History of Monson, (Hampden County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Emerson Bennett, author, was born at Monson, Hampden county, Mass., March 16, 1822. His early life was spent on a farm, where his father died in 1835, after which, by his own efforts, he acquired an education, and on going to New York in 1839 began writing for periodicals. He removed to Cincinnati and later to Philadelphia, and attracted some notice by his poems and stories. Among his numerous books are: "Viola" (1852); "Waldo Warren" (1852); "Clara Moreland" (1853); "The Artist's Bride" (1857); "Prairie Flower"; "Lena Leoti"; "Ellen Norbury"; "The Outlaw's Daughter" (1874); "Villeta Linden" (1874), and "The Phantom of the Forest" (1874.)

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

James Lyman Merrick, missionary, was born in Monson, Mass., Oct. 11, 1803; son of Gideon and Beulah (Stebbins) Merrick; grandson of Obed and Mercy (Stebbins) Merrick, and of Jesse and Elizabeth Stebbins, and a descendant of Thomas Merrick, 1630. He was graduated at Amherst college, A.B., 1830, A.M., 1833; studied at Princeton Theological seminary, 1830-31, and was graduated at Columbia Theological seminary, S.C., in 1883. He was ordained as a Presbyterian evangelist, April 15, 1834, and was appointed missionary to Persia; by the A.B.C.F.M., and served at Tabriz, 1835 and 1837-41; at Shiraz, 1836, and at Urumiah, 1841-45. He was married, March 11, 1839, at Tabriz, to Emma, daughter of Nathaniel and Maria Taylor, of Portsmouth, England. He was pastor of the Congregational church, South Amherst, Mass., 1849-64, and an instructor in oriental literature at Amherst, 1852-57. He willed his property to the four institutions in which he obtained his education, stipulating that it he used to endow four Persian scholarships. He left manuscript translations into Persian, and published: Pilgrim's Harp, poems (1847); The Life and Religion of Mohammed, translated from the Persian Hy?bul-Kuloob (1850); Kieth's Evidence of Prophecy, translated into Persian (1846): and Genealogy of the Merrick Family (1850). He left in MS. A Treatise on the Orthography of the English Language with a new Alphabet of Forty Letters. He died in South Amherst, Mass., June 18, 1866.

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

Orson Desaix Munn, publisher, was born in Monson, Mass., June 11, 1824; son of Rice and Lavinia (Shaw) Munn; grandson of Reuben and Hannah Hun, and a descendant of Benjamin Hun who in 1637 was a resident of Hartford, Conn., and that year joind an expedition against the Pequot Indians and was at the attack on the fort at Groton, Conn., where a great number were killed. Benjamin Hun served in the army, fighting Indians until he was exempted from military service on account of his old age, in 1665. Orson D. Munn was graduated at Monson academy in 1840: was a clerk in a book store at Springfield, Mass., 1840-42, and a clerk in a country store in Monson, Mass., 1843-46. He removed to New York city in 1846, and in connection with Alfred E. Beach, a former schoolmate, purchased the Scientific American, then six months old, from Rufus Porter, the founder, for less than $1000. It was soon placed on a paying basis by the new firm of Munn & Co. They established the Scientific American Supplement in 1876, and an Architect and Builders' edition in 1885. The publishing house which Mr. Munn founded in 1846 established offices in New York and Washington in 1850, procuring letters patents for new inventions, and more than 150,000 cases passed through their agency before 1902. The following well-known inventors were among their many noted clients: Prof. S. F.B. Morse, Elias Howe, Thomas Blanchard, A. B. Wilson, Peter Cooper, Commodore Stevens, Cyrus H. McCormick, R. J. Gatling and R. P. Parrot. Mr. Munn was married in August, 1849, to Julia Augusta, daughter of Plin Allen of Monson, Mass., and their sons, Henry M. and Charles Allen, after leaving school, entered the offices of Munn & Co., where they became important factors.

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