List of People From Uxbridge, Massachusetts - 19th Century

19th Century

• Effingham Capron was a prominent industrialist and son of John Capron who established the first power looms for woolens in the US. He worked with his father and brother John C. in the Capron Mills. He became an ardent anti-slavery advocate, and "liberator" on the underground railroad, and rose to national promience in the period before the Civil War. He, Abby Kelly and others led to Uxbridge becoming an important junction on the underground railroad. In 2012, the Capron Park in downtown Uxbridge, was dedicated to his honor, as a state park.
• Rev. Willard Preston, D.D. (1785–1856), was an eloquent clergyman and Uxbridge native who went on to be President of the University of Vermont, and a famous minister with published sermons at Savannah, Georgia, just prior to the Civil War. He pastored the Independent Presbyterian Church at Savannah, and was said to have been influenced by the Second Great Awakening, A religious movement that helped to produce social changes such as Abolition of slavery, women's rights, and prison reforms.
• Early U.S. Congressmen; Two U.S. Congressmen. were elected from Uxbridge Center to serve the new nation in the early 19th century, Benjamin Adams (1815–1823) and Phineas Bruce (1803–1805). Phineas Bruce was unable to serve out his term due to illness and died in Uxbridge in 1809. These two Congressmen are buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery along with a Medal of Honor recipient.
• Bezaleel Taft, Sr. and Bezaleel Taft, Jr were descendents of Lydia and Josiah Taft. They both served in the Massachusetts General Court, the legislature, the Massachusetts Senate, and on various state education and executive boards and commissions. Five generations of Tafts in Massachusetts were prominent in public service from Uxbridge. The "Life of Alphonso Taft", from Google books, is a particularly rich source of the history of the Taft family in Mendon and Uxbridge.
• Luke Taft, Moses Taft, Jerry Wheelock, John Capron, Effingham Capron and Colonel John Capron, were well known early industrialists of 19th century Uxbridge. The mills of Uxbridge pioneered power looms, manufactured U.S. military uniforms for more than a century, developed wash and wear fabrics, vertical integration to clothing, satinets, and pioneered blended fabrics including wool-nylon serge.
• Daniel Day established the oldest woolen mill in this town, one of the oldest in the U.S., in 1809.
• Robert Rogerson was born to parents from England, and brought grand plans for his cotton mills to Uxbridge. He left as a legacy the aesthetic mill village known as the Crown and Eagle Mills in Uxbridge which is considered a "masterpiece of early industrial architecture".
• Ezra Taft Benson, Sr, born 1811 in Mendon, lived in Uxbridge from 1817–1835, ran the local hotel, and married Pamela Andrus of Northbridge. He became an entrepreneur of a cotton mill in Holland, Massachusetts. He later became a famous Mormon missionary at Quincy, Illinois. He entered plural marriages, including Pamela's sister, served as an apostle to "the Sandwich Islands", also known as Hawaii, and the Eastern States, and as a representative to the Utah Territorial Legislature. He later died at Ogden, Utah.
• Arthur MacArthur, Sr., born in Glasgow, Scotland, lived here as a boy, and later served as a Wisconsin acting Governor and Supreme Court of Wisconsin chief justice and Supreme Court Chief Justice in the Washington, D.C. circuit. His son and grandson were both famous. His grandson was General Douglas MacArthur.
• Edward P. Bullard, was born and grew up here. He invented the vertical boring mill.
• William Augustus Mowry, noted educator and prolific historical writer, was born, and grew up here. Among other works he wrote about the "History of the Territorial Expansion of the United States", (1902). Other works included: Who Invented the American Steamboat? (1874), Political Education in the Schools (1878), The School Curriculum and Business Life (1881), Talks with my Boys (1884; fifth edition, 1909), Elements of Civil Government (1890; new edition, 1913), War Stories (1892), Art Decorations for School Rooms (1892), Sunshine upon the Psalms (1892), Lov'st Thou Me More than These? (1892), A History of the United States (1896), The Uxbridge Academy, a Brief History with a Biographical Sketch of Joshua Mason Macomber, A.M., M.D., Preceptor (1897), First Steps in the History of our Country (1898); revised edition, 1914), with A. May, American Inventions and Inventors (1900), Marcus Whitman and Early Oregon (1901), American Heroes (1903), with Blanche S. Mowry, American Pioneers (1905), Essentials of United States History (1906; revised edition, 1914), Recollections of a New England Educator (1908). Mowry was listed in Who's Who in America.
• Benedict Arnold's widow, "Sarah" Arnold, a native of Philadelphia, died here on February 14, 1836. This appears to be verified in the town vital records. among others. Some sources claim that Margaret Shippen died in England on August 24, 1804 at the age of 41. She may have returned incoginito to Massachusetts before her death.
• Corporal Edward Sullivan (US Marine) of Uxbridge, a native of County Cork, Ireland, served in the United States Marines, and received the Medal of Honor, for heroism in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in the Spanish American War.
• Fiery abolitionist, Abby Kelley Foster was a member of the Quaker Meeting House in Uxbridge. She led Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony into the cause. She was a resident of Millbury, and Worcester.
• Judge Henry Chapin, was a local attorney, historian, Unitarian Church leader, Chief Judge, and three term mayor of Worcester. Married to Abigail Baylies .
• Charles Seagrave is mentioned as a woolen manufacturer, and Hilena Lowell, of the famous Lowell family, was a shoe manufacturer in 19th century Uxbridge. The Seagrave family had its roots in Uxbridge. One of the Seagrave family descendents, George Seagrave, manufactured Seagrave Pumpers at Detroit and Columbus, Ohio.
• Joshua Mason Macomber, A.M., M.D, was a prominent early American educator, and Principal of the Uxbridge Academy, an historic New England Preparatory school. He became a physician, and medical educator, at the University of Pennsylvania, Medical College.
• Leonard White, MD, local health officer- Dr. White published in the medical literature describing early childhood vaccine related deaths in 1885. He published a report of an outbreak of malaria in town in 1896. Dr. Theobald Smith, the pathologist with the Massachusetts Board of Health, corresponded with Dr. White about the malaria in Uxbridge. This is among the earliest known links of malaria to mosquitoes in America, one year before Ronald Ross in India described the links to the Anopheles mosquito.
• Willard Bartlett; — Born in Uxbridge, Worcester County, Mass., October 14, 1846. Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 2nd District, 1884–1907; Justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court 2nd Department, 1896–1906; judge of New York Court of Appeals, 1906–16; chief judge of New York Court of Appeals, 1913-16. He was from Brooklyn, Kings County, New York in adulthood.
• Franklin Bartlett Willard's brother who became a US Congressman representing NY State in the 1890s.