The Stickney Family of Note ~ Part II

westmohney
Feb 14, 2025
10 min read

Updated: Feb 15, 2025

Mr. Stickney is a worthy representative of a long line of virtuous and intelligent ancestry. ~ from the Stickney Memoir, Matthew Stickney

centenarian Moses Stickney

Our cousin Moses Stickney (4C7X) was born in Boxford in 1751. By 1774, he was living in Princeton, MA where he enlisted in the Massachusetts militia 11 months before the start of the Revolutionary War. From his pension application:

That in June 1774 enlisted as a minute man in a company raised in Princeton, Mass., and was a Lieutenant of the Company - That I so continued up to the time of the alarm from Lexington & Concord and then immediately returned to Lexington and from thence to Cambridge - That I then remained in the service from that time to the last day of December being full eight months - That while in this service I was in a party under General Putnam who went onto Hog Island to get away the cattle to prevent the British from getting them. While there the British attached us and drove us off in a schooner which ran out to the wharf at Winnshmmet (Winnisimmet) ferry and was burnt by our party.

Note: The skirmish at Hog Island prompted General George Washington to station our cousin Colonel Loammi Baldwin (3C7X) in Chelsea, which was across the Mystic River from Boston, to protect the American interests on Hog and Noddle Islands. We wrote about Loammie's experiences in Chelsea in our "Loammi. . .continued" post.

In a sadly ironic turn of events, Moses was not able to find any witnesses that could vouch for his claims in his pension application and he was denied compensation. Since the American government did not make pensions widely available until 1832, almost 60 years after the Revolutionary war began, most of the soldiers were either dead or in their late 70s and older. Under those cirmcumstance, it would be somewhat difficult to find anyone who had served with you.

From Moses' family bible we learn about his marriage and move to New Hampshire:

Princeton, Mass., Sept. 9, 177. I then entered into Marriage Covenant with Mary Hastings . . .of Waltham, Mass., then a resident of Princeton, Mass., and I a native of Boxford, Mass., then a resident of Princeton. We arrived at our Farm in Jaffrey, N. H., Sept. 10, 1777. We had eight children born to us. We lived together 70 years lacking 4 days; then Mary, my wife, died September 5, 1846, aged 89 years, 4 m. 14 d.

Moses' main claim to fame was that he lived to be 100 years old. A neighbor of his visited him a few weeks after that happy event. Our cousin Matthew Adams Stickney (5C6X) included the story of that visit in his Stickney family memoir:

A gentleman of Jaffrey, N. H., visited Mr. MOSES STICKNEY, Dec. 13, 1851, and writes:

"He lives at the foot of the grand Monadnock, was one hundred years old on the 21st day of Nov. last. The old gentleman enjoys better health than most people younger than himself. His appetite is good, and he can relish and digest as hearty a meal as any one. He has always been an early riser, and tells me that he is now the first one up in the house. He attended the annual meeting and cast his vote, the present year. He walks sometimes as many as four or five miles a day, and takes most of the care of his cattle, yokes his own oxen, and goes into the wood-lot with his team. During the past season he has taken the charge of his own planting and harvesting; he has mowed half a dozen acres or so, and some of it the second time. Mr. STICKNEY'S sight is growing dim, but he says that he can see to pick up potatoes, if the sun shines upon them, and he sees the white ones much better than those of any other color. His hearing is so good that it is not at all difficult to converse with him. His memory seems quite tenacious, and he entertains his visitors with almost any amount of stories of the Revolution and 'long ago.' He takes quite an interest of late, in having his apple trees grafted, supposing the grafted fruit will be a source of profit to him in the course of a few years. May he live to see the fruit of his labors."

Another source of information on Moses is a book called The Astronomer's Wife: The Biography of Angeline Hall written by Moses' great-grandson, Angelo Hall (7C4X). The book is about Angelo's mother Angeline Stickney Hall (6C5X) who was a mathematician, teacher and suffragist. She was the daughter of Moses' son Theopolis (5C6X). We'll have more on Angeline in a future post.

About his great-grandfather, Angelo wrote:

Moses Stickney was a crack shot, too. I have seen a long-barreled musket of fine workmanship which he carried in the Revolution, and have listened to tales of his marksmanship still preserved in the Vermont valley whither his sons treked westward from their New Hampshire home. Between that snug little valley and the Connecticut River is a high ridge, from the top of which Mt. Monadnock is clearly seen. And it was by the side of that grand old mountain, in the town of Jaffrey, that Moses Stickney, late of Washington’s army, provided a home for his bride, Mary Hastings, whom he loved and cherished for sixty-nine years, lacking four days. Tradition says this lady was descended from an English earl. Certain it is she bore her husband four noble sons and four fair daughters.”

. . .No child could have wished better forebears than these—Moses Stickney and Mary Hastings. . .It is recorded of Moses Stickney that he yoked up his oxen on the day he became one hundred years old. A nonagenarian of Gill, Mass., by the name of Perry, who resided in Jaffrey. . .used to tell me of this Revolutionary ancestor, with whom he became well acquainted during those ten years. The old soldier was fond of telling war stories, and tradition has it that he carried his long-barreled musket at Bunker Hill. Though his eyes were bloodshot, like the Moses of Scripture his natural force was unabated. He was about five feet, ten inches tall, rather slender, and a good walker even in extreme old age. Now Moses Stickney had a daughter Mary, who was courted and won by a gay young man of the name of Daniel Gilman. Just what the virtues and vices of this gallant may have been I am unable to say; but he vexed his father-in-law to such an extent that the old gentleman declared no more young men should come to woo his daughters. “If “they come,” said he, “damn ’em, I’ll shoot ’em.” Being a crack shot, he simply needed thus to define his position. His daughters Lois (5C6X) and Charlotte (5C6X) lived out their days at home, maiden ladies. The oldest sister, Susan (5C6X), had escaped the parental decree, presumably, by marrying before its promulgation.”

Old Moses died of paralysis five and a half years after the passing of his wife. He died on March 2, 1852, only three months after the glowing report of the neighbor who had come to visit him. He lived to be 100 years, 3 months and 9 days.

William Stickney

Our cousin William Stickney (3C8X) was born in Newbury, MA in 1745. He marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775 and also did duty in Cambridge during the Siege of Boston. He missed action at Bunker Hill, however, due to blistered. feet. William's blistered feet obviously scored him a trip home because on June 20, three days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, he purchased property from his father, John Stickney (2C9X). William was a carriage maker and the land he bought included "26 rods of land. . .with house shops and other building thereon" where he could ply his trade.

Like many other men of his time, William had another stint in the militia, this time during the Rhode Island Campaign of 1778. When he returned home, William evidently gave up on the carriage business and opened a store near his home on Liberty Street in Newburyport.

(1) Location of William's home and store

Sadly, William's home and store were destroyed in Newbury's great fire of 1811. The blaze "consumed over sixteen acres of the modern downtown area and caused over two million dollars in damage."

Woodcut taken from an 1811 publication titled "An Account of the Great Fire. . ."

I found an interesting side note to the Newburyport fire in the blog "Brick and Tree." As devastating as the fire was, blogger indyjerry77 argues that the fire turned out to be one of the the best thing ever to happen in Newburyport:

Before the fire, Newburyport was considered the fifth wealthiest city in the United States. After the fire, the wealth just drained out and businessmen drained out right along with the money. Prominent men. . . went elsewhere. The War of 1812-15 found Newburyport suffering even more. Worst, after the War was over, Europe was no longer interested in obtaining goods from a neutral country like America. Our ships ended up not going anywhere. So why do we celebrate this horrible thing?

The answer, according to indyjerry77, lay in the Brick Acts of 1811 and 1812:

The reason that we are the prettiest little town in all of New England is due to these acts. They mandated that between Market and Federal Streets, stone and brick be used for construction. . .What was once a collection of wooden buildings was transformed into the beautifully themed Federalist downtown that we have today. We have visitors far and wide who come and visit and invest in our City because of our unified construction – its beauty makes us a favorite location. Out of the fire has come a Phoenix – A Lovely Newburyport.

Our Cousin William would probably have taken little comfort in knowing that his loss would contribute to a beautified Newburyport. He, however, did rise from the ashes to build anew on property less than a mile from his Liberty Street store. There, he "spent the rest of his life in the midst of his family, beloved and respected. . ." William died in 1833 at 88 years of age.

entrepreneur Josiah Stickney

Our cousin Josiah (3C7X) was born in 1789 in Grafton, Vermont. The information I got for him came from The Stickney Memoir by Matthew Adams Stickney (5C6X). According to Matthew, when Josiah was 19, "desirous to seek his fortune, he started on foot during the latter part of December, 1807, for Boston, where his brother, Isaac Stickney (3C7X), had preceded him, and was engaged in business."

Issac (3C7X) had gone to Boston in 1801 and became a "confidential agent" in our cousin Windsor Fay's (6C8X) trade business. Windsor was related to us through our Brigham family. Isaac died in 1809 at age 27 and his death freed up a position in Windsor's firm that Josiah was able to fill.

Josiah married in 1714 and, the very next year, a business opportunity launched him on his road to wealth. Windsor had evidently closed up shop and Josiah began his own business in the same location in partnership with Windsor's brother John (6C8X). Their company, Fay and Stickney, was a going concern for about four years. Then, in 1819, Josiah branched out on his own with the West India Produce Co.

By 1831, Josiah became the largest shareholder in a company that engaged in whaling, fishing and repairing and enlarging wharves. That business didn't prove to be so profitable so Josiah became a selling agent for the Boston Sugar Refinery.

Josiah's persistence in business ventures eventually made him a wealthy man. We learn of his many virtues from the Stickney Memoir. At the time this portrait was written, Josiah was still alive.

Mr. Stickney is a worthy representative of a long line of virtuous and intelligent ancestry. As a merchant and a man of business he is highly esteemed by all his associates, and has been frequently called upon to fill many positions of responsibility and trust. . .He was an original Director of the Trader's Bank, Boston. . .Director of the Market Bank, Boston, from its organization in 1831, to the present time (1869), and its President from Oct. 19, 1839 to Oct. 1, 1860, when he resigned; Director of the United States Insurance Company. . .Director of the Western Railroad . . .then of the Boston and Albany Railroad ; Director of the Concord Railroad. . .Vice-President for more than fifteen years, and a Director (since its organization) of the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad.

Mr. Stickney has been one of the leading and prominent horticulturists in the vicinity of Boston, and for several years was much interested in the culture of the Dahlia. . .and for so many years was a conspicuous object in our horticultural exhibitions. . . In 1835 he became a life member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. . .He and Hon. Marshall P. Wilder. . . purchased. . .the old Latin School House. . .and offered it to the Society for the site of the Horticultural Hall.

In testimony of his interest in the operations of this Society he placed in its hands the sum of twelve thousand dollars, the income to be annually appropriated. . .This sum "is to remain in the possession of the Society for thirty years, the income to the amount of $700, annually to be appropriated to the purchase of books on botany, horticulture, landscape gardening and architecture. . .said books to be styled the 'Stickney Library.' When the mortgage of the Society's hall is cleared the fund is to be invested in reliable stocks and styled the ' Stickney Library Fund. . .until the expiration of thirty years, when it is to be paid over to. . .Harvard College in aid of the Lawrence Scientific School, or for the partial support of a Professor of Botany, or for the maintenance of the Botanical Garden, or to increase the botanical and horticultural department of the College Library, as they may see fit.

Mr. Stickney, by personal care and attention to his business and untiring perseverance in every undertaking, succeeded in accumulating a handsome property. In April, of the year 1845, he purchased the beautiful estate. . .situated in Watertown, on a bluff, extending out to the Charles River. . .commanding an extensive view. To this place he then removed and displayed his taste and love of nature by the culture of flowers and the planting of three of the finest orchards of Pear trees in the state, now numbering some thirteen hundred of the choicest varieties, for which the soil has proved remarkably favorable.

Mr. Stickney is a generous and firm friend to all praiseworthy objects, and during the compilation of this memoir has evinced the greatest interest in its success. He has a deep

respect for the memory of his ancestors, and has recently contributed liberally in aid of the erection of a fine granite obelisk to the memory of the emigrant ancestor, William Stickney (10GGF), on the spot where the early forefathers of the ancient town of Rowley sleep. He has attained the age of fourscore years, with unimpaired faculties of body and mind, and filled with a kind and generous nature. May he live many years to enjoy the fruits of a well spent life, surrounded by his family and friends.

Below is a picture of Josiah's mansion. Today that property houses the Perkins School for the Blind. Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan are among their most famous students.