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This is a page of data about the Johnson family, who were among the earliest European-American settlers of Wendell, Massachusetts.  The status of this page is IN PROGRESS.

Everts doesn’t mention this family as among the early settlers, but they clearly were

 

here’s info from the Johnson family tree on RootsWeb:

FIRST GENERATION

1. [CS: this is Ebeneezer Sr. – see below] JOHNSON.

He was married to Prudence. JOHNSON and Prudence had the following children:

2 i. Rachel JOHNSON was born on 1 May 1777 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

3 ii. Nathaniel JOHNSON was born on 20 Jan 1779 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

  • 4 iii. Ebenezer JOHNSON (born on 11 Jan 1781).

5 iv. Prudence JOHNSON was born on 28 Mar 1783 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

6 v. Kendall JOHNSON was born on 15 Jun 1785 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

  • 7 vi. David JOHNSON (born on 27 Oct 1787).
  • 8 vii. Ruth JOHNSON (born on 25 Jan 1790).
  • 9 viii. Seneca JOHNSON (born on 8 Jul 1792).

SECOND GENERATION

4. Ebenezer JOHNSON (-1) was born on 11 Jan 1781 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts. He Int. Marriage on 23 Jun 1800 in Wendell, Franklin,

Massachusetts.

He was married to Mary in 1800.

7. David JOHNSON (-1) was born on 27 Oct 1787 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts. He Int. Marriage on 15 May 1815 in Wendell, Franklin,

Massachusetts. Certificates of marriages published from under the hands of Town Clerk of Wendell, MA, 25 Apr 1787 to 15 September 1890.

of Wendell, Mass.

 

He was married to Charlotte GOLDTHWAIT in 1815 in , Franklin, Massachusetts.

David JOHNSON and Charlotte GOLDTHWAIT had the following children:

10 i. Rachel Diana JOHNSON was born on 9 Jan 1820 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

11 ii. Kendall Augustin JOHNSON was born on 25 Mar 1825 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

12 iii. Sylvanus Edwin JOHNSON was born on 3 Aug 1828 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts.

 

8. Ruth JOHNSON (-1) was born on 25 Jan 1790 in Wendell, Franklin,

Massachusetts. Certificates of marriages published from under the hands of

Town Clerk of Wendell, MA, 25 Apr 1787 to 15 September 1890.

of Wendell, Mass.

She was married to William HARRIS in 1811 in , Franklin, Massachusetts.

William HARRIS Int. Marriage on 19 Jan 1811 in Wendell, Franklin,

Massachusetts. Certificates of marriages published from under the hands of

Town Clerk of Wendell, MA, 25 Apr 1787 to 15 September 1890.

of Moretown, Vt.

9. Seneca JOHNSON (-1) was born on 8 Jul 1792 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts. He Int. Marriage on 21 Oct 1826 in Wendell, Franklin,

Massachusetts. Certificates of marriages published from under the hands of Town Clerk of Wendell, MA, 25 Apr 1787 to 15 September 1890.

of Carmel, Maine.

History of The Town of Sunderland, Massachusetts, by John Montague Smith, prepared by Henry W. Taft & Abbie T. Montague. Press of E. A. Hall & Co., Greenfield, Mass., 1899. p. 246.

of Maine

He was married to Lucinda WILDER (daughter of Bezaleel WILDER and Sarah ADAMS) in Oct 1826 in , Franklin, Massachusetts.

Lucinda WILDER was born on 21 May 1798 in Wendell, Franklin, Massachusetts. She died in 1880.

Certificates of marriages published from under the hands of Town Clerk of Wendell, MA, 25 Apr 1787 to 15 September 1890.

of Wendell, Mass.

—

there are two Johnsons in “Shutesbury” (poss. including Wendell) in the 1771 tax valuation:

  • Joseph Johnson
    • 1 acre of pasture, capable of keeping 1 cow
    • 1 acre of tillage
    • 3 acres of “English and upland mowing land” on which he produced 2 tons of “English and upland hay”
    • no house
    • 10 bushels of grain produced
    • 1 horse, 2 oxen, 1 cow, 4 goats and sheep, 1 swine
    • property assessed as worth 2 pounds
  • Eben’r (Ebeneezer)
    • no houses, tillage
    • 1 acre of English/upland mowing land producing 1 ton of English/upland hay
    • 1 cow
    • no value showing for property yet

—

this seems to be the Ebeneezer who was cultivating land in 1771:

b. c.1743?

Wendell birth records show: “Mr. Ebenezer Johnson and wife Prudence their Children’s Births:”

  • Rachel b. May 1, 1777
  • Nathaniel b. Jan. 20, 1779
  • Ebenezer b. Jan. 11, 1781
  • Prudence b. March 28, 1783
  • Kendall b. June 15, 1785
  • David b. Oct. 27, 1787
  • Ruth b. Jan. 23, 1790
  • Seneca b. July 8, 1792

looks as though Ebenezer Jr. married Ruth Washburn Dec. 14, 1804

d. Moretown, Washington County, VT, Nov. 23, 1826

youngest son Seneca is farming in Carmel, Maine (near Bangor) by 1850 – farm was worth $1500, well above the average

he married Lucinda Wilder from Wendell and their children were born in Maine, suggesting the couple struck off into new territory looking for land of their own

Diemand

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This is a page about the Diemand family of Wendell, Massachusetts, who have been farming here since the 1930s.  The status of this page is IN PROGRESS.

Lewis

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This is a page about the Lewis family, who began farming in Wendell in 1932.  The status of this page is IN PROGRESS.

 

the Lewises bought their farm in 1932, probably from the town, which had taken it for taxes

the previous owner was Cora Hudson, who continued to live for a while in the old district schoolhouse by permission of Ted Lewis’s parents

Ted believes the Hudsons built the house after the big fire that burned much of the western side of town (date not certain)

Cook

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This is a page about Wendell doctor, postmaster, justice of the peace, and farmer Lucius Cook.  The status of this page is SOLIDIFYING.

Lucius Cook (1814-1857):

ref. to Lucius Cook in The New England Farmer (1853)

cook-NE-farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

interesting that the Mass. State Board of Agriculture was formed the year before (1852)

from Amherst genealogical records:

  • parents were James and Martha Cook
  • siblings were Celina (b. 1811), Ira (b. 1812), and Moody (b. 1916)
  • Lucius was born Oct. 8, 1814 in Amherst
  • “physician at Wendell”
  • married to Fidelia Hayward on Aug. 19, 1840 in Shutesbury

there are two James Cooks in New Salem in the 1771 Mass. tax valuation, both of them quite prosperous (one very much so) – was this possibly Lucius’s family, and did they move down to the valley from the uplands at some point?
there are also quite a few Cooks in Hadley in 1771 (but then, it’s quite a common name)

a James Cook m. Martha Moodey in Pelham, March 1, 1810

635 – Edward Payson (Rust, I think), s. Charles & Celinda (Backus), March 3, 1845, at West Amh., lived in 1850, adopted by Lucius Cook of Wendell. [JAS]
in the 1865 Mass. census Edward is living in Worthington with:

  • Oscar R Cushman 29 (farmer)
  • Dianthe L Cushman 28 (farmer’s wife)
  • Amelia R Cushman 66 (housework)
  • Edward P Rust 20 (farmer)

in the 1880 U.S. Census:

  • he’s 35, living in Brattleboro and working for an organ shop (Estey’s, presumably)
  • he’s married to a woman named Fanny who is 8 years older than he is (43), and also from Mass.

in the 1900 U.S. Census, the couple is living in Mansfield, MA (Bristol County) (Ancestry thinks their name is “Ract”)

  • he’s working as a Railroad flagman in 1900

he appears in the 1913 Amherst directory as “Woodcarver”
so, an interesting case of someone going between agricultural, artisanal, and industrial kinds of work

it looks as though Lucius was Wendell’s first postmaster, from 1841-46

from 1850 U.S. Census:

  • Lucius Cook, 35 (so born abt 1815), physician, owned property worth $1250, b. Mass.
  • wife Fidelia H., 34, b. Mass.
  • female (servant, presumably) Alfreda Blodgett, 16, b. Mass.
  • Edward P. Cook, 5, b. Mass.

from his death record (1857):

  • Lucius Cook, b. Oct. 9, 1814, in Amherst
  • married Nov. 30, 1837, in Pelham by Rev. J. Bent to Fidelia Hayward of Plainfield
  • he died Oct. 9, 1857 in Erving
  • Remarks: “Physician at Wendell”
  • parents: James and Martha Cook

Fidelia was born April 10, 1816 in Plainfield

  • her parents were Stephen and Jenet (from birth records, Plainfield)
  • died 1897 at 81 of “senile asthenia” at home in Plainfield
  • parents listed as Stephen Hayward of Concord, Mass. and Jenette Bisbee of Plainfield
  • she was a poet and editor who published some of Emily Dickinson’s work in the Springfield Republican, where she was literary editor – see Judith Scholes, “Emily Dickinson and Fidelia Hayward Cooke’s Springfield Republican” in The Emily Dickinson Journal, Volume 23, Number 1, 2014, pp. 1-31

here’s a memorial to Dr. Cook in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Volume 59

cook-memorial

 

 

 

 

 

 

from Franklin District Medical Society records:

Dr. Lucius Cook commenced practice in Wendell, Franklin Co., about 1840. He is believed to have been from Amherst, Hampshire Co., and was considered eminent both as a physician and surgeon. Some years after his settlement at Wendell he removed to Miller’s Falls, where he continued to reside until his death, about 1858, at the probable age of fifty-five to sixty years. He left no children. He is remembered as a stoutly-built and very corpulent man. He was something of a pettifogger in the law, and held the office of justice of the peace for several years.

(text also found here)

searching for him in the records of the Harvard Medical School…
Harvard University. Catalogue of the officers and students of the University in Cambridge, for the acadmical year 1839-40. (Cambridge [Mass.], 1839) Page 12.

Cambridge [Mass.]: :Folsom, Wells, and Thurston, printers to the University., 1840.
at American Antiquarian Society

from Greenfield Gazette and Courier, Oct. 18, 1902 (via Newspaper Archive):

“The Goldthwaite homestead, better known perhaps as the Dr. Lucius Cook place, has been sold. It Is said the purchaser plans to move the house off and build a hotel on the site.”