History of Sutton, (Worcester County) Massachusetts United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Sutton, (Worcester County) Massachusetts, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Joseph Franklin Griggs, educator, was born in Sutton, Mass., April 24, 1822. He was prepared for college at Wesleyan, Wilbraham and Leicester academies and was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1846, A.M., 1862. He was a student at Andover theological seminary, 1847, taught select schools in Sutton and Holden, Mass., 1847-48, and in the Men's winter school, Worcester, Mass., 1848-49; conducted a classical school for boys in Allegheny City, Pa., 1849-52, and at Pittsburg, Pa., 1852-55, when it was merged into the Western university of Pennsylvania, where he was professor of ancient languages, 1855-64; professor of Greek language and literature, 1864-80, and treasurer of the board of trustees, 1880-92. He died in Pittsburg, Pa., April l, 1897.

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

George Boardman Boomer, soldier, was born at Sutton, Mass., July 26, 1832. He learned engineering and the construction of bridges, and followed this occupation in St. Louis, Mo. At the breaking out of the civil war he joined the army, and served gallantly in several important engagements, notably those of Iuka and Champion Hills. He was colonel of the 22d Missouri volunteers and died at Vicksburg, Miss., May 22, 1863.

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

Rufus Putnam, soldier, was born in Sutton, Mass., April 9, 1738; son of Elisha and Susanna (Fuller) Putnam; grandson of Edward (half-brother of Joseph) and Mary (Hall) Putnam, and of Jonathan and Susan (Trask) Fuller; great-grandson of Thomas Putnam, and great2-grandson of John and Priscilla (Gould) Putnam. His grandfather, Edward Putnam, and Gen. Israel Putnam's father, Joseph Putnam, were half brothers. Rufus Putnam's father died in 1745 and Rufus was taken into the family of his grandfather, Jonathan Fuller, who resided at Danvers, Mass., where he attended school two years. When his mother was married to Capt. John Sadler of Upton, he removed to the inn kept by his stepfather, where he had no school privileges, and when sixteen years old was apprenticed to a millwright in North Brookfield, from that time devoting his leisure to study. When nineteen years old, he enlisted in Capt. Ebenezer Leonard's company for service on the northern frontier against the French and Indians, and reaching Fort Edward in April, 1757, was made a scout in the company of Capt. Israel Putnam. He declined a lieutenant's commission in 1759 and returned to Massachusetts, settling in New Braintree, where he followed the occupations of millwright and farmer. He was married in April, 1761, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Ayers of Brookfield; she died, 1762. He married secondly, Jan. 10, 1765, Persis, daughter of Zebulon Rice of Westboro, and they made a new home in North Brookfield. With Col. Israel Putnam and other officers of the Colonial army, he explored lands in East Florida granted by Parliament to Provincial officers and soldiers, and in January, 1773, surveyed the supposed grant, which proved to be of no value. He was made lieutenant-colonel of Col. David Brewer's Worcester County regiment on his return to Massachusetts in 1775, joined the American army at Roxbury, and was appointed engineer to take charge of the works about Boston. On the night of March 4-5, 1775, he constructed the fortification on Prospect Hill, Dorchester Heights, a masterly piece of engineering, which compelled the evacuation of Boston, March 17, 1776, saving Washington the necessity of attacking with an inferior force the British army entrenched in Boston. He also constructed fortifications for the defence of Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, in December, 1775. He was transferred to New York when Gen. Israel Putnam commanded that city, and planned its defenses. He was appointed chief engineer of the Continental army with the rank of colonel, Aug. 11, 1776, and took part in the battle of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776, and in the retreats of the army to Harlem and across into New Jersey. He directed the construction of the temporary fortifications that protected the rear of Washington's army and prevented the enemy capturing the baggage trains and stores. Congress, disappointed that New York had fallen into the possession of the British, and fearing for the safety of Philadelphia, questioned the engineering skill of Colonel Putnam and he resigned, Dec. 8, 1776. Washington, however, stated that he was the best engineer in the army, whether American or French. Upon returning to Massachusetts Putnam rejoined the army, Dec. 17, 1776, as colonel of the 5th Massachusetts regiment under General Gates, and in the campaign that culminated in the surrender of General Burgoyne's army at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777, he bore a conspicuous part. In March, 1778, he superintended the construction of the defenses of the Highlands of the Hudson in the neighborhood of West Point, building forts Wyllis, Webb and Putnam, the last being named for him by General McDougall. He also commanded a regiment in Gen. Anthony Wayne's brigade, joining the American forces at Peekskill in June, 1778, and was in active service from the battles of Stony Point to the close of the campaign. He was transferred to Boston where he obtained relief from the government for the Massachusetts troops in 1780, and was engaged from February to July, 1782, in adjusting the claims of citizens of New York for damages caused to their property by the war. He was commissioned brigadier-general, Jan. 8, 1783, and at the request of Washington reported a comprehensive plan for fortifying the whole country, which was submitted to congress but not acted upon, owing to the opposition in that body to preparing for war in time of peace. He purchased the confiscated property of Daniel Murray, an absentee, located at Rutland, Mass., in 1780, and made it his home. He was aide to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in quelling Shays's rebellion in 1787, and represented his town in the general court of Massachusetts in 1787. He planned the settlement of Ohio territory by a company of veteran soldiers from New England in 1782, and in his plans made the absolute exclusion of slavery an inflexible condition. He urged the matter upon President Washington, 1782-87, as shown by his correspondence, and the President in turn urged the scheme upon congress, but could get that body to take no interest in it. Washington therefore secured the appointment of Putnam by congress as surveyor of the Northwest territory, and Putnam sent Gen. Tupper as his deputy to examine the country in the winter of 1785-86. The two veterans met at Putnam's home, Rutland, Mass., Jan. 9, 1786, and planned the meeting of the veteran soldiers of Massachusetts in Boston, March 1, 1786. When the Ohio company was organized in 1787, Putnam was made the director of all their affairs. He sent Samuel H. Parsons to congress in 1787 to negotiate the purchase, but when he retired unsuccessful, Putnam sent Manasseh Cutler , who secured the territory, including the provision to exclude slavery by the passage of the ordinance, July 13, 1787,?the sum to be paid, as fixed by the measures passed July 27, to be $1,500,000, the veteran soldiers settling in the territory to surrender their claims for half pay. General Putnam then organized his band of forty-eight men and made the journey to Ohio, reaching Marietta, April 7, 1788, where they made the first permanent settlement in the eastern part of the Northwest territory. The centennial of the settlement was celebrated by the states carved from the Northwest territory, April 7, 1888, when Senator Hoar of Massachusetts delivered the oration, in which he took occasion to give General Putnam his rightful place in the history of the settlement of the Northwest. General Putnam was appointed judge of the supreme court of the territory in 1789, and was commissioned brigadier-general, U.S.A., May 4, 1792, serving with General Wayne in the operations to quell the Indian trouble on the frontier. He was U.S. commissioner to treat with the Indians, 1792-93, which led to a treaty with eight Indian tribes at Point Vincent, Sept. 27, 1792. He resigned his commission in the army, Feb. 15, 1793, and was surveyor-general of the United States, 1793-1803; a founder of Muskingum academy, 1798; a trustee of the Ohio university, 1794-1824; a delegate to the Ohio constitutional convention of 1802, where his determined opposition prevented by one vote the introduction of a clause preserving the rights of slaveholders within the state. He was an organizer of the first bible society west of the Alleghanies in 1812. He was the last living [p.439] officer of the Continental army. His manuscript diary was placed in the library of Marietta college, Ohio. A tablet placed on his house at Rutland, Mass., by the Society of Sons of the Revolution, was unveiled, Sept. 17, 1898, "Rufus Putnam, Founder and Father of Ohio." General Rufus Putnam died in Marietta, Ohio, May 4, 1824.

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

Willard Francis Mallalieu, M.E. bishop, was born in Sutton, Worcester county, Mass., Dec. 11, 1828; son of John and Lydia (Emerson) Mallalieu; grandson of Jonathan and Mallie (Hocart) Mallalieu, and of Willard and Rosina (Marsh) Emerson, and a descendant, through Joshua2 and Joshua1, of Francis Mallalieu, a Huguenot, who escaped from France shortly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, Aug. 24, 1572; and also a descendant, through Simeon and Persis (Davenport) Emerson, of Richard Davenport, Salem, Mass., 1628. He received his early education in the public schools of Millbury, Mass., became a member of the Methodist church in 1840, and was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1857. He was married, Oct. 13, 1858, to Eliza Francis Atkins, of Sandwich, Mass. He joined the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in April, 1858, and was pastor at Grafton, Mass., 1858-59; of the Mt. Bellingham church, Chelsea, 1860-61; of the Common Street church, Lynn, 1862-63; of the Union church, Charlestown, 1864, and of the Bromfield Street church, Boston, 1865-67 and 1876-78. In1867 he declined the presidency of the Central Tennessee college. He was pastor of the Walnut Street church, Chelsea, Mass., 1860-70, 1875 and 1879-81; of Trinity church, Worcester, 1871; and of the Broadway church, Boston, 1872-74. In 1875 he visited Europe. He was presiding elder of the Boston district, 1882-84; and was elected bishop in the Methodist Episcopal church on May 15, 1884. He was a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1872, 1880, 1882 and 1884. In 1868 he became a member of the New England Historic Genealogical society. He received the degree of D.D. from the East Tennessee Wesleyan university in 1874, and that of LL.D. from New Orleans university, 1891. He is the author of: The Why, When and How of Revivals (1901), The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit (1901), and contributions to the Methodist Quarterly Review and other periodicals.

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