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

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Biographies:

William Frederick Harnden, expressman, was born in Reading, Mass., in 1812. His father was a house painter and was able to give his children only a limited school training, William was employed as a conductor on the Boston & Worcester railroad and in 1838 became ticket master of the same road. He was married to a daughter of John Fuller of Newton. In 1839 he became an express package cartier with an office at 8 Court street, and in March, 1889, he established the first messenger express between New York and Boston, by way of the Providence railroad and the New York steamboat companies. He was his own messenger and purchased goods, collected drafts, notes and bills, and guaranteed the safe delivery of parcels entrusted to his care. His brother, Adolphus (lost on the Lexington, Jan. 13, 1840), E. L. Stone, Dexter Brigham, Jr., J. W. Lawrence and Luke Damon were his first assistants as clerks and messengers. In 1840 he extended his business to Philadelphia with L. W. Winchester as agent, and in November of that year Mr. Brigham became Mr. Harnden's partner under the firm name Harnden & Co., and went to England to establish a trans-Atlantic express line, opening offices in the principal cities of England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. This led to arrangements with ship owners to carry at cheap rates emigrants from these points to America, and with the New York and Erie canal for the transportation of emigrants from New York to Buffalo and Chicago. By the close of 1844 the firm of Harnden & Co. had brought from the old world to America over 100,000 laborers who found work on farms and in constructing railroads and canals. Mr. Harnden was a victim of pulmonary consumption from which he died in Boston, Mass., Jan. 14, 1845.

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

Timothy Flint, clergyman, was born in Reading, Mass., July 11, 1780. He was graduated from Harvard in 1800 and was licensed a Congregational clergyman in 1802. He was pastor at Lunenburg, Mass., 1802-14, and was a missionary in the valleys of Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 1815-24. He edited the Western Review in Cincinnati, 1825-28, and the Knickerbocker Magazine in New York in 1833. In 1834 he removed to Alexandria, Va. His published works include: Recollections of Ten Years Passed in the Valley of the Mississippi (1826); Francis Berrian; or, the Mexican Patriot (1826); Condensed Geography and History of the Western States in the Mississippi Valley (2 vols., 1828; 2d ed., 1832); Arthur Clenning (2 vols., 1828); George Mason; or, the Young Backwoodsman (1829); Shoshone Valley (1830); Indian Wars in the West (1833); Lectures on Natural History, Geology, Chemistry and the Arts (1833); and A Memoir of Daniel Boone (1834); besides several translations. He died in Salem, Mass., Aug. 16, 1840.

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

Charles Prentiss, author, was born in Reading, Mass., Oct. 8, 1774; son of the Rev. Caleb and Pamela (Mellon) Prentiss; grandson of Caleb and Lydia (Whittemore) Prentiss, and of the Rev. John and Rebecca (Prentiss) Mellen, and a descendant of Valentine Prentise. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1795, A.M., 1798, and was married, Nov. 19, 1795, to Sophia, daughter of the Rev. Francis Gardner of Leominster, Mass. He edited the Rural Repository, published at Leominster, Mass., in 1795; the Political Focus, afterward known as the Washington Federalist, Richmond, Va., 1800-64; the Virginia Gazette, Richmond, in 1805; the Anti-Democrat and The Child of Pallas in Baltimore, Md., 1806-08, and The Thistle, a theatrical paper, in Boston, Mass., in 1809; he was a congressional reporter and also editor of the Independent American, Washington, D.C., in 1810, and settled in Brimfield, Mass., in 1811. He is the author of: A Collection of Fugitive Essays in Prose and Verse (1797); Life of Robert Treat Paine (1812); Life of Gen. William Eaton (1813); Poems (1813); History of the United States (1819); and The Trial of Calvin and Hopkins (1819). He died in Brimfield, Mass., Oct. 19, 1820.

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