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

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Biographies:

Samuel Livermore, statesman, was born in Waltham, Mass., May 14, 1732 (O.S.); son of Samuel and ? (Brown) Livermore; and a descendant in the fourth generation from John Livermore, of Exeter, England, who settled in Watertown, Mass., in 1635. He entered the College of New Jersey in 1751, and was graduated A.B., 1752, A.M., 1755. He was admitted to the bar in 1756, and practised for a airart time in Waltham and then in Portsmouth, N.H. He was married, Sept. 28, 1759, to Jane, daughter of the Rev. Arthur Browne of Portsmouth. In 1764 he removed to Londonderry, and represented the town in the provincial assembly, 1768-70, meanwhile, in 1769, returning to Portsmouth, having been appointed advocate in the court of admiralty and king's attorney-general in New Hampshire, which offices he held until 1774. He returned to Londonderry in 1774, and removed to New Holderhess in 1775, having become by purchase the principal proprietor of the town. He was elected attorney-general by the people in 1776, and in November, 1779, was sent by the general court as agent to the Continental congress, to support the claim of the state to the New Hampshire grants. In 1780 he was made a delegate to the Continental congress and served until 1782, when he was appointed chief justice of the superior court. He was again a delegate to congress, 1785-86; was a delegate to the state convention which met in February, 1788, to ratify the Federal constitution, and resigned his position as chief justice, in 1790. He was a representative in the 1st congress, 1789-91, and was re-elected to the 2d congress, but was transferred in 1791 to the U.S. senate, in which body he served by re-election until June 12, 1801, when he resigned on account of ill health. He was president of the state constitutional convention of 1791. Dartmouth college conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1792. He died in Holderness, N.H., May 18, 1803.

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

Jonathan Brown Bright, genealogical writer, was born at Waltham, Mass., April 23, 1800. He received an academic education in his native state, and in 1816 went to Missouri, remaining there and in Alabama for several years. From 1823 to 1849 he was engaged in business in New York city, where he accumulated a considerable fortune. The last thirty years of his life were passed in Waltham, where he wrote a clear and comprehensive work entitled: "The Brights of Suffolk, England, represented in America by the Descendants of Henry Bright, Jr., who settled at Watertown, Mass., about 1630" (1858). A legacy of $50,000 was left to Harvard college at his death, one half of the income to provide books for the library, and the other to pay for scholarships, of which the lineally descended Brights, from Henry Bright, Jr., should have the preference. He died in Waltham, Mass., Dec. 17, 1879.

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

Thomas Hill, educator, was born in New Brunswick, N.J., Jan. 7, 1818; son of Thomas and Henrietta (Barker) Hill, and grandson of Samuel and Anne (Roby) Hill. His parents died when he was very young, and in 1830-33 he served an apprenticeship to a printer. He later studied for a year in Lower Dublin academy, near Philadelphia, Pa., and then served an apprenticeship with an apothecary. He was graduated from Harvard A.B., 1843; S.T.B., 1845, and A.M., 1846. He was married in 1845 to Anne Foster, daughter of Josiah and Mary (Sparhawk) Bellows, of Walpole, N.H. He was pastor of the Unitarian church at Waltham, Mass., 1845-59; was president of Antioch college, Ohio, 1859-62; and president of Harvard college from Oct. 6, 1862,.to Sept. 30, 1868. He resigned the position on account of illness, and was succeeded by Charles W. Eliot. He accompanied Louis Agassiz on his surveying expedition to the coast of South America in 1871. After his return (1873) he became minister of the First Unitarian church at Portland, Maine. He was the inventor of several mathematical contrivances, one of the more remarkable being the occultator, by which eclipses and occultations could be calculated, for which he received the Scott medal of the Franklin institute in 1843. He was an overseer of Harvard, 1871-73; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the American Philosophical society, and a member of the Massachusetts Historical society. He received the degree of S.T.D. from Harvard in 1860 and that of LL.D. from Yale in 1863. He is the author of Christmas, and Poems on Slavery (1843); Arithmetic (1845); Geometry and Faith (1849); Curvature (1850); First Lessons in Geometry (1855); Liberal Education (1855); Jesus the Interpreter of Nature (1859); The Natural Sources of Theology (1875); The True Order of Studies (1876); Practical Arithmetic (1881); In the Woods and Elsewhere (1888); and numerous other works. He died at Waltham, Mass., Nov. 21, 1891.

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

George Washington Plympton, civil engineer, was born in Waltham, Mass., Nov. 18, 1827; son of Thomas Ruggles and Elizabeth (Holden) Plympton; grandson of Peter Plympton and of Lewis Holden, and a descendant of Thomas Plympton, who emigrated from Sudbury, England, in 1640 and was one of the pioneer settlers of Sudbury, Mass. He attended the public schools of Waltham, Mass., and obtained a position in a machine shop in 1844, where he became a practical mechanic and engineer. He was graduated from Renssalaer Polytechnic institute, Troy, N.Y., C.E., 1847; was instructor in geodesy and mathematics in the institute, 1847-48, and engaged in civil engineering in Massachusetts, New York and Ohio, 1848-52. He was professor of chemistry and toxicology in the Long Island College hospital, 1844-45; of engineering and architecture in Western Rescue university, Cleveland, Ohio, 1852-53; of mathematics in the state normal school, Albany, N.Y., 1853-55, and of physics and engineering at the Normal school, Trenton N.J., 1857-59; of physical science in the Brooklyn Polytechnic institute, 1863-69; of physics and engineering at Cooper Union, New York city, 1869-79, and became director of the Cooper Union night school in 1879. He was chief engineer of the water board of Bergen, N.J., and was appointed commissioner to supervise the construction of electrical subways in Booklyn, N.Y. He was twice married; first on Dec. 17, 1855, to Delia M., daughter of Thomas Bussey of Troy, N.Y., and secondly, July 3d, 1861, to Helen M. Bussey, her sister. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Hamilton college in 1854 and that of M.D. by Long Island College hospital. He edited Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine (1870-86), and is the author of: The Blowpipe, a Guide to its Use in the Determination of Salts and Minerals (1858); A Translation of Jannettaz's Guide to the Determination of Rocks" (1877); The Star Finder or Planisphere with a Movable Horizon (1878); The Aerinoid, and How to Use it (1880).

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