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

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Biographies:

Stephen Pearl Andrews, philosopher, was born at Templeton, Mass., March 22, 1812, son of Elisha Andrews, clergyman. He was educated at Amherst, studied law with his brother at New Orleans and engaged in practice there, when he became first counsel of Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines in her famous suits. He was an ardent advocate of abolition, and in 1839 removed to Texas with the avowed purpose of laboring to overthrow slavery in the state. He conceived the idea of raising sufficient money to purchase all the slaves in Texas and thus free them, and in 1845 visited England in the hope of procuring financial assistance. He was gifted with oratorical powers of a superior order; and so ably did he present the cause in which his whole heart was enlisted that British capitalists and statesmen looked upon the project with favor and would have supported it financially had not the fear of war with the United States deterred them. Upon his return to America Mr. Andrews joined the abolitionists at Boston. While in England he became interested in phonography, and was active in introducing the system of phonographic reporting in America. Removing to New York in 1847 he published, in co-operation with A. F. Boyle, a series of phonographic text-books, and edited two journals, the Anglo-Saxon and the Propagandist, which were printed in phonetic type, and devoted to phonography and spelling reform. He was the originator of a system of philosophy which he called "Integralism," and of a universal language which he called "Alwato." While still a young man he claimed to have discovered a unity of law in the universe, and on this his system of philosophy and language was based. The elements of his philosophy were published in a work entitled, "Basic Outlines of Universology." According to his system a radical adjustment of all forms of belief, all ideas, all thought was possible. He was a pioneer in the field of social science, and was regarded as a leader of radical thought on social questions. He instituted a series of conferences known as the "Colloquium," for the interchange of religious, philosophical and political ideas between men of widely divergent views, and he was for many years a member and vice-president of the "Liberal club" of New York, and a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and of the American ethnological society. He was a thorough Greek and Latin scholar, was master of Hebrew, Sanskrit and Chinese, and had more or less intimate knowledge of thirty-two additional languages. He published: "Discoveries in Chinese; or, the Symbolism of the Primitive Characters of the Chinese System of Writing as a Contribution to Philology and Ethnology and a Practical Aid in the Acquisition of the Chinese Language" (1854); and a new French instructor, introducing a novel method of teaching the French language; "Comparison of the Common Law with the Roman, French or Spanish Civil Law of Entails and other Limited Property in Real Estate" (1839); "Cost, the Limit of Price" (1851); "The Constitution of Government in the Sovereignty of the Individual" (1851); "Love, Marriage and Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the Individual, a Discussion by Henry James, Horace Greeley and Stephen Pearl Andrews, edited by S. P. Andrews" (1853); "Constitution, or Organic Basis of the New Catholic Church" (1860); "The Great American Crisis"; "An Universal Language"; "The Primary System of Universology and Alwato" (1871);" Primary Grammar of Alwato" (Boston, 1877); "The Labor Dollar" (1881); "Elements of Universology" (1881); "Ideological Etymology" (1881); and "The Church and Religion of the Future" (1885). He died in New York city, May 21, 1886.

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

Leonard Augustus Jones, author, was born in Templeton, Mass., Jan. 13, 1832; son of Augustus Appleton and Mary (Partridge) Jones; grandson of Aaron Jones, whose father, Aaron Jones, was one of the principal proprietors and first settlers of Templeton; and a descendant of Lewis and Anna (Stone) Jones, who settled in Roxbury and were members of the church of the Rev. John Eliot in Roxbury in 1640. His mother's family was formerly of Walpole and Medfield, where the earliest of the Partridge family in America settled before 1650. He was graduated from Harvard in 1855 and from the Harvard Law school in 1858, and practised law in Boston, Mass. He was appointed judge of the court of land registration for Massachusetts in 1898, and commissioner for Massachusetts for the promotion of uniform legislation in the United States. 1891. In 1885 he became one of the editors of the American Law Review. He is the author of the following legal treatises: Law of Mortgages of Real Property (2 vols., 1878: 5th ed., 1894); Law of Corporate Bonds and Mortgages (1879; 2d ed., 1890); Law of Mortgages of Personal Property (1881; 4th ed., 1894); Law of Pledges (1883); Law of Liens, Common Law, Statutory, Equitable and Maritime (2 vols., 1888: 2d ed., 1893); Forms of Conveyancing (1886; 5th ed., 1889); Law of Real Property (2 vols., 1896); Law of Easements (1898); An Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1887; 2d vol., 1899).

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

William Goodell, missionary, was born in Templeton, Mass., Feb. 14, 1792; son of William and Phebe (Newton) Goodell; grandson of Nathan and Dinah, (Weeks) Goodell of Marlboro, and a descendant of John and Elizabeth (Witt) Goodell of Lynn, Mass., and of Robert and Elizabeth Goodell, who settled in Salem, Mass., in 1634. He was graduated from Dartmouth, A.B., 1817; A.M., 1820, and was graduated from Andover theological seminary in 1820. He was agent for the A.B.C.F.M., 1821-22; was ordained at New Haven, Conn., Sept. 12, 1822, and was missionary at the island of Malta where he studied the oriental languages, 1822-23. He was missionary at Beirut, 1823-26, and among the Armenians in Constantinople, Turkey, 1826-65. At Beirut he suffered from Arab robbers and persecutors and was obliged to leave the country when the Greeks were repulsed in March, 1826. During his entire missionary life he was obliged to change his residence to insure his personal safety, no less than thirty-three times. He translated the Scriptures from the original Greek and Hebrew into Armenio-Turkish, completing the Old Testament in 1841 and the New Testament in 1843, finishing its revision in 1863. He was married in 1822 to Abigail P., daughter of Lemuelo Davis, and they had two sons born in the orient, William, a physician, and Henry Hill, educator, besides two other sons and five daughters. He returned to the United States in 1865 where he wrote for the New York Observer "Reminiscences of the Missionary's Early Life." He received the degree of D.D. from Hamilton and from Rutgers in 1854. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 18, 1867.

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

Charles Knowlton, physician and author, was born in Templeton, Mass., in 1801; son of Stephen and ? (Houghton) Knowlton. He was graduated at Dartmouth (N.H.) Medical School in 1823, and married Tabitha Foster Stuart, daughter of Richard Stuart, of Winchendon, Mass. He settled in Ashfield, Mass., and attained a high reputation. He published Modern Materialism (1829), and in 1833 a small book entitled Fruits of Philosophy, presenting a remedy for the danger pointed out by John Malthus, and before him by Plato, Aristotle, Hume, and Benjamin Franklin. This publication subjected Dr. Knowlton to severe criticism, and imprisonment for three months. In 1876 Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh republished it, in England, with additions. Mr, Bradlaugh was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of ?200, but on appeal the penalties were remitted. Dr. Knowlton died in Winchendon, Mass., in 1850.

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