History of Framingham, (Middlesex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Peter Parker, missionary and diplomat, was born in Framingham, Mass., June 18, 1804; son of Nathan and Catharine (Murdock) Parker, grandson of Peter and Ruth (Eaton) Parker, great-grandson of John and Experience (Cloyes) Parker, and a descendant of Hananiah Parker of Reading, Mass. He was a student at Amherst college, 1827-30, was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1831, M.D., 1834; and attended Yale Divinity school, 1832-34. He was appointed by the A.B. C.F.M., a missionary to China; was ordained May 16, 1834, and embarked for Canton in June, 1834. In October, 1835, he opened an ophthalmic hospital in Canton, which soon became a general hospital, and not only attended over 2,000 sick, but preached to his patients in their own language and trained several in medicine and surgery. He came back to the United States at the outbreak of the opium war between China and England in 1840, and was married, March 29, 1841, to Harriet Colby, daughter of John Ordway Webster, of Augusta, Maine. He returned to China in 1842, accompanied by his wife, who was the first foreign woman to reside in Canton. Dr. Parker continued the hospital 1842-55. He was appointed secretary and interpreter to the U.S. legation to China in 1844; and in 1845 resigned his connection With the American board to serve as charg? d'affaires in the absence of the U.S. minister. In 1853 he made a brief visit to the United States, where he was appointed U.S. commissioner to China with plenipotentiary powers for the revision of the treaty of 1844, and served as such, 1855-57. In this capacity he was again in China, 1855-57, and then settled in Washington, D.C. He was founder and for several years president of the Medical Missionary Society of China, became a regent of the Smith-sonian Institution in 1868, a corporate member of the A.B.C. of F.M. in 1871, and in that year a delegate of the Evangelical Alliance to petition the Emperor of Russia to permit freedom of worship in the Baltic provinces. He was president of the Washington branch of the Evangelical Alliance in 1887. Yale conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1858. He is the author of: Journal of an Expedition from Singapore to Japan (1838); A Statement respecting Hospitals in China (1841); Eulogy on Henry Wilson (1880). He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 1888.

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

Crispus Attucks, martyr, was born in the vicinity of Cochituate lake, Framingham, Mass., about 1723. His ancestors were probably Natick Indians, who had intermarried with negro slaves. He was a man of imposing stature, being six feet and two inches tall. March 5, 1770, because of real or fancied insolence from a detachment of soldiers, commanded by Captain Preston of the 29th regiment, a party of men and boys, armed with sticks and missiles, and led by Crispus Attucks, bore down upon the "redcoats," who were stationed in front of the custom house on King street. Believing that the soldiers would not dare to fire, the mob pushed aside the muskets with sticks, threw stones and snow-balls, and filled the air with taunts of cowardice. A soldier was knocked down, and on regaining his position, he saw Attucks, the black giant, armed with a club, and heard the war-whoop inherited from his Indian ancestors. It was scarcely possible for a human being to endure this without retaliating, and the soldier raised his musket and fired, killing him. Then other soldiers fired into the mob, and several men were killed or wounded. Three days later the four victims of the massacre were borne with unparalleled pomp to the burial-ground, where they were placed in one vault. The shops were closed, and all the bells were ordered to be toiled. Inaccurate and inflamed accounts of the affair were spread throughout the colonies, and Crispus Attucks, the disorderly slave, was heralded as a martyred patriot. Patrick Carr, who died of his wounds on the 14th, was buried on the 17th in the same vault. Later Captain Preston and the soldiers were brought to trial for murder. John Adams defended them. Two were convicted for manslaughter and slightly branded; the others were acquitted. In 1888 a ten thousand dollar monument was erected on Boston common, to the memory of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Samuel Gray, and Patrick Carr, "the first martyrs in the cause of American liberty, having been shot by the British soldiers, March 5, 1770." See the article on Attucks in the American Historical Record for 1872, and George Bancroft's "History of the United States."

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

Charles Henry Parkhurst, clergyman and reformer, was born in Framingham, Mass., April 17, 1842; son of Charles F. W. and Mary (Goodale) Parkhurst, and grandson of John Parkhurst (Harvard, 1811). He prepared for college at Lancaster academy and was graduated at Amherst, A.B., 1866, A.M., 1869. He was principal of the Amherst high school, 1867-69; studied theology in the University of Halle, 1869-70; was married, Nov. 23, 1870, to Nellie, daughter of Luther and Philena (Hawks) Bodman of Williamsburg, Mass.; taught Greek and Latin in Williston seminary, Easthampton, Mass., 1870-71; completed his theological studies at Leipzig, 1872-73; was pastor of the Congregational church at Lenox, Mass., 1874-80, and was called to the Madison Square Presbyterian church, New York city, in 1880. He became interested in social reform, preaching the same from the pulpit, was a director in the Society for the Prevention of Crime, 1890, and its president in 1891, succeeding Dr. Howard Crosby. He declared that those entrusted with the enforcement of the laws were derelict of duty and often corrupt, and in 1892 delivered a sermon for which he was summoned before the grand jury, which pronounced the sermon without foundation. He then personally investigated the truth of the matter, preached a second sermon, and was again summoned before the grand jury, which, on his testimony followed by investigations, charged the police authorities with incompetency or criminality. Believing that municipal politics could be reformed he continued to work to that end, but his positions did not always conform with those of other reformers, notably with those of Mayor Low, 1901-02. Dr. Parkhurst charged the reform mayor of New York city with "having sworn to enforce all the laws to the best of his ability, and reserving to himself the privilege of making an exception of the Excise Law." He received from Amherst the honorary degree of D.D. in 1880 and that of LL.D. in 1892, and was trustee of that institution, 1892-1902. He is the author of: Forms of the Latin Verb, Illustrated by the Sanskrit (1870); The Blind Man's Creed and Other Sermons (1883); The Pattern in the Mount and Other Sermons (1885); Three Gates on a Side (1887); What Would the World be Without Religion? (1888); The Swiss Guide (1889); Our Fight with Tammany (1895); The Sunny Side of Christianity (1901); and many sermons and magazine articles.

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

John Nixon, soldier, was born in Framingham, Mass., March 1, 1727; son of Christopher and Mary (Sever) Nixon, and grandson of Joseph Sever. Christopher Nixon came to Framingham early in 1724, and John joined the troops trader Sir William Pepperrell in 1745, in the expedition against Cape Breton and in the capture of Louisburg. He served in the Colonial army, 1745-75, except 1752-55, when he was at his home in Framingham. He was a lieutenant in Capt. E. Newell's company in the expedition to Crown Point, 1755-56; was commissioned captain in 1756, took part in the defence of Fort William Henry, Lake George, 1756; commanded a company in Col. T. Ruggles's regiment at Half Moon, 1758, and was captain in command of 108 men, 1761-62. He led a company of minute men at the battle of Lexington and commanded a regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was seriously wounded. He was promoted brigadier-general in the Continental army, Aug. 9, 1776; commanded the forces stationed at Governor's Island in New York harbor, and in the battle of Stillwater, commanded the 1st Massachusetts regiment, in the army of Gen. Horatio Gates. He resigned his commission in the Continental army, Sept. 12, 1780, owing to ill health occasioned by his wounds. He was married, first, Feb. 7, 1754, to Thankful, daughter of Joseph Berry, and secondly, Feb. 5, 1778, to Hannah (Drury) Gleason, widow of Capt. Micajah Gleason and daughter of Josiah Drury. She died, Sept. 26, 1831. General Nixon died in Middlebury, Vt., March 24, 1815.

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