Sebeus Colver Maine (1812-1887)

   Bearing a remarkable resemblance to literary icon Charles Dickens, Massachusetts state senator, judge, and inventor Sebeus Colver Maine looks every bit the dapper 19th-century man-of-affairs. This interestingly named man carved quite a career for himself in a number of different vocations, but despite his impressive stature in Massachusetts public life, very little information could be found on him.

   Born in North Stonington, Massachusetts on June 22, 1812, Sebeus was one of thirteen children born to Jabish Breed Maine (1774-1856), a stone and plaster mason, and his wife, Freelove Edwards (1776-1856). No information could be located as to Maine's childhood or education, although it has been found that he taught school in Herkimer County, New York, and during the early 1840s operated the law office of Benton and Maine in the town of Little Falls. He married in Pittston, Maine on September 18, 1843, to Julia Octavia Stevens (1806-1881), a native of Kennebec County. The couple later became the parents of two children, Annie Evans (birth date unknown) and William Stevens Bartlett (birth date unknown) who later became a painter of landscapes.

   Maine was admitted to the Suffolk, Massachusetts bar in February 1845 and spent the next decade in the practice of law. In 1854 he won election to the Massachusetts State Senate, representing the county of Suffolk. His name appeared in an 1855 Massachusetts State Register and is shown below. 

  In the year following his term in the senate, he was named as a commissioner of Insolvency in Boston and in 1858 was appointed as Judge of the Boston Police Court, serving on the bench until 1866. During his tenure on the court, Maine had to contend with numerous instances of draft protests in Boston during the Civil War period, and is acknowledged by a 2012 Foxboro Reporter article as coming "down hard on those who protested the draft during a time of great peril for the nation." Maine's reputation for doling out harsh sentences to protesters garnered him a number of threats, and he eventually had to leave Boston for a short period out of concern for his safety!

   Following his tenure on the Boston police court, little else could be found on Maine's life. In addition to serving in the above capacities, Maine was also an inventor, being awarded patents for "inventions relating to disinfection, cooling, and ventilation" between 1866 and 1872. He also was awarded patents for a "cabinet bedstead" and a fire extinguisher in June 1869. Maine's wife Julia died in 1881 at age 75 and he died on November 25, 1887, at the same age. The Genealogical Record of Nathaniel Babcock, Simeon Maine, Issac Miner, Ezekiel Main notes that Sebeus Maine was buried in Stonington, but fails to mention a name for the cemetery in which he was interred. Julia Octavia Maine was buried in Pittston, Randolph County, Maine following her death in 1881.

   From the Genealogical Record of Nathaniel Babcock, Simeon Maine, Issac Miner, Ezekiel Main, 1909.

Alvertus Willard Morse (1841-1912), Alvertus Jason Morse (1872-1949)

Portrait from the Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, 1894.

   A distinguished resident of Belchertown in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Alvertus Willard Morse served one term in the Massachusetts General Court beginning in 1894 and in addition to his legislative service was a Civil War veteran, farmer, and businessman. Born in Belchertown on January 21, 1841, Alvertus W. Morse was the son of Jason (1810-1873) and Betsy (Williams) Morse (1810-1851). He would receive his schooling in his hometown and as an adolescent enrolled at the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. In 1862 he signed on for service in the 46th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers and served with this outfit until being discharged on July 1st of the following year. He reenlisted in the army that same day, and joined the Second Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, serving until the close of the Civil War.

    Morse received his discharge in September 1865 and on October 1, 1868, he married Martha "Mattie" Stockwell (1849-1903). The couple's marriage extended nearly four decades and saw the births of five children, Bertha Elizabeth (1869-1927), Bessie Lovina Morse (1871-1912), Alvertus Jason (1872-1949), Raymond E. (born 1874), and Ransom W. (born 1880). In the years following his marriage, Morse became active in Belchertown politics, holding a seat on the local school committee from 1871 to 1880. In 1884 he won election as town selectman (serving until 1888) and pulled double duty as town overseer of the poor until 1888. Morse also held the post of superintendent of the Belchertown Creamery beginning in 1889. This creamery is acknowledged as being known across the state for its butter production and did a successful business until its closing in 1917.

    In November 1893 Alvertus Morse won election as a Republican to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives from Hampshire County, defeating Democratic candidate Loman Augustin Smith (1833-1914) by a vote of 725 to 352. Serving in the session of 1894-95, he held a seat on the house committee on Libraries. 

   Following the conclusion of his term in 1895, Morse became the Secretary of the Massachusetts Creamery Association and served in this capacity for several years. He was also active in Belchertown fraternal organizations, being a past commander of the E.J. Briggs Post of the Grand Army of the Republic and a chaplain of the Mt. Vernon, Massachusetts Lodge of Masons. He died in his native Belchertown on September 28, 1912, aged 71, and was interred at the Hillcrest Cemetery in that village.

  

   From the 1894 Massachusetts General Court manual.

Portrait courtesy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Special Collections.

  In an update (December 13, 2019) to an already six-year-old article, Alvertus Jason Morse, the son of Alvertus Willard Morse, is profiled. With the help of Morse descendant Moriah Morse, this author was made aware of the fact that political service (as well as odd names) continued in this family in Alvertus Jason Morse, who served three consecutive terms as Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts. Born in Belchertown on July 15, 1872, Morse would attend local schools and later enrolled at the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst.   

  Graduating in the class of 1894, Morse embarked upon a teaching career that extended several years, and in 1900 married to Lillia May Davis (1875-1960), to who he was wed for nearly five decades. The couple would have two children, Alvertus Davis (1904-1982) and  Martha (1912-1985). At the turn of the 19th century Morse turned his attention to law studies, and in 1901 graduated with his degree from the Boston University Law School. Soon after he established himself in practice in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resided for the remainder of his life.

  Beginning his career in city politics as a member of the city board of aldermen, Morse also sat as a member of the city council in 1915-16 and in the last-named year was elected as mayor of Northampton. He would be reelected to that office on two more occasions (1917 and 1918) and in 1918 was unopposed at the ballot box.

  Active in the civic and fraternal life of Hampshire County, Morse served as treasurer of the Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden County Agricultural Society beginning in 1914, was treasurer of the local YMCA chapter, and before his mayoralty served as secretary of the Northampton Board of Trade. Morse would also log twenty-five years of service as secretary of the Three County Fair Association, serving from 1924 until his death.

  After his mayoralty, Alvertus J. Morse continued in his law practice, and in 1928 was joined by his son Alvertus Davis. Morse died at a city hospital on May 31, 1949, aged 77, and was survived by his wife and children. He was later interred at the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton.

Ludovicus French Wild (1825-1889)

Portrait from the Massachusetts State Library Archives.

    An interestingly named resident of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Ludovicus French Wild was the son of local boot maker Ludovicus (1802-1884) and Mehitable French Wild (1803-1859), being born in the village of Randolph on August 1, 1825. Little could be found on Wild's early life, but notice is given as to his following in his father's footsteps, becoming a boot manufacturer. Ludovicus F. Wild married on October 4, 1849, in Braintree, Massachusetts to Charlotte Ellen Thayer (1830-1920), with whom he had three children, Marietta H. (birth date unknown), Lizzie Ellen (birth date unknown) and Henry Weston (1852-1894).

   Wild's life in the years following his marriage is sketchy at best, with little being known on what he was up to during this time. He served as collector of taxes for Randolph in 1872, and in that same year was Randolph's representative to the Massachusetts General Court, holding a seat on the house committee on the Pay Roll. He was later excused from this committee by an act of the legislature, and New Bedford Representative Ellis Perry was appointed in his place.

   Little else is known of Wild's life, excepting note of his death on August 3, 1889, in Holbrook, Massachusetts. His wife Charlotte survived her husband by over three decades, dying in 1920 at age 90. Both were interred at the Union Cemetery in Holbrook. The rare portrait of Wild shown above was featured in an 1872 Massachusetts General Court legislative portrait album, currently located in the archives of the Massachusetts State Library in Boston.

Nesbit Gamaliel Gleason (1872-1948), Nesbit Sargent Ross (1858-1926)

From Bridgeman's "Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators", 1917 edition.

    An active civic leader and political figure in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts, Nesbit Gamaliel Gleason was for many years one of Andover's leading citizens. A one-term member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives as well as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1917-18, Gleason also attained high rank in two different Masonic lodges in Massachusetts. Born in the city of Lawrence on November 11, 1872, Nesbit G. Gleason attended the public schools of that town and was employed by the American Express Co. and later, the American Woolen Company. He married on June 7, 1894, to Alice Christie, who was born in Scotland. They became the parents of one daughter, Elsie Grosvenor Gleason in March 1895.

   In 1901 he was elected as Andover town auditor and served in this capacity for over fifteen years. In addition to his serving as town clerk, Gleason was also the chairman of the Andover Republican town committee from 1909 to 1910.  In 1915 he was elected as one of Essex County's representatives in the Massachusetts General Court. Taking his seat in January 1916, Gleason was named to the house committees on Counties, Social Insurance, and chaired the committee on Municipal Insurance. During his legislative term, Gleason was also a member of the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention of 1917-1918. 

  Prominent in the local Masonic fraternity, Gleason held memberships in two lodges in the Essex County area. He was a Past Master of the St. Matthews Masonic Lodge, a member of the Mt. Sinai Royal Arch Masons, the Ancient Order of the Accepted Scottish Rite, the Andover Odd Fellows Lodge, and a member of the Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine. The remainder of Nesbit G. Gleason's life following his term in the legislature is totally unknown. He is recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census as a 67-year-old residing at Mt. Vernon Street in Boston with his wife and daughter, whose death dates also remain unknown at this time.

  As this article "went to press", as it were, it was lacking a death date for Mr. Gleason, and despite my best attempts at perusing my usual archived newspaper resources and genealogical web pages, one could not be found. I'd like to offer a hail and hearty thank you to the Strangest Names In American Political History Facebook follower John Mark Woodbury for locating Mr. Gleason's date of demise, courtesy of the ever-useful Ancestry.com. Nesbit Gleason passed away on June 19, 1948, in his 76th year, three decades after his service in the Massachusetts legislature. 

From the York Daily News, November 11, 1911.

  Long a distinguished lawyer in York County, Pennsylvania, Nesbit Sargent Ross made his first move into politics in 1885, with his service as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Republican state convention. He emerged on the national political scene seven years later with his unsuccessful candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, and nearly two decades following his defeat Ross won election as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of York County, serving on the bench until his death in 1926. Recorded by most sources under the abbreviated name "N. Sargent Ross", Ross was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania on May 3, 1858, the son of Rev. Joseph A. (1816-1888) and Mary Jamison Harvey Ross (1824-1892).

  As the son of a prominent Methodist minister, Ross' education was obtained in various Pennsylvania schools due to his father's frequent ministerial travels. He would attend seminaries in Juniata County and in Williamsport and later enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle in the 1870s. After a year spent teaching in 1874-75, Ross turned his attention to reading law and began study under Mifflintown attorney Jeremiah Lyons. He was admitted to the Juniata County bar in 1882.

  Establishing himself in practice in Mifflintown, Ross moved to York, Pennsylvania in 1883 and through the succeeding years gained distinction in law circles in that county, along with" a profitable clientele." N. Sargent Ross married Susan W. Sanks (1858-1925) in April 1890 and had one daughter Ruth Sanks, who died in infancy in 1892.

   A lifelong Republican, Ross was elected as a delegate from York County to the Republican State Convention of 1885, beginning his political career. In 1892 he entered into the race for U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania's 19th congressional district, and after winning the Republican primary opposed Democrat Frank Eckels Beltzhoover (1841-1923), who had served three previous terms in Congress. The general election of November 1892 brought defeat for the Republicans in the district, with Beltzhoover besting Ross by a vote of 21,963 to 16,198.

From the Harvey Book, 1899.

  In 1895 Ross partnered with attorney H.C. Brenneman in the law firm of Ross and Brenneman, which extended until Ross was elected judge. In the same year as that partnership began, Ross was named as a director for the City Bank of York and continued in that post until his elevation to the bench. Active in the fraternal clubs of York County, Ross was for many years a Mason in his region, holding the office of Past Master of York Lodge No. 266 of Free and Accepted Masons. In addition, he was a past high priest in the Howell Chapter No. 199 of the Royal Arch Masons, and a member of the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. 

  N. Sargent Ross returned to politics in 1911, announcing his candidacy for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of York County. In a campaign notice touting his nearly three decades of experience in the courts, The York Daily acknowledged that:

"The elevation of a man with the character of Mr. Ross to the bench of the common pleas court of York County will be a deserving honor to one qualified to fill the highest office in the gift of the people of the county."

  That November Ross won election as judge and took his seat in 1912. He won a second ten-year term on the bench in 1921, and following the retirement of Judge Nevin Wanner in January 1926 succeeded to the post of President Judge of the county court system. Early in 1926 Ross's health began to fail, the effects of "endocarditis and arterio-sclerosis". In February 1926 he left Pennsylvania to seek the war climate of Florida, traveling to St. Augustine. His health continued to ebb following his arrival, and he died in that city on March 3, 1926, aged 64. His wife Susan had preceded him in death the previous year, and both were interred at the mausoleum at the Prospect Hill Cemetery in York.

Chenery Puffer (1804-1877)

   A resident of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, Dr. Chenery Puffer was a prominent 19th-century physician in Franklin County, Massachusetts who served one term in the Massachusetts General Court. Little information could be found on this obscure man, excepting a small write-up in the Descendants of George Puffer of Braintree, Massachusetts, 1639-1915, published in 1916. All of the information on Dr. Puffer contained herein was discovered in the aforementioned work, as was the portrait of him shown above.

  Chenery Puffer was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts on December 29, 1804, the son of John and Ruth Willis Puffer. Chenery was the eighth and last child born to the couple, who were married in 1786. He attended school in the Dummerston, Vermont area and at age 21 migrated to Three Rivers, New York to begin a teaching career. He soon returned to Vermont and began studying medicine under a certain Dr. Knapp of Dummerston, and later graduated from the Harvard Medical School. 

  Puffer established his first medical practice in the town of Coleraine, Massachusetts, and resided here for some time. He married in Massachusetts in January 1834 to Lucy Alden (1810-1892). The couple were wed for over forty years and had four children: Henry Marvin (1835-1905), Samuel Willis (1837-1912), Charles Chenery (1841-1915), and Lucy Maria (died at age 4 in 1846). Of the four Puffer children, Charles Chenery Puffer can be regarded as the most notable, as he became notable in publishing, and manufacturing in South Carolina and New York.

  Dr. Chenery Puffer later removed from Coleraine to Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, where he resided until his death. In the years following his removal to Shelburne Falls, it is mentioned that he enjoyed "a large and lucrative practice....achieving great distinction with his work." Puffer's inclusion on the site here rests on his service in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives, which he was elected to in 1863. He served one term in this body and during his term served on the Committee on Roads and Bridges.

  

                           A roster from a Manual of the General Court of Massachusetts from 1863.

    In addition to his medical practice and legislative service, Dr. Puffer was also active in civic affairs in Shelburne Falls, serving on the town school committee for a few terms. He later served as President of the Franklin County Medical Society and is also mentioned as a founding member of the local Baptist church. Dr. Chenery Puffer died at age 73 on March 6, 1877, at his home in Shelburne Falls and was subsequently buried in the Arms Cemetery in Shelburne. His wife Lucy survived him by fifteen years, dying in 1892 at age 82. As a testament to his stature in the Shelburne Falls community, the Descendants of George Puffer memorialized him as "universally respected and beloved in the community he served so faithfully."

Polycarpus Loring Cushman (1778-1855)

   This dour-looking gentleman is Polycarpus Loring Cushman, a uniquely named member of both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature. Born on September 21, 1778, in Bernardston, Massachusetts, Cushman was the second-born son of Dr. Polycarpus (1750-1797) and Rachel Field Cushman. Polycarpus Loring Cushman gained his distinctive first and middle names courtesy of his father, who named him in honor of a prominent Plympton, Massachusetts physician, and friend of the family named Polycarpus Loring (1700-1770). The name Polycarpus (Latin for Polycarp) extends from a 2nd century Christian bishop in Smyrna (located in modern-day Turkey).

  Young Cushman engaged in farming pursuits for the majority of his life, and it is mentioned that he was one of the first farmers to raise Merino sheep in New England. An 1851 work entitled The Rich Men of Massachusetts makes special note of Cushman's career in farming, stating that he "has done more to advance agricultural interest in this part of the state than any other individual." 
   Cushman married in October 1804 to Ms. Sally Wyles, with whom he had one son, Henry Wyles Cushman (1805-1863). Sally (one source also gives a variation on her name as "Sarah") died in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1845 at age 63. Polycarpus remarried one year later in July 1846 to Abigail Barnard Coleman (born 1786), a resident of Sterling, Vermont.  During a long life Cushman gained a reputation as one of Bernardston's prominent men of affairs, and throughout his life was entrusted to hold a variety of public offices. In 1810, 1816, and 1817 he held the posts of town assessor, selectman, Overseer of the Poor, and later, Justice of the Peace, serving in that capacity for fourteen years. Late in his life, he became a founding member of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, which came into being in 1850. 

   In 1816 Cushman was elected to his first term in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives, where he served one term. He was reelected to the legislature in 1840, and in 1844 was elected to a term in the State Senate from Franklin County. In an interesting coincidence, he served in the same Senate session as his only son, Henry Wyles Cushman (later a Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts), who was elected to a vacancy in the Senate caused by the death of William Whitaker. It is mentioned that father and son were of different political faith (Polycarpus was a Whig and his son a Democrat) but were said to have agreed in "everything else".

The home of Polycarpus L. Cushman, from the History of the Town of Bernardston, 1902.

  Following his term in the Senate, Polycarpus returned to Bernardston and thereafter engaged in his earlier agricultural interests, as well as being recorded as a "warm friend of the cause of education.". He died at age 76 on May 16, 1855, in his native town and was memorialized in the Rich Men of Massachusetts as being "high minded and honorable in all his dealings and intercourse with his fellow citizens, and is liberal, public spirited and charitable." In an aside note, the rare portrait of Cushman shown above was located via a book written and compiled by his son Henry, entitled The Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans,  published in 1855, the year of his father's death. The book mentions that the portrait is based on a daguerreotype taken of him at age 75 at the studio of B.F. Popkins in Greenfield, Massachusetts. 

A death notice for P.L. Cushman, from  The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

Montressor Tyler Allen (1844-1897)

    A prominent 19th-century resident of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Montressor Tyler Allen was born in that same county on May 20, 1844, being the son of George Washington and Mary Tyler Allen. Sources give varying accounts as to his actual birth year (1842, 1843, 1844 or 1845) but most periodicals of the day give the correct year as 1844. He would receive his education at the Warren Academy and also underwent private tutoring. Allen graduated from the Warren Academy and for a time "engaged in mercantile work in Woburn."
   At age 20 Montressor Allen enlisted as a private in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War, and after returning home from service pursued a degree in law. He married in 1865 to Julia Frances Peaslee and the couple remained childless through the entirety of their nearly three decades of marriage. In the mid-1870s Allen resumed his law studies when he enrolled in the prestigious Boston University Law School, graduating from that institution in 1878.
   Following his admittance to the state bar in 1879 Allen established his law practice in Boston. In 1887 he won election to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives (representing Middlesex County) and served in the session of 1888-89. During his term, Allen chaired the House Committee on Railroads and also held seats on the joint committee on expenditures and the committee on finance.

                                                     Montressor Allen during his later years.


   Following his service in the legislature, Allen returned to his native town of Woburn, Massachusetts, later serving stints as city solicitor and registrar of voters. In 1895 he was elected as the Mayor of Woburn, serving one term in that office. In addition to being a public official, Allen was also a member of the Mt. Horeb Masonic Lodge in Woburn and is listed by his obituary as having owned a substantial amount of real-estate throughout the Woburn vicinity.
   Sources mentioning Montressor T. Allen make light of him as one of Woburn's favorite sons, with the Boston Daily Globe noting that he "has for years been sought in a social way, in particular for his peculiar aptness in address. He was a wit and storyteller with hardly a peer; was eloquent and impressive in all that he undertook."
   In 1897 Allen's health began to rapidly fail and in the month preceding his demise was sent to a Boston sanitarium to be cared for by physicians. His stay in the sanitarium lasted two weeks, and he was eventually brought home to Woburn, where he died on December 24, 1897, at age 53. His obituary (posted below) lists his cause of death as organic disease of the heart, and he was survived by his wife, mother, and siblings. It is presumed that he was buried somewhere in the Woburn vicinity, but an exact burial location is unknown at the time of this writing. The rare portrait of Allen shown at the top of this article appeared in the 1890 work One of A Thousand, a biographical and portrait resource of prominent Massachusetts citizens.

Montressor Allen's obituary from the Boston Daily Globe, December 24, 1897.