History of West Newbury, (Essex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

J. Appleton Brown, artist, was born at West Newbury, Mass., July 12, 1844. In his boyhood he showed unmistakable talent for drawing and painting, and this talent his parents were careful to encourage. He was graduated from the high school in Newburyport, and in 1865 went to Boston, where, with Mr. B.C. Porter, he opened a studio. In 1866 he went abroad, where he spent some time drawing in the Louvre, and in 1867 began to study under Lambinet. In 1868 he returned to his studio in Boston, where he remained until his marriage in 1874 to Agnes Bartlet, an artist of talent. With his wife he visited Paris, where they remained a year. A picture painted at Calvados, entitled, "Le Bord de la Mer, ? Dives," was exhibited and sold from the salon of 1875. "L'Et?" was also hung in the same salon. Annual exhibitions of his paintings were made in Boston. In 1879 he illustrated "Landscape in American Poetry," by Lucy Larcom, published by the Appletons. In 1886 he spent the summer painting in England. He was elected a member of the Society of American artists, associate national academician, and member of New York water-color club. He was awarded a medal by the World's Columbian exposition, and won several medals in Boston. He removed to New York city in 189l. Among his paintings are: "A View, Dives Calvados, France" (1875); "Old Road near Paris" (1875); "On the Merrimac at Newburyport, Autumn," "Storm at the Isle of Shoals," "Glen Mill Brook, Byfield, Mass." He died in New York city Jan. 18, 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Cornelius Conway Felton, educator, was born in West Newbury, Mass., Nov. 6, 1807; son of Cornelius Conway and Anna (Morse) Felton; grandson of Thomas and Martha (Conway) Felton; and great, great, great, great-grandson of Lieut. Nathaniel Felton, who came from Yarmouth, England, was married to Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Skelton, and settled in Salem, Mass., in 1633. During his college course at Harvard, Cornelius partially supported himself by teaching in Boston, Concord and at Round Hill school, Northampton. He was a conductor of the Harvard Register in his senior year and was graduated in 1827. He taught at Geneseo, N.Y., 1827-29; was Latin tutor at Harvard, 1829; Greek tutor, 1830-32; university professor of Greek, 1832-34; Eliot professor of Greek literature, 1834-60; faculty regent, 1849-57, and president of the institution from Feb. 16, 1860, to Feb. 26, 1862. He spent five months of 1853-54 in Greece, where he made a study of ancient art and language, and of the modern Greeks, by whom he became known as the "American professor." He was married in 1838 to Mary, daughter of Asa Whitney. She died in 1845 and he was married in 1846 to Mary Louisa, daughter of Thomas Greaves and Mary (Perkins) Cary of Boston. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution, 1856-62, a member of the Massachusetts board of education and of the Massachusetts historical society; fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and corresponding member of the Archaeological society of Athens, Greece. He received the degree of LL.D. from Amherst in 1848 and from Yale in 1860. He published Greek text-books, including an edition of Homer, with Flaxman's illustrations (1833) which was revised and reissued periodically for many years. He translated Menzel's German Literature (3 vols., 1840); Classical Studies (1843); Guyot's The Earth and Man (1849); Slections from Prof. Popkin with Memoir (1852); wrote Life of William Eaton for Sparks's American Biographies (1853); and prepared a revised edition of Smith's History of Greece (1855); and Selections from Modern Greek Writers (1856). His Familiar Letters from Europe was published posthumously (1864); and Greek, Ancient and Modern, lectures before the Lowell institute, Boston, (1867), While en route for Washington to attend a meeting of the regents of the Smithsonian institution, he died in Chester, Pa., Feb. 26, 1862.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Herbert Darling Foster, educator, was born in West Newbury, Mass., June 22, 1863; son of the Rev. Davis and Harriet Louisa (Darling) Foster; and grandson of Richard and Irene (Burroughs) Foster and of Henry and Eliza (Cobb) Darling. He was graduated at Phillips Exeter academy in 1881 and at Dartmouth college, A. B., 1885, and A.M., 1888. He held a Morgan fellowship in history in Harvard graduate school, 1891-93; received the degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1892, and studied and travelled in Europe, 1893-94. He taught history at Worcester academy, Mass., 1885-91, organizing that department in 1888 with the position of instructor in history and German, 1888-91. He was elected the first professor of history at Dartmouth college in 1893, with one year's leave of absence, and organized the new department in 1894. He was married, July 7, 1897, to Lillian Darlington Smith of Liverpool, England.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Leonard Woods, Jr., educator, was born in West Newbury, Mass., Nov. 24, 1807; son of the Rev. Dr. Leonard and Abigail (Wheeler) Woods. He attended Phillips Andover academy, 1815-23; matriculated at Dartmouth, in 1823, and entered Union college, in 1824, from which he was graduated, A.B., 1827; and also from Andover Theological seminary, 1830, continuing at the seminary as an assistant instructor in Hebrew, 1830-31, and as an Abbot resident postgraduate student, 1831-33. He was licensed to preach in 1833; was acting pastor at the Laight Street Presbyterian church, New York city, in 1833, and ordained an evangelist by the third presbytery of New York, his father officiating. He was professor of sacred literature in Bangor Theological seminary, 1836-39, and president of Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Maine, 1839-66, the new college chapel being erected during his administration through funds which he secured by the law of "contingent remainders" from the estate of one James Temple Bowdoin, grandnephew of Gov. James Bowdoin. He visited Europe in 1833 and 1840, and again in 1866 as a commissioner from Maine to collect historical state data, which materialized in his Discovery of Maine (1868). The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Colby in 1839 and by Harvard in 1840, and that of LL.D. by Bowdoin in 1866. He was a member of the Maine, Massachusetts and New York Historical societies, serving as a member of the publishing and standing committees of the first organization, in whose Proceedings was published Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse on Western Planting" (1584), which Dr. Woods discovered while in Europe, the discourse having lain in manuscript nearly three hundred years, and for which he prepared a "Preface" and "Introduction"; Charles Deane completing and editing the volume (1877). Dr. Woods lectured in New England on the "Liberties of the Ancient Republics;" translated Knapp's "Christian Theology" (2 vols., 1831-33); assisted Moses Stuart in his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans" (1832); was assistant editor, with Edward Robinson, of the Biblical Repository; editor of the Literary and Theological Review of New York, 1834-37, and is the author of eulogies on Daniel Webster (1852) and Parker Cleveland (1859), and of an address upon the Opening of the New Medical School of Maine (1862). His valuable private library was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1873. See: "The Life and Character of Leonard Woods, D.D., LL.D." by Edwards A. Park (1880). He died in Boston, Mass., Dec. 24, 1878.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor