Certain

Addenda Relating to
MITCHELL and Other
Descendants
of WILLIAM
[DAWES]

*
by SPENCER L. DAWES
[1916]

******
****
**
*

The following pages

are devoted to my mother
whose lovely, unselfish character
made her marriage to Thomas Spencer
the greatest achievement
of his life

Mitchell Dawes, whose trade was that of a cabinet-maker, eked out his
scanty resources by the cultivation of a not very large farm on the bleak
hills of Western Massachusetts, persuading from the reluctant soil the food
supplies for his ever increasing family. Speaking with greater accuracy, he
lived on Cummington Hill, in the Town of Cummington and the county of
Hampshire. His efforts were aided very materially by Mercy Burgess his wife,
a woman whose superior mentality was recognized by all who knew her.
Indeed, the great strength and individuality of character manifested in their
children is attributed more to the dominant traits of Mercy Burgess than to
those of Mitchell.

Here in a small house his four daughters were born but later he lived in a
house purchased from Dr. Peter Bryant, the one in which the poet William
Cullen Bryant first saw the light, and in it his three sons came into the world.

Of those seven children, all but Sally grew to mature life and each one of
them was a person of unusual intellectual attainment and all shone in the
environment in which fate placed them.
Louisa Warner, second born, Vermont and lived with him in
married Thomas Reed Rawson, a Albany, New York, bearing him
clergyman born in Windsor, three sons and two daughters. One
of the sons, Edward Kirk,
graduated at Yale University and
became a chaplain in the United
States Navy; later Professor of
mathematics at Annapolis; then
Librarian of the Naval Library at
Washington, District of Columbia,
in which city he now (1916)
resides. He is the author of Twenty
Famous Naval Battles, a work of
great excellence and recognized
importance.
Sophronia O. Married a farmer of
Cummington, Joseph W. Rogers by
name. By him she had three
daughters, and here she always
lived, surviving her husband by
several years, her death occurring
on January the fourteenth, 1895.
The daughters are- Henrietta (von
der Nahmer), Julia (Kingman) and
Fanny.
Lucretia married Isaac Whitney
Williams some time about 1834,
her husband dying on the Island of
St. Thomas in the month of
Henry Laurens who was born in
1816 and died in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts on February 5th,
1903 attended Yale College,
graduating there in 1839. He
taught school; edited the
Greenfield Gazette and the Adams
(Mass) Transcript; was a member
of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives in 1846, ‘49 and
‘52; the Senate of Massachusetts
in 1850 and the Constitutional
Convention of the Commonwealth
in 1853. He was United States
District Attorney for the Western
District of his state from 1853 to
1857 and was elected to the
United States Congress as
January, 1841. She was the mother
of one son, Charles Howard by
name, a well known corporation
lawyer of the City of New York.
This son founded the first evening
newspaper ever published in that
city, The Globe. Lucretia, after the
untimely death of her husband,
supported herself and educated
her son by teaching school, aided
greatly by her brothers, Henry
Laurens and Thomas Spencer with
each of whom she spent much of
her time in later years and both of
whom materially assisted her and
her son financially. The date of her
death was June the twenty-fifth,
1898. The son was born on
October 25th, 1836, his marriage
to Mary Hunter of North Adams,
Massachusetts on May 21st, 1868
and he died in that city on October
2nd, 1910, leaving two sons,
Howard Hunter and James Dawes,
both lawyers of New York City and
both graduates of Yale University.
representative in 1857, serving for
sixteen years and declining to be a
candidate for reelection to the
44th Congress. He was a candidate
for Speaker of the House against
James G. Blane and was Chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee
and framed the famous tariff law
of 1872. On March 4th, 1875 he
succeeded Charles Sumner as
Senator from Massachusetts,
serving in this capacity for
eighteen years. While always a
party man he was broad minded in
his Republicanism. While a Senator
he became greatly interested in
Indian affairs and was the author
of the Act allotting the Indian lands
in severalty (1887) and when he
retired from the Senate was
appointed by President Cleveland
as Chairman of the Commission to
the Five Civilized Tribes in the
autumn of 1893. The degree of L.
L. D. Was conferred upon him by
Yale University and by William
College. His honesty and
Incorruptibility were noteworthy
among the public men of his time.
He married Electa Sanderson of
Ashfield, Massachusetts and by her
had three children: Anna L. Who
was in his later years of great
service to her father and who
accompanied him to the Indian
Territory is a well known author
and public speaker; Chester, a
lawyer of Chicago, General
Attorney for the C. B. & Q. R’y; and
Henry L., Jr. a lawyer living in
Pittsfield.
Francis Howland was an entirely
different type. In him was
exemplified New England thrift to
the highest degree and it was said
of him that his keenness in making
a bargain hesitated not at the ties
of blood nor friendship. Indeed for
many years he was estranged from
Thomas Spencer, the youngest of
Mitchell’s sons, had only a meager
early education but learned much
from his wise mother for whom his
admiration was unbounded. His
taste for reading, his passion for
the poets and his love for good
literature was cultivated if not
created by his Uncle Howland (the
doctor). His knowledge of
mathematics which was
considerable was gained at night,
some times by the light of the fire
in the sugar camp where he spent
his sisters and brothers because of
this trait in connection with their
parents with whom he and his wife
lived for some time. While only a
farmer, Francis was a great reader
and dearly loved to debate the
questions of the day and did so
frequently in correspondence with
Horace Greely for whom he had a
great admiration. An ardent
abolitionist, his home was one of
the stations of the “underground
railway” in the sixties. For a time
he was Moderator at Town Meeting
in Cummington and also served as
Probate Judge. For many years he
lived on the estate of William
Cullen Bryant in Cummington and
occupied Mr. Bryant’s homestead
there. His was a ready wit of not
the most attractive type and his
sarcastic tongue and often vitriolic
speech embittered his relations
with his neighbors with whom his
quarrels were frequent and long
drawn out. He married Melissa
Everett and had no children but
adopted a child named Mary
Bradley. He died in January 1893,
with what was for a New England
farmer, a considerable fortune.
many nights alone. Here too he
learned to play the flute, although
he later abandoned this instrument
for the violin on which he was no
mean performer.
At sixteen years of age he was five
feet, eleven and a half inches tall
and weighed 180 pounds; with
rosy cheeks and light brown hair,
his was a handsome figure. At this
age he commenced to teach school
earning money to aid him to attain
his goal- medicine. When about
twenty he commenced the study of
medicine with Dr. Henshaw of
Coxsackie, NY, teaching school as
well and in 1848 he received the
degree of Doctor of Medicine at the
Albany Medical College, living
while in Albany with his sister, Mrs.
Rawson and her husband. After his
graduation he settled in the Village
of Saugerties, New York, and there
on November sixth, 1850 he
married Elizabeth Russell,
youngest child of Jeremiah Russell
of that place; by her he had four
children, two sons and two
daughters.
Thomas Spencer was a man of
great brilliance, a skillful surgeon,
and exceptional diagnostician and
an unusually competent and
successful practitioner. It was
frequently said of him that had he
chosen he might have shone in a
much wider sphere than the one
he chose to occupy.
great excitement in the country
districts and which was passed,
only to be repealed at a special
session of the Board of
Supervisors. This law, or rather its
main features, have since been
embodied in the laws of several of
the states.
[Written on the back of the
previous page: “Was made a
member of the N. Y. State Board of
Health by Governor David B. Hill,
serving one fall and part of another
term, leaving with credit to himself
and his state until compelled to
resign on account of his health.”]
The failure of Thomas Spencer to
achieve the great things of life was
due not to lack of ability but rather
to that which has been the want of
many another genius, (for a genius
he surely was) a satisfaction with
the things of today rather than a
demand for those of tomorrow.

Not only was he a great lover of

nature but he was a musician, a
sportsman, a billiard player of
repute as well as a remarkable
horseman always owning one or
more trotting horses. He was
elected as a member of the Board
of Directors of the Village of
Saugerties in the years 1881, ‘82,
‘83, and ‘84, being President of the
board or “Mayor” two terms. In
1861 President Lincoln appointed
him Post-Master at Saugerties,
which office he held until 1869. He
was elected and served as
Supervisor for his town in the
years 1859, 1861 and 1875. While
serving in this capacity he framed
the famous dog law which caused