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

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Biographies:

Frederic Spaulding Coolidge, representative, was born in Westminster, Mass., Dec. 7, 1841; son of Charles and Nancy (Spaulding) Coolidge; grandson of Henry and Lovisa (Wetherbee) Coolidge, and of Timothy and Lydia (Moore) Spaulding; and a descendant of John Coolidge who was made freeman in Watertown, Mass., in 1636, and of Edward Spaulding, who came from England about 1619. He attended common schools and entered business life as a manufacturer of chairs and chair cane. He held various municipal offices and was a member of the Democratic state central committee for three years; a representative to the general court of Massachusetts in 1875, and a candidate for presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1888. In 1890 he was elected as a Democrat a representative from the eleventh Massachusetts district in the 52nd congress and was defeated for re-election to the 53rd congress by L. D. Apsley in the new fourth district. He opposed the Chinese exclusion act and the opening of the Columbian exhibition on Sundays; both measures being defeated.

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

William Frothingham Brabdury, educator, was born in Westminster, Mass., May 17, 1829. He was graduated at Amherst in the class of 1856, of which he was valedictorian. He was appointed sub-master of the Cambridge (Mass.) high school, having previously acquired the necessary experience by teaching during the winter months of the eight years preceding his graduation. He became a Hopkins classical teacher in 1865, and, after acting as head master at intervals for several years, he was, in 1881, elected to fill that office. In 1886, when the classical department became the Cambridge Latin school, he was appointed head master of that institution. Professor Bradbury published a series of textbooks on mathematics, and in 1882 a history of the Cambridge high school.

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

Nelson Appleton Miles, soldier, was born in Westminster, Mass., Aug. 8, 1839; son of Daniel and Mary (Curtis) Miles; grandson of Joab, great2grandson of the Rev. Samuel, rector of King's Chapel, Boston, and great3grandson of the Rev. John Myles, the immigrant, who came from Wales in 1664, landed at Weymouth, settled at Swansea, was a Baptist preacher, a soldier in the King Philip war, and teacher in the first grammar and Latin school in Boston. He worked on his father's farm and in a crockery store in Boston, where he attended night school and a military school conducted by M. Salignac, and in 1861 with the encouragement and financial aid of his uncle, GeorgeCurtis, he recruited 100 volunteers, the company being assigned to Col. Henry Wilson's 22d Massachusetts volunteers. The regiment was mastered into the U.S. service, Sept. 9. 1861, with Miles as captain. Governor Andrews however commissioned him 1st lieutenant. On pay-day the U.S. paymaster said, "You are a captain, get your pay and take command of your company." Colonel Wilson, when he found that the matter would involve a question of authority between the state and the United States, advised young Miles to accept a position on the staff of General Casey, who on Nov. 9, 1861, assigned him to duty on the staff of Gen. O. O. Howard, with whom he served in the Peninsula campaign. At Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1, 1862, General Howard, finding the 61st New York volunteers, Col. Francis C. Barlow, sorely pressed, ordered Miles to lead a detachment to his support, under a heavy fire from the enemy. This exploit, mentioned in Barlow's report, secured his appointment as lieutenant-colonel of the 61st regiment, his commission to date from May 31, 1862. At Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, when Colonel Barlow was carried from the field wounded, Miles took command of the regiment, and when Barlow was promoted brigadier-general, Miles succeeded to the command of the regiment, his commission dating from Sept. 30, 1862. At Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, he was shot from his horse, and the wound was pronounced fatal, but the ball was extracted and he returned to the army on crutches. He fought under Grant in 1864-65, and was wounded for the fourth time at Petersburg. He was promoted brigadier-general, May 12, 1864, and major-general, Oct. 21, 1865, and was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service, Sept. 1, 1866. He commanded a regiment, a brigade, a division, and in February, 1865, the 2d army corps including 25,000 men, being then only twenty-six years old. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers, Aug. 25, 1864, for "highly meritorious and distinguished conduct throughout the campaign and particularly for gallantry and valuable services in the battle of Reams's Station, Virginia;" brigadier-general in the regular service, March 2, 1867, for Chancellorsville. and major-general, March 2, 1867, for Spottsylvania. He received the thanks of congress "for distinguished services during the recent battles of the Old Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House, Virginia." He also received a "medal of honor," as provided under act of congress, approved March 3, 1863, "for distinguished gallantry in the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863, while holding with his command a line of abatis and rifle pits against a strong force of the enemy, until severely wounded; while colonel 61st New York volunteers, commanding a line of skirmishers in front of the 1st division, 2d army coprs" He was transferred to the permanent establishment, July 28, 1866, and commissioned colonel of the 40th infantry, accepting the commission, Sept. 6, 1866. On March 15, 1869, he was transferred to the 5th infantry. On Dec. 15, 1880, he was promoted brigadier-general, on April 5, 1890, major-general, and on Sept. 29, 1895, by virtue of seniority, he became commander-in-chief of the U.S. army. On June 6, 1900, he was made lieutenant- general by an act of congress reviving the rank, and on Feb. 2, 1901, on the reorganization of the army, he was appointed by President McKinley lieutenant-general, U.S.A., which appointment was at once confirmed by the senate. His services in the west included the defeat of the ChHenne, Kiowa and Comanche Indians on the borders of the Staked Plains in 1875; the subjugation of the Sioux in Montana in 1876; the driving of Sitting Bull out of the United States; the capture of the Nez Perc?s under Chief Joseph the same year, and the capture of the Bannocks near Yellowstone Park in 1878. He commanded the Deparment of the Columbia, 1880-85; the Department of Missouri, 1885-89; and conducted an Indian campaign in Arizona, 1886, in which he compelled the Apaches under Geronimo and Natchez to surrender, Sept. 4, 1886. The legislatures of Kansas, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona, passed unanimous votes of thanks for his services in their borders. He commanded the Department of the East, 1894-95, and visited Europe, and represented the U.S. army at the seat of the Turco-Grecian war and also at Queen Victoria's Diamond jubilee, 1897. In the war with Spain in 1898, he mobilized the regular army of 25,000 men and organized a volunteer army out of over 200,000 volunteers ready for any emergency. He personally took command at Santiago, July 11, 1898: and, arranged the terms of capitulation which called for the evacuation of Santiago and the surrender of the Spanish force occupying the eastern end of the island. Before the appearance of the Spanish commander to carry out the terms he generously left the formality of the surrender to the general in the field and repaired to Guantanomo, where he prepared to lead a detachment of 3,416 men in its brilliant and successful invasion of Porto Rico. There, after six affairs against superior forces and with small loss of life, he completely subjugated the Spanish troops, who prayed for a cessation of hostilities long before he had carried out his plans. In the conduct of the war with Spain he fearlessly defended the U.S. army against the impositions of contractors who provided unwholesome food, and by ordering a rigid investigation of the conduct of the commissary department stopped what might have proved a fatal epidemic. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard university in 1896 and from Brown university in 1901. He is the author of: Personal Recollections; or, from New England to the Golden Gate (1897); Military Europe (1898); Observations Abroad; or, Report of Maj.-Gen., Nelson A. Miles Commanding U.S. Army, of his Tour of Observation in Europe (1899). He was retired under operation of the law, Aug. 8, 1903.

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