Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

The Covington family was not one of the old Plymouth families. Thomas Covington came to Plymouth a few years before the revolution, and married in 1771 Sarah, daughter of Joseph Tribble. Jacob Covington, son of Thomas, was no doubt a shipmaster in early life. He was evidently trained in a business school, and was repeatedly placed in positions of trust by his fellow-citizens. He was the first President of the Old Colony Insurance Company, and of the Old Colony Bank, holding both positions until his death. He was among the first to enter the business of the whale fishery, and was among its most energetic and competent managers. The enterprise of building Long Wharf, and putting the steamboat General Lafayette on the line between Plymouth and Boston, was chiefly due to him and James Bartlett. He married in 1816, Patty, daughter of Gideon Holbrook, and had Elam, 1817, who died in California; Mary Holbrook, 1820, who died in East Orange; Martha Ann, 1822, who died in Plymouth; Edwin, 1825, who died in Boston; Harriet, 1827, who died in Plymouth; Helen, 1830, still living; Jacob, 1832, who died in Providence, and Leonard, 1834, who died in Dorchester.

Mary Holbrook Covington married George H. Bates, a native of Farmington, Maine, and the wife of Rev. Dr. Mann, the present rector of Trinity church in Boston, is her granddaughter. Capt. Covington died May 28, 1835, at the age of forty-four. After the death of Capt. Covington the house in question came into the occupancy of Josiah Robbins, who has already been noticed, and later of Thomas Prince, who occupied it as a boarding house. The next occupant was Peter Holmes, who was the son of Peter and Sally (Harlow) Holmes, and was born in 1804. Mr. Holmes was engaged many years in Boston in the cork manufacture, returning to Plymouth and becoming the owner of the house under consideration. He died October 14, 1880, and the house came into the possession of Nathaniel Morton in 1881, who owned and occupied it until Dr. W. G. Brown not many years since came into its possession. Mr. Morton moved into a new house which he built on Union street, and died July 18, 1902, at the age of seventy-one years, one month and twenty-one days.

The lot next below the Covington house was all through my boyhood, as late as 1830, an outlying barn yard, belonging to Henry Warren, who lived on the corner of North street. I remember well the large barn on the rear of the lot, and the extensive hog sty and hog yard on its easterly side. In 1830 the widow of Henry Warren sold the lot to Rev. Frederick Freeman, who built the house now occupied by Dr. Helen Pierce. Mr. Freeman was descended from early Plymouth Colony ancestors, who for many generations lived in Sandwich, where Mr. Freeman’s grandfather was born. His father, George W. Freeman, settled in North Carolina and married Ann Yates Ghobson, and was for a time an instructor in Raleigh, where he became rector of Christ Church, later accepting the position of Rector of Emanuel Church in Newcastle, Delaware. He received in 1839 the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of North Carolina, and October 26, 1844, was consecrated Bishop of the southwestern diocese, including Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. He died at Little Rock, Arkansas, April 29, 1858.

Rev. Frederick Freeman, son of George Ward and Ann Yates (Ghobson) Freeman, was born in Raleigh, December 1, 1799, and was there ordained as an evangelist. He was settled in 1824 over the Third Church of Plymouth, whose place of worship was on the corner of Pleasant and Franklin streets, and built the house in question in 1830. In 1830 some disaffection arose in his church, which resulted in the secession of a considerable number of its members, and the establishment of the Robinson Congregational church in 1831, and the erection of its place of worship on the corner of Pleasant street, and a street which has since been laid out and named Robinson street. No hint is given so far as I know by any historian as to the cause of the dissension in the church, but there are reasons to believe that, brought up in the Episcopal church, he was never a full fledged Calvinist, and that the secession above referred to and his final resignation in 1833 were due to this fact. The visit of his father to Plymouth in 1832, and his holding an Episcopal service for only the second time in the history of the town, tends to confirm this view of the case. My impression is very strong that sooner or later after he left Plymouth he became a member in full standing of the Episcopal church. He afterwards became a citizen of Sandwich, his ancestral town, and devoted some years to the preparation and publication of a history of Cape Cod, which is a valuable contribution to Old Colony Historical literature. I have a distinct recollection of his personality, a strongly built man with black hair and a Websterian type of head and face, who could not pass in a crowd without observation. He married December 26, 1821, Elizabeth, daughter of George Nichols of Raleigh, who died in Plymouth March 12, 1833. He married second, April 20, 1834, Hannah, daughter of Frederick W. Wolcott of Litchfield, Conn., and third, November, 1841, Isabella, daughter of Hartwell Williams of Augusta, Maine, but I do not know the date of his death. A sister of his married Weston R. Gales, mayor of Raleigh, and hence the name of our late townsman, Weston Gales Freeman of Summer street.

In 1833 Mr. Freeman sold the house to Daniel Jackson, who has already been noticed in these memories. After the death of Mr. Jackson and the removal of his widow to Boston, Dr. Alexander Jackson became the occupant of the house in 1860, and was succeeded by Dr. Edgar D. Hill in 1880, whose occupancy last year gave way to that of Dr. Pierce, the present occupant.

Dr. Alexander Jackson was a descendant in the fifth generation from John Jackson, who came from England and died in 1731. He was the son of Isaac and Sarah (Thomas) Jackson, and was born in Winthrop, Maine, May 18, 1819. His father moved to Boston when he was a boy, and Alexander was educated at the Boston Latin School, where he fitted for college. He graduated at Amherst in 1840, and took his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1843, having been associated during his three years’ course with the Boston Dispensary, and the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary. Not long after receiving his degree he began the practice of his profession in Chiltonville, where he remained until October, 1858, when he moved to Main street, Plymouth, and occupied the house where the Plymouth Savings Bank now stands. In May, 1860, he moved to the house under consideration on North street, which he occupied until October, 1880, when he bought the house on Court street, now occupied by Father Buckley. In October, 1890, he retired from professional business, and moved to Boston. He married, June 14, 1849, Cordelia A., daughter of Nathaniel Reeves of Wayland, and had Isaac, 1850, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Parrish of Philadelphia; Alexander, 1853, who married Abby Warren, daughter of William T. Davis of Plymouth; and Nathaniel Reeves, 1857, who married Hannah M., widow of George W. Brown, and daughter of Lyman Shaw. Dr. Jackson died in Boston, December 12, 1901.

Passing now to the house of Arthur Lord on the lower corner of Rope Walk lane, as it was called, its occupant in my boyhood was Mrs. William Sturtevant, the widow of William Sturtevant, who died December 15, 1819. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Sturtevant) Warren, and was born in Plymouth in 1769, and died December 5, 1838. Her husband was the son of William and Jemima (Shaw) Sturtevant, and was born in that part of Plympton, which is now Carver, in 1761. I have no means of learning what his business was, as I am unable to associate him with any enterprise, industry or profession. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1817, but I find him in no other office. The inscription on his gravestone calls him William Sturtevant, Esq., and as it is certain that he was not a shipmaster or a lawyer, I am inclined to the opinion that he was a merchant, and like George Watson, who died in 1800, and William Jackson, who died in 1837, was called Esquire. Mr. Sturtevant was married in 1791, and had the following children, who survived infancy: Jane, 1794; Hannah, 1796; Sarah, 1799; Lucy, 1802; Rebecca W., 1805; and William, 1809. Hannah married Thomas J. Lobdell, a banker in Boston and died October 3, 1818; William was for a time a partner with William S. Russell in the dry goods jobbing business in Central street, Boston, and later a stock broker; Sarah died July 1, 1833; Lucy died August 7, 1807, and Jane died November 8, 1832. Rebecca W. married in 1831 Rev. Josiah Moore of Duxbury, and died April 7, 1838. Mrs. Moore makes the tenth Plymouth lady whom I remember who married husbands who came to the town to teach school. These were Nathaniel Bradstreet, who married Anna Crombie; Charles Burton, who married Sarah Stephens; George Washington Hosmer, who married Hannah Poor Kendall; William H. Lord, who married Persis Kendall; William Parsons Lunt, who married Ellen Hobart Hedge; Josiah Moore, who married Rebecca W. Sturtevant; Horace H. Rolfe, who married Mary T. Marcy; Benjamin Shurtleff, who married Sally Shaw, Isaac Nelson Stoddard, who married Martha Thomas, and William Whiting, who married Lydia Cushing Russell. Another might have been added to the list if a letter of which I was the innocent bearer, had received a favorable reply. I had no right to know the contents of the letter, but little pitchers have great ears, and mine were uncommonly great when I overheard the letter discussed. The marriage of another teacher, Charles Field to Elizabeth Hayward, was prevented by his death, August 22, 1838.

In 1839 the house in question was sold to Dr. Timothy Gordon, who occupied it until his death. Dr. Gordon came to Plymouth in 1837, but where he lived until he moved into the Sturtevant house, I am not able to say. His ancestor, Alexander Gordon, a Scotchman, came to New England in 1651, and settled in New Hampshire. The Doctor was the son of Timothy and Lydia Whitmore Gordon, and was born in Newbury, N. H., March 10, 1795, and made several voyages as supercargo.

In 1823 he entered the office of his brother William in Hingham, and completed his studies at the Bowdoin College medical school, where he received a degree in 1825, and first settled in Weymouth. In 1837 he came to Plymouth, and in 1839 moved into the house in question. He was bold and successful as a practitioner, and skilful as a surgeon. For many years he was one of the chief supporters of the Third Church, and a liberal contributor to its funds, and both he and his wife made large gifts for the support of foreign missions. He was a trustee of the Pilgrim Society, and Vice President from 1872 to 1877; a Director of the Plymouth Bank and Plymouth National Bank from 1845 to 1877, and the recipient of the degree of Master of Arts from Amherst College in 1868. He married May 12, 1825, Jane Binney, daughter of Solomon and Sarah Jones, and had two children, Solomon Jones, September 21, 1826, and Timothy, April 19, 1836, the latter of whom died young. Dr. Gordon was a shrewd man, and would have made a good detective, as the following incident shows. He believed that the methods pursued in New York and Boston in detecting criminals by the aid of newspaper reporters was like hunting ducks with a brass band, and acted accordingly. He had a famous peach tree in his garden laden with luscious fruit, of which one night he was robbed. Neither he nor his wife mentioned the loss even to their servant, and no one knew of the robbery besides themselves and the thief. One day as the Doctor was sweeping his sidewalk a man came along and entered into conversation. Just as he turned to leave he said, “by the way, Doctor, did you ever find out who stole your peaches.” “Yes, you rascal,” the Doctor replied. “You stole them, and if you don’t pay me five dollars instantly I will have you put in jail.” The man confessed at once, and paid the money down.

Solomon Jones Gordon, the son of Dr. Gordon, was born in Weymouth, September 24, 1826, and graduated at Harvard in 1847. He studied law with Jacob H. Loud in Plymouth, and in the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar October 18, 1850. He soon after became associated with Orlando B. Potter, who was interested in sewing machine patents, and removed his office to New York, where he accumulated a handsome fortune. He married Rebecca, daughter of David Ames of Springfield, in which city he made his home until his death in 1890.