood, b. Jan-
uary 23, 1882 ; 5, Alice Merrill, b. October
23, 1886; 6, Walter Irving, b. December
27, 1888, d. January 8, 1889 ; 7, Florence
Ladd, b. December 15 1891.
(2). Charles William, b. Boston, April, 1850; d.
Minneapolis, Minn., 1893; m. in Minne-
apolis and left at his death two children :
Charles W., Jr., and Blanche M. He went
west when a young man and at the time of
his death vv-as foreman of construction for
the Western Union Telegraph Co. at Min-
neapolis,
102 CHASE WHITCHER AND
CHAPTER VII.
DESCENDANTS OF ELISHA AND MARTHA
WHITCHER FUL.LAM.
(fi3). Francis Fallam, son of Elisha and Martha
Whitcher FuUam, b. Warren, August 5, 1821 ; d. in Sara-
toga, Cal., Januany 26, 1889; m. April 27, 1847, Harriet
N. Darling of Kutland, Mass.
(64). William Ftillam, b. Warren, February 14, 1823 ;
d. North Brookfield, Mass., December 20, 1893 ; m. Rut-
land, Mass., November 23, 1848, Ann Maria Bryant of
Lunenburg, Vt.
William FuUam went to Worcester, Mass., in 1845, and
learned the carpenter's trade of Capt. Lamb, a well-known
builder of that city. In 1848 he established himself in North
Brookfield, and was a resident of that town for nearly halt
a century. He was a man of great decision of character, of
untiring energy and industry, and his business was a large
and lucrative one. Most of the buildings erected in North
Brookfield for a period of forty years were built by him or
under his supervision. He did much by his public spirited
activity to promote the prosperity of his town, and his integ-
rity was never questioned. He was a member of the First
Congregational Church, and for many years previous to his
death he never failed to be found in his accustomed place in
church and Sunday school.
FRANCIS FULLAM.
WILLIAM FULLAM.
HW DESCENDANTS. 103
Children :
All born in North Broolc field ^ Mass.
I. Grace Ella, b. February 19, 1852; m. March 13,
1873, James M. Doane of North Brookfield. They
lived in Brockton for some years, where Mr. Doane
was employed as a cutter in a shoe factory. At the
present time they reside in North Brookfield. They
have one daughter, Florence, b. November 10,
1873; m. October 7, 1897, Frank W. Clark of
Brockton.
II. Lizzie Maria, b. February 28, 1854; d. April 18,
1854.
III. William Francis, b. October 1, 1855; m. December
31, 1878, Anna Maria Kingsbury. He was edu-
cated in the public schools of North Brookfield and
at the Leicester Academy. In 1879 he became a
partner with his father as contractor and builder,
under the firm name of William FuUam & Co. Since
the death of his father he has carried on the busi-
ness, his two sons, William Harrison and Frederick
Arthur, being associated in business with him. He
is one of the leading citizens of his town, has served
as selectman and water commissioner, is president
of the Board of Trade, and a trustee of the Nortel
Brookfield Savings Bank. Is a member of the First
Congregational Church. He has three children :
(1) William Harrison, b. August 15, 1880; m.
November, 1902, Nellie Goodwin of Rutland, Mass.
They have two children : Ruth Anna, b. October
104 CHASE WHIT CHER AND
19, 1903, and Grace, b. April 19, 1907. (2)
Frederick Arthur, b. May 23, 1883 ; m. March 22,
1904, Edna A. Boyd of Oakham, Maes. They
have two children ; William Francis, b. October
14, 1904, and Kenneth Bullard, b. November 15,
189(5. (3) Charles Francis, b. February 25, 1885.
IV. Frederick Lincoln, b, April 7, 1859 ; m. 1st, May 21,
1884, Alice Maria Bryant; d. February 14, 1888 ;
m. 2d, June 1893, Etta R. Rice of Barre, Mass.
After leaving school he was associated with his
father in the lumber business and in building, and
later was engaged in business for himself in Barre
and North Brookfield. Mass, He is at present
Superintendent of the Worcester County Gas Works
at Leominster, Mass. Resides at Clinton, Mass.
{^^). Lemuel Fullam, son of Elisha and Martha
Whitcher Fullam, b. Holderness, May 23, 1830; d. West
Brookfield, Mass., December 23, 1893; m. 1st, September
22, 1853, Lucy T. Johnson of North Brookfield ; d. March
9, 1857 ; m. 2d, Susan F., daughter of William and Martha
A. Marsh Adams of West Brookfield.
Lemuel Fullam, after spending his boyhood in New Hamp-
shire and Vermont, obtained employment in a boot and shoe
factory in Rutland, Mass., and about 1854 engaged in man-
ufacturing boots and shoes at North Brookfield for the Batch-
elder Company. After a year or two he became inspector
of goods for a large boot and shoe jobbing house in New
York, but in 1858 went to West Brookfield and built a fac-
tory of his own, and until 1882, when his establishment was
burned, he conducted a large and successful business, the
LEMUEL FULLAM.
HIS DESCEJSIDANT8. 105
largest of any manufactory in town. At the outbreak of the
war of the rebellion he sustained heavy losses from the failure
of his principal customers who had a large Southern trade,
but his creditors granted him an extension, and with return-
ing prosperity he paid them every dollar due them with
interest. When his factory burned in 1882 he retired from
business, but by no means from the activities of life. He
had a wide acquaintance among shoe and leather men, and
ranked as an exceptionally able business man. There were
few manufacturers of his day who had as complete a knowl-
edge of all departments of the work as he. During his
business life Mr. Fullam took an active part in town affairs.
He was progressive and instituted village improvements
which have made West Brookfield one of the most charming
spots in Worcester County. He insisted upon good roads,
good sidewalks and a good fire department. He led the
town into building a system of concrete walks, by building
the first one from the railway station to the town hall at his
own expense. If once interested in a project, he was a man
of great energy, and few men would or could adhere to a
course of action so persistently as he if he thought he was in the
right. Possessed of great executive ability, his services were
ever at the call of the poor and struggling, and he was the
confidential adviser and helper of scores of young men who
were striving to make their way against odds. It will be
noted that his elder brother, W^illiam, died in North Brook-
field on Wednesday, December 20, 1893. His funeral was
on Saturday, and his brother Lemuel was not feeling in his
usual health, and decided that he would not accompany his
family to the funeral. When they returned they found him
in bed, unconscious. He never rallied, but died at eleven
o'clock, at the same hour his brother had passed away in
106 CHASE WHITOHEll AND
North Brookfield three days before. The two brothers were
men of large stature and of great physical strength, a char-
acteristic of both families of FuUam and Whitcher. Jacob
Fulham, the first son of Col. Francis Fulham, founder of
the family in America, is noted in history for his daring and
prowess as an Indian fighter, and was known as the strong-
est man in New England, unless that claim were disputed by
Thomas Whittier, 1622-1696.
Children :
All born in West Brookfield, Mass.
I. Martha, b. January 4, 1860 ; m. September 14, 1886,
Frank Warren, son of Warren Augustus and Mary
F. Burgess Blair, b. West Brookfield, December
15, 1857. Martha received her education at the
Worcester Oread Institute, Wellesley College and
the Boston Art Museum. Mr. Blair prepared for
college at Williston Seminary and graduated at
Amherst College, class of 1880. He entered the
newspaper profession, was editor and part owner
for twelve years of the Worcester Telegram, was
later managing editor of the Boston Transcript, and
is now night editor of the Boston Post. They have
one child: Margaret Amidon, b. Worcester, Mass.,
July 23, 1887. Student in Smith College.
II. Charles Adams, b. November 29, 1864; d. October
17, 1865.
III. Mary Lucy, b. September 28, 1866; d. February
28, 1867.
IV. Frank Lemuel, b. January 6, 1870; m. September
12, 1906, Mabel Annie, youngest daughter of Oliver
MRS. HARRIET (FULLAM) FAIRBANKS.
HIS DESCENBAI^TS. 107
Eaton and Harriet N. Porter French of Newport,
R. I. He was educated at Worcester Academy and
Harvard College, Lawrence Scientific. After grad-
uation he held positions as chemist, first with E. R.
Squibb & Sons, Brooklyn, N. Y., then at the United
States Torpedo Station, Newport, R. I., then with
the International Smokeless Powder Works, Parlm,
N. J., where he is now superintendent. Is a mem-
ber of American Chemical Society ; is a Congre-
gationalist.
(68). Harriet Fullam, daughter of Elisha and Martha
Whitcher Fullam, b. Granby, Vt., August 23, 1836; m.
October 5, 1856, Isaac, son of Ebenezer and Margaret Glea-
son Fairbanks, b. Brimfield, Mass., April 14, 1833; d.
North Brookfieid, Mass., April 19, 1906.
Harriet Fullam left Benton with her mother when about
fourteen years of age, and after attending school in North
Brookfieid for a time, worked in a tailor's shop in North and
West Brookfieid and Woburn, Mass., until her marriage.
They lived on a farm for a ievf years, when Mr. Fairbanks
became book-keeper and foreman in a lumber yard until a
few years before his death.
THEIR CHIDLREN :
I. D wight Edward, b. Burlington, Mass., July 7, 1858 ;
d. North Brookfieid, Mass., January 10, 1868.
II. Fannie Rosa, b. North Brookfieid, Mass., October 22,
1876. After completing her public school course
she spent two years at the Missionary Training
Institute, South Nyack, N. Y., but on account of
108 CHASE WHITGHER AND
her mother's age and health, has never left home to
enter the missionary work. They are members of
the Congregational Church and reside in North
Brookfield, Mass.
DAVID M. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 109
CHAPTER VIII.
DESCENDANTS OF DAVID AND PHEBE P.
SMITH WHITCHER.
Phebe P. Smith, wife of David Whitcher, b. March 7,
1799, was daughter of Joseph and Betsey Marston Smith of
New Hampton. After the death of her husband in Coventry,
April 3, 1835, she returned to New Hampton with her
children, and died there July 20, 1880.
(69). Joseph Smith Whitcher, son of David and Phebe
P. Smith Whitcher, b. Warren, August 25, 1828. He
learned the carpenter's trade, but has in later years devoted
himself chiefly to farming. Resides in New Hampton, where
he has been a useful and respected citizen. Has served on
the school board and is a member of the Free Baptist Church.
Is unmarried.
(70). David Marston Whitcher, son of David and
Phebe P. Smith Whitcher, b. Coventry, June 30, 1831 ; m.
October 13, 1862, Julia A., daughter of Jonathan Perkins
and Catherine Neal Norris, b. Meredith, May 7, 1843.
David M. Whitcher learned the carpenter's trade and also
engaged in farming in Center Harbor and Meredith, and has
taken an active interest in town affairs, holding various offi-
cial positions. Is a member of the Meredith Congregational
Church. Has a daughter :
(139). Ellen Ardelle Whitcher, daughter of David
no CHASE WHITCHER AND
M. and Julia A. Norrie Whitcher, b. Center
Harbor, September 13, 1863; m. January
1, 1884, Frank A., son of James and Eliza-
beth Davis Bartlett, b. January 20, 1853.
They reside in Meredith and have one son :
Perkins Norris Bartlett, b, March 21, 1885.
(71.) Daniel Batchelder Whitcher, son of David and
Phebe P. Smith AVhitcher, b. Coventry, July 6. 1833 ; d.
New Hampton, 1902 ; m. September 9, 1875, Elmina Josie,
daughter of William and Eliza Smith Brown of Meredith, b.
February 22, 1853.
Daniel B. Whitcher was a successful farmer in New
Hampton, quiet and reserved, devoted to his family and his
church. Free Baptist, taking an active interest in town affairs,
but declining any official position.
CHILDREN OF DANIEL B. AND ELMINA BROWN WHITCHER
(All born in JVeiv Hamjiton.)
140. I. Phebe M., b. November 14, 1876; m. Octo-
ber 20, 1906, Harry E., son of Enoch and
Mary Foss Flanders of New Hampton.
Reside in New Hampton.
141. n. Eliza M., b. May 25, 1878 ; m. December 25,
1900, Joseph S., son of William and Abbie
Knight Gordon, b. September 19, 1877.
They reside in Westbrook, Me., and have
two children : (1) Dorothy M., b. October
23, 1901; (2) Adelaide S., b. November
12, 1903.
DANIEL B. WHITCHER.
HIS DESCENDANTS. Ill
142. IIL Mina J., b. December 8, 1880; m. December
8, 1904, Carl M., son of Marlin S. and
Ellen F. Carr Meader, b. Haverhill, Novem-
ber 14, 1880. They reside in North Haver-
hill.
143. IV. Milton J., b. May 16, 1885.
144. V. Algernon D., b. May 28, 1893.
112 GHASE WHITCHER AND
CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS AND MEMORANDA.
Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the
brothers of Chase Whitcher, John and Reuben, elder, and
Joseph younger than he, who came to Warren. Joseph does
not appear to have permanently settled in town, as his name
appears on the list of voters but three times, nor is there any
record of his having married in town or having a family
there.
John Whitcher, b. Salisbury, Mass., June 19, 1749; m.
December 6, 1770, Sarah Marston of Salisbury, b. October
14, 1748. Their eleven children were all born in Warren.
1, Joseph, b. November 10, 1772
2, Reuben, b. December 30, 1773.
3, John, b. August 10, 1775.
4, Betty, b. October 3, 1778.
5, Sarah, b. October 17, 1779.
6, Henry D., b. October 30, 1782.
7, Obadiah, b. October 11, 1784.
8, Batchelder, b. August 3, 1787.
9, Obadiah 2d, April 23, 1789.
10, Jeremiah, b. January 29, 1790.
11, Rebecca, b. December 19, 1795.
Reuben Whitcher, b. Salisbury, Mass., October 5, 1751 ;
ra. September 17, 1776, Elizabeth Copp, b. Hampstead,
April 14, 1761. They lived in various places after their
HIS DESCENDANTS. 118
marriage, but finally settled in Thetford, Vt., about 1795,
There is a record of six children.
1, Betsey, b. Wentworth September 10, 1777.
2, Dorothy, b. Piermont, March 8, 1779.
3, Joshua, b. Piermont, June 9, 1781.
4, Joseph, b. Moretown, Vt., January 22, 1783.
5, Reuben, b. Thetford, Vt., March 8, 1785.
6, Samuel, b. Warren, December 18, 1786.
Mary Noyes, wife of William Whitcher (30), was, as
previously noted (page 32), the eldest daughter and child of
Samuel and Sarah Collins Noyes of Landaff. Her ancestry
is traced to
Nicholas Noyes, b. in England, 1615-1616, and who
came to Newbury, Mass., in 1633. He married Mary
Cutting.
2. Timothy, son of Nicholas and Mary Cutting Noyes,
b. Newbury, Mass., June 23, 1655; m. 1680,
Mary Knight. He saw service in King Philip's
war.
3. Timothy, son of Timothy and Mary Knight Noyes,
b. Newbury, Mass., January 2, 1690 ; m. 1718,
Lydia Plummer.
4. Sylvanus, son of Timothy and Lydia Plummer
Noyes, b. Newbury, Mass., February 24, 1719 ;
m. 1741, Phebe Chase.
5. Samuel, son of Sylvanus and Phebe Chase Noyes,
b. Plaistow, September 12, 1760; ra. Sarah
Collins. Samuel Noyes d. February 27, 1846.
Sarah Collins Noyes d. June 4, 1853, aged 91.
114 CHASE WHITGHER AND
CHILDREN OF SAMUEL AND SARAH COLLINS NOTES.
All born in Landaff.
1, Mary, b. November 5, 1787; m. February 15, 1807,
William Whitcher of Coventry.
2, Phebe, b. , 1789.
3, James, b. August 13, 1791 ; m. 1812, Violette Coburn.
4, Samuel, b. November 27, 1793, d. July, 1835; m,
Mercy Priest,
5, Caleb, b. February 28, 1796.
6, Amos, b. Aprils, 1797, d. 1880; m. 1824, Huldah
Bronson.
7, Daniel, b. 1798, d. 1859 ; m. Susan Quimby.
8, Nathaniel, b. June 10, 1800; m. let, Betsey Bartlett,
2d, Mrs. Luella Keniston, 3d, Aurilla Cole.
9, Jonathan, ; m. Harriet Cole.
10, Polly.
11, Susan.
12, Moses, b. 1806, d. 1852 ; m. Ist, Mary Howe, 2d,
Lydia Royce, 3d, Zylphia Clark.
Joseph Davis Willoughby of New Holderness was mar-
ried in Warren to Miriam, daughter of Chase and Hannah
Morrill Whitcher, December 23, 1812, by Abel Merrill,
Justice of the Peace.
In the sixty-five years since 1842, there have been but
twenty-five years in which a son or grandson of William
Whitcher of Benton has not been a member of the New
Hampshire legislature.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 115
Henry N. Whitcher of Landaff (83), son of Winthroj) C.
and Mercy Priest Whitcher, d. September 9, 1907.
The following may be taken as a specimen of rural gTHve-
yard literature during the first half of the 19th century ; it
appears on a small headstone in the Landaff cemetery :
" Taken by the resistless hand of Death
from the fond Embrace of a loving
Mother, Betsey, daughter of William
and Lucinda C. Whitcher, who died
April 14, 1842, aged 5 years and 2 days."
" Betsy, Betsy, art thou fled
And left us here in tears?
Early enrolled among the dead
To sleep till Christ appears!"
No portrait of Chase Whitcher or of his wife Hjinnah
Morrill was ever made, and nearly all of their children had
died before the days of the daguerreotype or of its successor,
the photograph. The author esteems himself fortunate that
he was able to secure photographs of two of these, the eldest
son, William Whitcher, late of Benton, and the youngest
daughter, Martha Whitcher Fullam, late of North Brookfield,
Mass. Chase and Hannah Morrill Whitcher had 38 grand-
children, of whom 31 lived to marry, and of these photo-
graphs or reprints from daguerreotypes were secured of 25.
These were of all kinds from poor to good, but they were
each the best that could be obtained. But four of these
grandchildren are now (1907) living: David Whitcher of
North Haverhill, Joseph Whitcher of New Hampton, David
M. Whitcher of Center Harbor and Mrs. Harriet Fullam
116 CHASE WHITCHER AND
Fairbanks of North Brookfield, Mass. Of great-grandchildren
there have been 100, of whom 51 are now, so far as known,
living. Of great-great-grandchildren there have been 119,
of whom 102 are living. Of great-great-great-grandchild-
ren, fifth generation from Chase and ninth from Thomas,
there have been born 51, of whom 46 are now living. There
have been two of the sixth generation from Chase and tenth
from Thomas, of whom one is living, Dorothy May Jarvis,
born September 9, 1905.
The views of the Whittier home in Haverhill, Mass., are
from photographs taken by Mr. Edward Denham of New
Bedford, Mass., who kindly furnished them for this work.
One is a front view taken near the Haverhill and Ames-
bury road, and the other from the road to Plaistow, showing
the rear of the house and the famous flower garden so beloved
by the poet. The house was built by Thomas Whittier in 1688,
and remained in the family until the death of the poet, when
it became the property of the Whittier Memorial Association.
It is of interest to the world at large as the birthplace of the
Quaker poet, as the scene of perhaps his greatest poem,
"Snow Bound," but it has a special interest also to the
descendants of Chase Whitcher of W^arren, as being the
home of his great grandfather, Thomas Whittier, built in his
later years, after he had become comparatively well to do
and increased in worldly goods. The house was badly dam-
aged by fire October 17, 1902, but was speedily restored to
its original appearance, while the family furniture, relics and
souvenirs were saved by the heroic exertions of Mrs. J. M.
Ela, who at that time and since has had the care of the
house. As it stands to-day it is a fine example of the old
Colonial farm house, showing little trace of the ravages of
two hundred and nineteen years, and is rich in its family and
historical associations.
HIS DESCENDANTS. 117
The house built by Chase Whitcher at Warren, near the
Olencliflf station, on the White Mountains Division of the
Boston & Maine Railroad, and near the Warren Summit
post office, is a much more modest structure, and shows
vastly more the ravages of time and decay, but it was the
home of Warren's "boy settler," the house where both he
and his son Chase, Jr., were licensed in the early years of
the nineteenth century "to keep open tavern and to sell
spirituous liquors," and has to-day the distinction of being
the oldest house in the town of Warren. It has passed out
of the possession of the family, and is now owned and,
with some modern additions, is occupied by its owner, Mr,
Charles Tyrrell, as a residence.
118 CHASE WHITOHER AND
ERRATA
On page 32, in third line, for seven read eight.
On page 32, in fourth line after 8amuel, insert Caleb.
On page 33, for 50 XI read 49 XI.
On page 33, for 51 XII read 50 XII.
On page 39, in fifteenth line, for William Harrison Bhike
read James Harrison Blake.
On page 83, in twenty-second line, for Matthew Stickney
of Salem read Montgomery Sears of Boston.
HIS DESCENDANTS.
119
INDEX OF NAMES
PAGE
PAGE
A
Bisbee, Ellen S.
76
George W.
76
Abbott, Chester
63
Sarah G.
76
Moses
63
Blair, Ellen
86
Lucia Eastman
63
Frank W.
105
Adams, Mary A. Marsh
104
Margaret A.
106
SusaD F.
104
Mary F. Burgess
105
William
104
Warren A.
105
Aldrich, Eda M.
58
Blake, James A.
39
Foster M.
53
Bowman, David
41
Georgia A
49
Hannah Parker
41
Susan M. 0.
53
Minerva
41
Allen, Rebecca
34
Boyd, Edna A.
104
Ashley, Daniel W.
84
Brisson, Lizzie J.
72
George
84
Brackett, Mary
8
Mary H.
84
Anthon
8
William V.
84
Bronson, Azubah
48
Athern, Belle
98
David
48
Atwell, Chase W.
23
Julia E.
51
Dolly Whitcher,
28
Lavinia
51
John
23, 27
Orrin
51
Atwood, Amanda S.
51
Rebecca
48
EdaM.
53
Brooks, Eveline G
85
Emilie E.
53
Levi
85
John C.
51, 53
Moeeley N.
85
Mary S.
51, 63
Brown, Elmira J.
110
Eliza S.
110
Donald A.
49
B
William
110
Willis A.
48
Bacon, Adela M.
69
Bryant, Alice M.
102
Dana S.
69
AnnM.
102
Harvey S.
Barker, Sarah
69
Burr, Ellsworth
64
22
Jeannette M.
64
Barnes, Rebecca
17
Maria T. H.
64
Barnes, Rachel
17
C
Bartlett, Elizabeth
110
Frank A.
110
Chandler, Dorcas Whitcher
86
James
110
Ellen
86
Perkins Norris
110
Joseph
86
120
CHASE WHIT CHER AND
PAGE
PAGC
Chandler, Joseph, Jr.,
86
D
George
Martha
86
86
Darling, Harriet N.
Dean, Edward
102
52
Mary
George of George
86
86
Harvey
Hattie L.
67
52
Lona of George
86
Dearborn, Kenson E,
79
Chase, Charlotte
Elmer Brown
45
45
Selwyn K.
Doane, Florence
79
103
Joseph H.
45
James M.
103
Joseph S,
45
Donalioe, Noble
87
Clark, Frank W.
George H.
Jeremiah A.
103
59
59
Dow, Henry A, T.
Henry K.
94
94
Lydia H.
59
E
George T.
73
Neal M.
73
Eastman, George E.
48, 59
Susan S.
48
James
47
Clarke, Christina
69
John
10
Isabella
69
Josiah J.
49
Thomas
69
Louisa E.
48
Clement, Edgar T.
73
Mary (Boyntou)
10
George F.
73
Mary E.
48,56
Sarah
16
Polly
47
Cloggston, Lucretia
48
Ruth J.
48
Sylvester
48
Sylvester
47
Clough, Emma E.
74
William W.
31, 49
James
74
Zechariah
10
Cloutman, Daniel W.
45
Elkins, Enid J.
88
Ethel Kate
45
Evans, John
10
George W.
45
F
Mary Ella
45
Mary (Hunt)
45
Fairbanks, Ebenezer
107
Caswell, Alonzo
46
Dwight E.
107
Lonia B.
46
Fannie E.
107
Louise
46
Isaac
107
Colby, Daisy M.
79
Margaret G.
107
Frank
79
Flanders Harry E.
110
Laura K.
79
Enoch
110
Collins, Chas. P.
80
Mary Foss
110
Chas. T.
80
French, Harriet N. P.
107
EvaF.
80
Mabel A.
106
Osman M.
80
Oliver E.
106, 107
Sarah T. Pike
80
Fox, Eliza R.
93
Sarah 32
1, 113
Warren
93
Copp, Elizabeth
112
Fullam, Elisha
36, 102
Crawford, A. K.
96
Martha Whitcher 36, 102
Ilene
98
Darius of Elisha
37
John Wesley
98
Francis "
36, 102
Sarah Adalette
97
Harriet "
37, 107
Cummings, Minnie O.
89
Lemuel "
37, 107
HliS DE8GENDAI^T8.
121
PAGE
PAGE
Fullam, Maria
36
Gordon Irma May
45
Mary
WilMam " 36,
37
Joseph S.
110
102
Lawrence Nickerson 46
Frederick L.
Leslie Clayton
46
of William
104
May Ella
45
Grace E of William
103
LuciudaWhitcher
45
Lizzie M.
103
Lucy Webber
40
WilliamFrancis
Wilbur C.
46
of William
103
William
110
Charles F. of
Gove, David
79
William Francis
103
Elnora
79
Frederick A. of
Myra C.
79
William Francis
104
Green, Benjamin
9
William H. of
Mary
23
William Francis
103
Ruth
2
Grace of William H.
104
Ruth Anna of
H
William H.
Kennetli Bullard of
103
Hadley, Darius
Marietta A.
64
64
Frederick A.
104
Mary A.
Hall, Benj. F.
Carrie
64
William Francis of
97
Frederick A.
104
54
Charles A. of
Lomena D.
54
Lemuel
106
Lorenzo
54
Frank L. of Lemuel
106
Lucy Alice
Myron Crawford
Hardy, Martha A.
97
Martha of Lemuel
106
97
Mary Ij. of Lemuel
106
80
Sarah S.
80
G
William
80
Gauss. Grace iST.
83
Hay, Abbie
46
Katherine F.
83
Cyrus
46
John D. H.
82
Homer C.
46
John W.
83
Hayford, Albert H.
88
Rebecca
82
A. W.
88
Stephen
George, Chas. E.
Isaac K.
82
George H.
88
83
83
Mildred C.
Nellie L.
89
89
Gilbert, Jefferson
48
Nellie M.
89
Mary S.
Goodwin, Nellie
48
Warren C.
89
103
Haywood, Alvah E.
67
Gordon, Ada
45
Aurilla
80
Adelaide S.
110
Benjamin
80
Abbie Knight
110
Ella J.
80
Carrie
46
Heath, Doris
53
Dorothy M.
110
Harry E.
53
Elmer E.
45
Holton, Elizabeth J. C.
68
Ella
45
Samuel S.
68
George Scott
45
Tryphena C.
68
Horace W. 40, 45
Howard, Jennie L.
100
122
CHASE WHITGHEB AISTD
PAGE
Howe, Nellie M.
45
Hoyt, Mary
8
J
Jacques, Jeremiah
93
Mary
93
Sophronia G.
93
Jarvis, Amos
45
Bessie C.
45
Dorothy May
45
Edward
45
Elleu Joy
45
Jeffers, Abigail R.
89
Clarence L.
89
Emma Frances
89
Gilbert
89
Johnson, Lucy T.
104
Jones, Ida M.
74
Rebecca
74
William
74
K
Kendall, Electra
56
George,
56
William
56
Kendrick, Betsey S.
68
Simeon
68
Simeon E.
68
Kibble, George L.
88
Howard
88
Kidder, Chas. D.
74
Kimball, Abner W.
58
Deborah T.
58
Josephine V
58
King, Ann W.
63
Lizzie A.
63
Russell
63
Kingsbury, Ann M.
103
Kinnear, Calvin
47
Cecilia F.
47
Julia E.
47
Knight, Catherine M.
80
Francis
80
Nancy R.
80
L
Little, Eliza Crockett
46
Joseph M.
46
M
Manu, Samuel 67-75
Mary H. 67-75
James A 67-68
George W. 71, 75
, 76
Abbie L. of James A.
68
Geo. Henry "
68
Lucy E.
68
Moses W.
68
David W. of Moses W.
70
Franklin M. '"
69
Georgiana H. "
69
James W. "
69
Mabel M.
69
Ruby G. "
70
Grace E. of James W.
69
Mildred I.
69
William H. '•
69
Ezra B. of George W.
76
Edward F. " 71
, 78
George Henry "
79
Orman L. "
80
Osman C. "
80
George E. of Ezra B.
77
Harry B.
77
Henry C.
77
Ira W.
77
LuviaE. "
77
Luvia Jeannette of
IraW.
77
Margaret B. of Ira W.
77
Marian of Edward F.
78
Ada M. of Geo. Henry
80
Eda F.
79
Fred H.
79
HarleyE. •'
80
Ida
80
Lena A. "
79
Scott W.
80
Grace M. of Orman L.
80
Marston Betsey H.
90
Caleb M.
90
Oliver H. 90
, 91
Mary W.
92
Sarah
112
Meader, Carl M.
111
Ellen F. Carr
111
Marliu S.
111
Merrill, Elizabeth A.
100
Hl;S DESOEiVnAJS/TS.
123
(
'AGE
PAGE
Mfloon, Charles C.
69
Norri
IS, Catherine N.
10«
Ernest
99
Jonathan P.
109
Everett
69
Julia A.
109
Hopkins H.
69
Noyes, Amos
32.
, 84, 114
Ivy C.
69
Caleb
32, 114
Mary T.
69
Daniel
42, 114
Myrtle M.
69
George R.
67
Morrill, John
1
George Roy
67
Jacob
8
Huldah
84
Abraham
16
James,
32,
, 39, 114
Abraham of Abraham
17
Jonathan
32, 114
Aaron "
17
John A.
67
Hepzibah "
17
Moses
67, 114
Isaac '
17
Mary
31.
, 32, 113
Jacob "
17
Leona
67
Lydia "
17
Lillian Little
46
Moses "
17
Luciuda C.
39
Richard
17
Mercy Priest
50
Ann of Moses
17
Phebe
114
Hannah '
17
Polly
114
Judith
17
Nathaniel
32, 114
Eachel
17
Sally A.
84
iSarah
17
Samuel 31,
50,
113, 114
William Barnes
;of
Samuel, Jr.
32, 50
Moses
17,
. 18
Sarah Collins
31, 113
Elliott of William B.
18
Susan A.
67, 114
Hannah "
18
Nicholas
113
Increase "
15, 18
,19
Timothy of Nichol
as 113
Lydia
18
Timothy of Ti:
mothy 113
Moses "
18
Sylvanus '
113
Rebecca "
18
Simeon "
18
o
William
18
Sarah Herbert
15,18
,19
Osgood, John
8
Hannah of Increase
J oseph
10
15, 16,
, 19
Mary
8
John of lucrase
19
P
Eebecca "
19
Richard "
19
Page,
Benjamin
7,14
Samuel "
19
John
14
William
19
Peasley, Mary
8
Morse, Edna A.
49
Perki
ns, Hannah
52
Mary A.
49
Levi
52
Welton
49
Pheeb H
52
N
Pillsbury, Deborah
9, 10
Lydia
17, 18
Nickerson, Arvilla
94
Petts,
, George
69
Edith May
94
Mabel
69
George S.
94
Polley, David
55
Niles, Eliza Simonds
87
Mary Neal
55
124
CHASE WHITCHER AND
Policy, W. Harvey
William F.
Porter, Olive M.
Putney, Samuel
Mary, Ella
Josephine
Quimby, Emily
Joshua
Lydia
PAGE
55
48, 56
88
24, 100
24, 100
100
54, 55
54
54
Rice, Etta R.
Richards, Eli D.
Ella J.
Mary S.
Richardson, Stephen, Jr.
Sarah
Ring, Joseph
Mary
Rogers. Mary
Rolfe, Henry
John
Royce, Dorcas Foster
Lucy
Samuel
Sarah 38,
Runnells, Mattie J.
Sabin, Rev. E. R.
Sanborn, Carl R.
Marian L.
Roy E.
Simeon
Sanders, James, Jr.
Simouds, Eliza
Elizur
Susan
Smith, John W.
Phebe P.
Solomon, William
Sarah S.
104
44
44
44
8
8
75
3
2, 3
38
59
38
70, 71
74
21, 22
87,
Souther,
Ella W.
Arthur L.
Emery
Hannah
Harriet W
Souther,
Spinney,
SpofEord,
Sprague,
Stevens,
Streeter,
Oliver M.
James M.
Eliza E.
Moses
Ann M.
Malinda
Moses
John
Katherine
Mary
Adams
Mary J.
Mary M.
92
67
42
42
100
100
100
8
8
8
86
86
Thayer, Frank E.
Josephine
Nellie E.
Thompson, Person C.
Susan S.
Celenda
Titus, Jason
John S.
Sally B.
Chas. H. of Jason
Fred M.
Bertha M.
Herman P. "
Geo. W. "
Holman D. "
Theron W. "
Bessie of Chas. H.
Chas. H. "
Jay S. M.
Mary "
Clara of Holman D
Harry "
Lizzie "
Cora F. of Geo. W.
Jason W. "
Mary E. "
Oscar B. "
Ardelle of Theron W.
Grace W. "
Florence E. "
Herman E. of Fred M.
Irene '•
Mabelle F.
Towns, Jerusha
HIS DESCENDANTS.
125
PAGE
PAGE
Towns, Joseph
92
Whitcher, Molly of Chase 23
Mehitable
92
27,28
Trafton, Edward S.
48
Chase of Chase 23,27
Lizzie A.
48
Jacob " 23, 27
Walter J.
48
33, 34, 35, 86
True, Harriet M.
24, 100
Miriam of Chase 23,114
Joseph
8
Hannah " 24
Tyler, Alfred E.
86
Martha " 24, 26
Chas. C.
80
David " 24, 27
Kimball
89
28, 37, 109
Mary C.
80
Amos of William
Sally
89
33, 39, 40
Sally Streeter
89
Chase of William
31, 70, 71
u
Daniel of William
33, 80, 81, 82
ITpham, Geo. W.
100
David of William
Luther C.
100
33, 84, 85
Ruby M.
100
Hannah of William
33, 67
V
Ira, of William
23, 26, 59, 60, 61, 62
Veazey, Amos
48
James of William 33
Allen G.
48
Louisa " 33, 47
Alice W.
48
Mary " 33, 72
Chas. A.
48
Moses " 27, 31
Jennie F.
48
35, 38
Mahala
48
Phebe M. " 33. 85
William D.
48
Sally " 33, 66
Samuel " 27, 54, 55
w
Susan '* 33
William, Jr. of
Walker, Ella C.
45
William 27, 38, 39
John
46
Winthrop C. of
Lydia R.
45
William 33, 49, 50
Weston, Isadore F
46
Betsey N. of
Sarah A.
46
William, Jr. 40
William E.
46
Alonzo A. of
Wheelock, Eva A.
74
Jacob 35, 92
Whitcher, Chase of Josepl
1 2,11
Dorcas of Jacob 35, 86
12, 13. 14,
15,
16, 19,
Hazen " 35,89
20, 22, 23,
25,
26, 27,
Jacob C. or
28, 29.
Jacob, Jr., of
Hannah Moi
•rill
16,
Jacob 35, 93
20,
,22.
, 23, 29
Levi M. of Jacob
Dolly of Chase
22,23
27, 28
35, 87, 88
Levi of Chase
23
Lorinda of Jacob 35
William "
23,26
Sarah J. "
27, 28,
,29,
, 32, 33
35, 96, 97
126
GHA8E WHITCHER AND
Whitclier, Stephen R. of
Jacob 35
Daniel B. of David
37, 110
David M. of David
37, 109
Joseph Smith of
David 37, 109
Albion G. of
Amos 44, 45
Amarett A. of
Amos 41
Charles H of
Amos 41, 47
Florence V. of
Amos 44
James E. of Amos 43
Lucinda C. " 40
Winthrop C. 2d
of Amos . 42
Henry N. of Win-
throp C. 50,53,115
Mary Jane of
Winthrop C. 50
Moses " 50, 51
Sarah H. " 50
Ward P. " 50, 51
Betsy S. of Samuel 56
Charles O. of
Samuel 58
Daniel J. of
Samuel 56, 57
David S. of
Samuel 57
Lydia E. of
Samuel 55
Susan E. of
Samuel 60
Frank of Ira 63
Mary E. of Ira 62, 63
Scott " 64
William F. of
Ira 61, 62, 64, 65
Elvah G. of
Chase 71, 72, 78
Frances C. of
Chase 71
Hannah of Chase 72
Carrie A. of Daniel 83
Dan S. of Daniel 84
Whitcher, Elizabeth R. of
Daniel 83
Ira D. of Daniel 8»
Jopephiue L. of
Daniel 83
Kate R. of Daniel 82
Mary B. B. of
Daniel 84
Moses K. of Daniel 82
Nellie G. " 82
Hattie B. of David 85
Quincv X. '•' 85
Emma J. of Levi M. 88
Sarah E. '• 89
Betsey T. of Hazeu 90
Hannah H. '' 90
Saral. R. " 90
EIlaF.of AloDZoA. 92
Elvah J. ' 92
Arthur W. of
Jacob C. 93, 94, 95
Carrie L. of Jacob C. 94
Helen S. " 93
Jeannie E. " 94
Jacob F. '^ 94
Mary Celenda '• 94
Ellen Ardelleof
David M. 109
Algernon D. of
Daniel B. Ill
Eliza M. of
Daniel B. 110
Milton J. of
Daniel B. 110
Mina J. of
Daniel B. Ill
Phebe M. of
Daniel B. 110
Milton D. of
Chas. H. 47
Jennie N. of Moses 51
Maud " 51
PheebP. " 51,67
LucileB.of Daniel J. 57
Kate D. of Chas. O. 58
Frank P. of Ward P. 52
Chase R. " 52
Chas. C. of
Henry N. 53, 54
HIS DESCENDANTS.
127
Whitcher, John VV. of
Henry N. 53, 54
Marv AofHenryN. 53
Mercy F. '• 53
Stark F. '' 53
Burr Koyce of
William F. 65
Lamar 83
Scott 83
Edith A of Frank P. 52
PheebH.ofChaseR. 53
MarkH of Chas. C. 53
John of Joseph
Whittier
11, 12, 26. 112
Children of 112
Reuben of Joseph
Whittier
11, 12, 26, 112
Children of 113
White, Arthur F. 46
Elvah G. 47
Emerv B 41. 46
Elsie H. 47
Florence M. 46
Jacob M. 4[
Lewis B. 46, 47
Lulu Frances 46
Leon W. 46
Malinda C. 41
Mildred E. 46
Vera L. 46
William E. 46
Whittier, Thomas 2. 3, 4, 7, 14
Ruth Green 7, 14
John Greeuleaf 3, 4
Elizal)eth of Thomas 8
Hannah " 8
Joseph '• 8
John " 8
Mary '' 7, 14
Nathaniel " 2, 8
Richard " 8
Ruth " 8
Susanna " 8
Thomas " 8
Beuben of Nathaniel
9,10
Ruth of Nathaniel 9
Benjamin of Reuben 10
Whitcher, Joseph of Reuben
2, 10, 11, 13, 15, 25
Marv of Reuben 10
Nathaniel '' 10
Reuben '• 10
Richard '• 10
William '' 10
Joseph of Joseph
11, 12, 26, 112
Deborah 11
Dorothy 11
Sarah ' 11
Willouj^hbv, Joseph D. 24,14
Fatima of Joseph D.
24, 100
Samuel W. of
Joseph D. 24, 100
William W. of
Joseph D. 24, 99
George T. of
William W. 24, 99
Harriet M. of
William W. 24,99
James H. of
Samuel W. 24, 100
Charles W. of
Samuel W. 24, 100
Bertha T. of
George T. 100
Mabel S. of
Georsje T. 100
Chas. W. of
Chas. W. 101
Blanche M. of
Chas. W. 101
Alice M. of
James H. 101
Blanche S. of
James H. 101
Edith H. of
James H. 101
Florence L. of
James H. 101
Maud H. of
James H. 101
Ruth M. of
James H. 101
Walter I. of
James H. 101
128
CHASE WHITOHER AND
Wilson, Ainos
66
Alice I.
67
Dauiel
66
George M.
67
Lovisa
66
Susan M.
66
William F.
67
Wills, Gardner
75
Henry C. J.
75
Wingate. Hattie
88
Young, Ada
44
Arthur
44
Austin
44
Carrie E.
44
Clarence E.
44
Eunice
40
Homer
44
James
44
Joseph
40
Polly
39
William C.
44
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