44 BARTOL. BASSETT. respected and revered by his legal asso- ciates and the people of the Common- wealth. BARTOL, Cyrus Augustus, son of George and Ann (Given) Bartol, was born in Freeport, Cumberland county, Maine, April 30, 1813. After obtaining the early mental train- ing furnished by the common schools, he prepared for college in the Portland high school. He entered Bowdoin College, and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1832. He subsequently studied theology in Cambridge, and was graduated from the divinity school in 1835. In 1837 he was settled associate pastor with Rev. Charles Lowell, D. D., of the West Church (Independent) in the city of Boston, of which he became the pastor in 1861. He has endeared himself to a large constituency by his faithful labors and philanthropic work. Dr. Bartol has published " Discourses on the Christian Spirit and Life " (Boston, 1850, 2d edition revised, 1854); "Dis- courses on Christian Body and Form " (1854); " Picture of Europe Framed in Ideas" (1855); "History of the West Church and its Ministers " (1858); " Church and Congregation" (1858); "Word of the Spirit to the Church" (1859); "Radical Problems" (1872); "The Rising Faith" (1874); " Principles and Portraits" (1880). He has also published many occasional essays and some poetry. Dr. Bartol's writings are full of rich and quaint imagery, and are deeply religious, but more ethical and social in character than controversial. Dr. Bartol was married in Boston, Feb- ruary 7, 1 838, to Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. John Clarke and Hepzibah (Swan) Howard. They have one child, Elizabeth Howard Bartol. BARTON, Leonard, eldest son of Benjamin and Sarah (Parsons) Barton, was born in Bernardston, Franklin county, December 2 1, iSt4. He is lineally descend- ed from Samuel Barton, who removed from Framingham to Oxford early in the eigh- teenth century. When he was about ten years of age, his father removed his family to a farm in the adjoining town of Gill, on the locality where Captain Turner made his famous attack upon the Indians. His education, beyond the common school, was obtained in the old academies at Monson, Deerfield, Shelburne Falls and Brattleborough. During some fourteen years of his early life he spent a part of the time in school teaching in this State, Connecticut, and for about a year in Michigan. For about eighteen years he was one of the selectmen and assessors of the town, and for most of that time chairman of the board. He has been one of the superintending school com- mittee of the town for upwards of twenty- five years, and for several consecutive years held the office of town clerk and treasurer. In 1870 he was chosen to represent his district in the House of Representatives, and served in the Legislature of 187 1, and again in 1S81. His main business is, and always has been, that of a farmer, besides holding offices in several banks of the neighboring towns. He has never married. BASSETT, SAMUEL, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Scott) Bassett, was born in Boston, in November, 1S04. He was educated in the Boston public schools ; learned the trade of sail-maker, which vocation he afterwards followed on his own account, and as one of the firm of Bassett & Thayer. Mr. Bassett was married in Westbor- ough, in 1830, to Julia Ann, daughter of Elijah and Hannah Burnap. Of this union were five children : Celadon, Julia A., Clarissa, William S. and Samuel B. Bassett. Mr. Bassett removed to Chelsea in 1838, where he has ever since resided. He was elected town clerk in 1849, and was annu- ally re-elected till 1857, when the city was organized, and he was elected city clerk, continuing to hold this office till 1884, when he declined re-election. He was also chosen city treasurer and collector, serving until 1875, when he declined fur- ther service in that capacity. Seldom has a public officer held such positions for so many years, or been so much beloved. His face had so long been a familiar one at the City Hall that it seemed an indis- pensable feature, and the people and the city government would gladly have con- tinued him in some office connected with city business, had he not modestly but resolutely insisted that younger men should now assume the burdens he had so consci- entiously and faithfully borne. His elec- tion to the various offices had always been without opposition, and he was often sig- nificantly designated as the " unanimous S. B." He was a father to the orphan and a counselor and friend to the widow. Every mayor and member of the city gov- ernment during his long term of office- holding had reason to be grateful to him
