Page:One of a thousand.djvu/55

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BARRETT. BARROWS. 41 sion for twenty-five years, and is at present engaged in surveying, conveyancing and farming. Mr. Barrett was married in Baltimore, Md., May 2, 1854, to Sarah J., daughter of Asa and Sally (Bennett) Barrett. They have one child : Ella V. Barrett. Mr. Barrett has been superintendent in Sabbath-schools twenty-five years ; dea- con in First Congregational church (Uni- tarian) twenty-seven years ; member of school board twenty five years ; justice of the peace twenty-eight years ; parish treas- urer twenty-two years ; town treasurer eight years, and selectman and assessor four years. His residence is Bolton, on the old Bar- rett homestead on " Long Hill," owned and occupied by the Barrett family for the last one hundred and fifty-two years. He is a lineal descendant in the fourth gener- ation from the Concord Barretts, and in the seventh from the Barretts who came here from England. BARRETT, WILLIAM E., son of Augus- tus and Sarah (Emerson) Barrett, was born in Melrose, Middlesex county, December 29, 1858. After passing through the public schools of his native town, and Claremont, N. H., and the high school of Claremont, he fitted for and entered Dartmouth Col- lege, graduating in 1880. Immediately upon graduation he turned his attention to journalism, and at once accepted his first position, upon the " St. Albans Daily Messenger," St. Albans, Vermont. For two years he retained his connec- tion with this paper, and in 1882 associated himself with the "Boston Advertiser." For four years he was the Washington cor- respondent of the " Advertiser," making for himself such a favorable reputation, that in 18S6, when the paper was without a head, he at once was appointed as its editor and publisher. At present he holds the positions of president of the Advertiser Newspaper Company, and publisher of the " Advertiser " and " Evening Record." In 1888 Mr. Barrett was chosen repre- sentative to the General Court from the nth Middlesex district, being re-elected in 18S9, when he was made speaker of the House, by a vote of 213 to 1 scattering. He is a member of various business cor- porations, and a member of the Masonic bodies of Melrose. He was clerk of the committee to investigate the Southern outrages, while in Washington, where his journalistic training made htm of especial value ; and much of the success which attended that work was due to the untir- ing energy which he exerted, and to the tact which he exhibited in sifting the facts presented, and arriving at the truth. On the 28th of December, 1887, at Clare- mont, N. H., Mr. Barrett was married to Annie L., daughter of Herbert and Alice (Sulloway) Bailey. A son was born March 10, 1889, William E. Barrett, Jr. BARROWS, WILLIAM, was born in New Braintree, W'orcester county, Septem- ber 19, 1815. He is a descendant in the seventh generation from Pilgrim stock. The original ancestor of the Barrows fam- ilv in this country, John Barrowe, came from Yarmouth, England, to Salem, in 1637. His son, Robert Barrowe, built at Plymouth, in 1679, and the house is yet standing. Then followed George Barrow, then Samuel Barrow, Noah Barrows, Wil- liam and William, Jr., the subject of this sketch. A farmer's son, the eighth of ten children, he received the ordinary common school education, interwoven with farm work and rural sports. He fitted for col- lege at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was graduated at Amherst College in 1840. Immediately he became a family tutor on a plantation in Virginia, and, in 1841, opened an English and classical school in St. Louis, Mo. In 1843 he commenced theological studies in the Union Seminary, New York. In 1845 he was ordained to the ministry (Congregational), and installed in Norton. In 1850 he was installed over the church in Grantville, now Wellesley Hills. Thence he removed, in 1856, to become pastor of the Old South church, Reading. In 1869 he was made secretary of the Congregational S. S. Publishing Society, and filled this office until 1873, when he was elected to the secretaryship of the Home Missionary Society. Since he closed that work, in 1880, he has devoted himself mainly to the educa- tional and religious wants of our frontier, having made in all eleven extensive tours over the border. He is now in his third year as financial agent for Whitman Col- lege, in the State of Washington. Dr. Barrows has lectured extensively on pre- historic history of America, and on the colonial and pioneer history of the United States, and has written much on these sub- jects for various periodicals. His pen has been somewhat active on books in his leis- ure hours. In 1869 he published "Twelve Nights in the Hunters' Camp ;" in 1875, "The Church and her Children ;" in 1882, " Purgatory Doctrinally, Practically and Historically Opened;" in 1883, "Oregon ; the Struggle for Possession ;" in 1887,