Elizabeth Prescott

Elizabeth Prescott (Hoar)

Direct Descendant for U.S. Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush, and U.S. Presidents George H.W and George W. Bush

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/198755572/elizabeth-prescott
• http://genealogytrails.com/mass/middlesex/bios_hoarfamily.html

Birth: 1646 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay, Colonial America
Death:25 September 1687 Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Colonial America
Father:John Hoar (1619-1704)
Mother:Alice Lisle (1624-1696)
Spouse /Partner:Jonathan Prescott (1643-1721)
Wedding:23 December 1675 Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Colonial America
Sex:Female

She married Jonathan Prescott (1643-1721) on 23 December 1675 in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Source: http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Elizabeth_Hoar_(1646-1697)

Name: Elizabeth PULSIFER
Sex: F
Death: AFT 6 JAN 1755
Note:
Additional source: Noyes/Libby/Davis, "Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire," (1939), p. 568, Elizabeth's surname.

Marriage 1 Isaac CLIFFORD b: 14 FEB 1663/64 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH

•Married: BEF MAY 1694

Children

1. Elizabeth CLIFFORD
Marriage 2 Jonathan PRESCOTT b: 6 MAY 1675 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH

•Married: ABT 1695

Children

1. Jonathan PRESCOTT b: 16 JUL 1696 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH
2. Jeremiah PRESCOTT b: 8 OCT 1698 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH
3. Benjamin PRESCOTT b: 2 NOV 1700 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH
4. Abigail PRESCOTT b: 23 MAR 1702/03 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH
5. Joseph PRESCOTT b: 27 DEC 1705 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH
6. Mary PRESCOTT b: 8 SEP 1709 in Hampton, Rockingham, NH

Source: rootsweb

Children of Jonathan11 Prescott and Elizabeth Hoare (see #83) were:

68 i. Dr. Jonathon10 Prescott. Daughter of John Hoar and Alice ____ Hoar of Scituate and Concord. One candidate for Alice is Alice Lisle, but this is not certain. Some historians believe John Hoar's wife may have been Alice Sidney. Currently, no physical or reliable evidence exists providing John Hoar's wife's maiden name, as many early records from the Concord colony have been lost.

Second wife of Jonathan Prescott.

Children: Jonathan Prescott Jr, Elizabeth Prescott Fowle, Dorothy Prescott, John Prescott, Mary Prescott Miles Dodd(whose first husband was John Miles), and Benjamin Prescott.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 18 2017, 19:29:37 UTC

HOAR No more popular and truly meritorious family name comes to the mind in writing of the many celebrated family circles of Massachusetts, than to which the late lamented United States Senator, George F. Hoar, belonged. His ancestors from the early day "Massachusetts Bay Colony," were men of great courage and activity. One writer says, "They were in advance of the times in which they lived and were leaders to a higher and better sphere, both in social and political sense." The earliest of his male ancestors in this country was John Hoar, one of the three brothers who came with their sister and mother from Gloucester, England. The husband and father, Charles Hoar, was sheriff of Gloucester and died before his family came to America. His wife, Joanna, died at Braintree, 1661. They had three sons and two daughters. The sons were Daniel, who re turned to England in 1653: Leonard, at Harvard College 1650, and was president of that institution: and John. (See Hudson's "His tory of Lexington," page 104, Genealogical Register).

(II) Leonard Hoar, son of Charles and Joanna (Hincksman) Hoar, of England, was president of Harvard College from 1672 until shortly before his death in 1675. He married Bridget Lisle, daughter of John Lord Lisle. Her father was president of the High Court of Justice in England under Cromwell, and drew the indictment and sentence of King Charles I. He was murdered in Lausanne- Switzerland, August 11, 1664, being shot in the back as he was on his way to church, by two Irish ruffians who were inspired by the hope of reward from some member of the Royal family in England. Bridget Lisle's mother was the Lady Alicia Lisle, who was in sympathy with the King, and was one of the earliest victims of the infamous Chief Justice Jeffries, being charged with misprision of treason in aiding and concealing in her dwelling the day after the battle of Sedgemoor, Richard Xelthorpe, a lawyer, and John Hickes, a minister, accused of being refugees from Monmouth's army. She declared herself innocent of guilty knowledge, and protested against the illegality of her trial because the supposed rebels, to whom she had given common hospitality, had not been convicted. She was then advanced in years, and so feeble that it is said she was unable to keep awake during the tedious trial. Jeffries arrogantly refused her the aid of counsel, admitted irrelevant testimony, excelled himself in violent abuse, and so intimidated the jurors who were disposed to dismiss the charge, that they unwillingly at last brought in a verdict of guilty. She was hurriedly condemned "to be burned alive" the very after noon of the day of her trial, August 28, 1685, but, owing to the indignant protests of the clergy of Winchester, execution was postponed for five days, and the sentence was "altered from burning to beheading." This punishment was exacted in the market place of Winchester on the appointed day, the implacable James II. refusing a pardon, although it was proved that Lady Lisle had protected many cavaliers in distress, and that her son John was serving in the royal army; and many persons of high rank interceded for her, among whom was Lord Clarendon, brother-in-law to the King. Lady Lisle was connected by marriage with the Bond, Whitmore. Churchill and other families of distinction, and her granddaughter married Lord James Russell, fifth son of the first Duke of Bedford, thus connecting this tragedy with that of Lord William Russell, "the martyr of English liberty." In the first year of William and Mary's reign, the attainder was reversed by act of parliament upon petition of Lady Lisle's two daughters, Tryphena Grove and Bridget (Hoar) Usher. Among the eight great historical paintings which adorn the corridor leading to the House of Commons, the third of the series represents Lady Lisle's arrest. Lady Lisle's tomb is a heavy flat slab of grey stone, raised about two or three feet from the ground, near Ellingham church, close to the wall, on the right side of the church porch.

It is said that when Lady Lisle was carried on horseback by a trooper to Winchester for trial, the horse lost a shoe and fell lame. She insisted that the trooper should stop at a smith's and have the shoe replaced, on his refusal declaring that she would make an outcry and resistance unless he did, saying that she could not bear to see the horse suffer. The blacksmith at first refused to do the work, saying that he would do nothing to help the carrying off of Lady Lisle, but on her earnest pleading, he did. She told him she would come back that way in a few days, but the trooper said. "Yes, you will come back in a few days, but without your head." The body was returned to Moyles' Court the day of the execution; the head was brought back a few days after in a basket, and put in at the pantry window; the messenger said that the head was sent afterward for greater indignity.

There is a further tradition that when Lady Lisle heard of her husband's connection with the court which condemned King Charles, she was much distressed. It is well known that she disapproved the execution, and that she declared on her trial that she never ceased to pray for the King. The story further goes that she hastened to London and reached her husband's door as he had just mounted his horse to join the procession for some part of the proceeding of the court. She accosted him, but, being covered with a heavy veil, he did not recognize her. and roughly thrust her away. She fell under the horse's hoofs in a swoon: she was taken up and cared for by Hickes, one of the persons whom she afterward succored, and for relieving whom she was condemned. She remained in a swoon for a long time; her husband was sent for and visited her but, to use the phrase in which the story was told, "was very odious to her." She told Hickes that she could not repay him for his kindness in London, but if he came to the Isle of Wight, or to Moyles' Court, in both of which places she had property, she would repay him, saying, "At Moyles' Court I am mistress."

Bridget Hoar married (second) November 29, 1676, Hezekiah Usher, Jr. A memorial to the memory of Joanna, wife of Charles Hoar, and to Bridget, wife of Leonard Hoar and daughter of Lady Lisle, in the form of a double headstone, shaped from a large, thick, slab of slate, was erected by Senator George F. Hoar, a descendant. Following are the inscriptions: "Joanna Hoare, died in Braintree, September 21st, 1651. She was widow of Charles Hoare, Sheriff of Gloucester, England, who died 1638. She came to New England with five children about 1640.

"Bridget, widow of President Leonard Hoar, died May 25, 1723, daughter of John Lord Lisle, President of the High Court of Justice. Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal, who drew the indictment and sentence of King Charles I., and was murdered at Lausanne, Aug. 11th, 1664, and of Lady Alicia Lisle, who was beheaded by the brutal judgment of Jeffries, 1685. She was nearly akin by marriage to Lord William Russell."

(II) John Hoar, son of first family who located in New England by this name, was a lawyer, distinguished for bold manly independence. He resided in Scituate, Massachusetts, from 1643 to 1655. It was about 1660 when he settled in Concord, and died April 2, 1704. His wife, Alice Lyle, sister of Bridget Lisle, who married Leonard Hoar, died June 5, 1697. Their children included Elizabeth, who, December, 1675, married Jonathan Prescott: Mary, married Benjamin Graves. October 21. 1668: and Daniel, married (first) Mary Stratton, (second) Mary Lee. The Hoar family were among the early Bay colonists, and some true conception of their character may be had by referring to a matter of New England history, wherein it is recorded that after the Indian massacre at Lancaster, at the time of King Philip's war. John Hoar, at the request of the colonial authorities, followed the Indian band far into the wilderness, and after great hard ship and the exercise of great ingenuity, re covered by ransom Mrs. Rowlandson, a lady captive from Lancaster. Her account of her ransom is published. The rock where she was redeemed is close by the base of Wachusett Mountain, and has been marked by Senator Hoar by a suitable inscription.

(III) Daniel Hoar, son of John, born about 1655: married, July 19, 1677, Mary Stratton, and October 16, 1717, Mary Lee. By these marriages the following children were born: John, October 24, 1678; Leonard, a captain, died April, 1771, aged eighty-seven years, in Brainfield, where a part of the descendants now reside, some having taken the name of Homer; Daniel, 1680, married Sarah Jones; Jonathan, died at the Castle, October 26, 1702; Joseph, died at sea, 1707; Benjamin: Mary, March 14, 1689, died June 10, 1702: Samuel, April 6, 1691 ; David, November 14, 1698; Isaac, May 18, 1695; Elizabeth, February 22, 1701.

(IV) Daniel (2) Hoar, son of Daniel (1) and great-grandson of the ancestor, born 1680; married Sarah Jones, daughter of John and Sarah Jones, December 20, 1705: lived in south eastern part of Concord, where he died February 8, 1773, aged ninety-three years. Their children were: 1. John, born January 6. 1707; was twice married. 2. Jonathan, born January 6, 1707 (twin brother of John) ; graduated at Harvard College 1740; was an officer in the provincial service during the war of 1744 to 1763; in 1755 he went as a major to Fort Edward, the next year was a lieutenant-colonel in Nova Scotia, and an aide to Major-General Winslow at Crown Point ; after the peace of 1763 he went to England and was appointed governor of Newfoundland and neighboring provinces, but unfortunately died on his pass age thither, aged fifty-two years. 3. Daniel, entered Harvard College 1730, but did not graduate; married Rebecca Brooks, November 2, 1743, and removed to Westminster, where he died, leaving two sons and two daughters. 4. Lucy, married John Brooks. 5. Elizabeth, married a Mr. Whittemore, of West Cambridge. 6. Mary, married Zachariah Whittemore.

(V) John (2) Hoar, born January 6. 1707; married, in Lexington, June 13, 1734, Esther Pierce, by whom he had two children. She died, and he married, August 21, 1740, in Watertown, Elizabeth Coolidge. He died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, May 16, 1786, and his widow died March 20, 1791. He lived successively in Lexington, Watertown, and again in Lexington and Lincoln. It is not quite clear when he first came to Lexington. He was taxed for a personal and realty in 1729, and had a seat assigned him in the meeting house in 1731, when they reseated the house. He was a member of the school committee in 1743. He subsequently filled the offices of constable, assessor and selectman. His home was in that part of Lexington set off to Lincoln in 1754. His children were: 1. Rebecca, born in Lexington, July 1, 1735; married, May 6, 1755, Joseph Cutler. 2. Esther, born in Watertown, January 28, 1739: married Edmond Bowman, 1760. 3. John, born in Lexington, July 14, 1 74 1 ; died young. 4. Samuel, born in Lexington, August 23, 1743. 5. Elizabeth, born in Lexington, October 14, 174ft. 6. Mary, born in Lexington, October 5, 1750: died young. 7. Sarah, born in Lincoln, June 9, 1755; married Nehemiah Abbot. 8. Leonard, born in Lincoln, June 29, 1758: was twice married. 9. Rebecca, born in Lincoln, October 18. 1761: married Joseph White Lancaster. 10. Mary, born June 17, 1764; married Thomas Wheeler, March 27. 1788. 11. Joseph, born July 30, 1767.

(VI) Samuel Hoar, son of John (2) Hoar, born in Lexington, Massachusetts, August 23, 1743; was an important man in Lincoln; he frequently represented his town in the house of representatives, and was a state senator from Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from 1813 to 1816. He married Susanna Pierce, by whom he had ten children — five of each sex.

(VII) Samuel (2) Hoar, eldest son of Samuel (1) Hoar, born May 18, 1778; graduated at Harvard College, 1802, received the degree of LL. D. 1838. He taught school in Virginia two years, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1805. He was an eminent lawyer, contemporary with Choate, Mason and Daniel Webster. He frequently represented the town of Lincoln in the Massachusetts legislature, was a senator from the county of Middlesex, from 1813 to 1816. and was elected to congress for the years 1835-37-44. The legislature of Massachusetts sent him to South Carolina to test the constitutionality of certain acts authorizing the imprisonment of free colored persons held as prisoners in that state. By order of the governor of South Carolina he was forcibly ejected from the state, and compelled to leave before fulfilling his mission, but acquitted him self manfully throughout the entire case. He was a man of marked character and standing. He died at Concord, Massachusetts. November 2. 1856. He married Sarah, youngest daughter of Roger Sherman of Connecticut, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, one of the framers of the United States Constitution, judge, and later United States senator, and mayor of New Haven until his death. Children of Samuel and Sarah (Sherman) Hoar were: 1. Elizabeth, born July 14, 1814. 2. Ebenezer Rockwood, February 21, 1816. 3. Sarah Sherman, November 9, 1817. 4. Samuel Johnson, February 4, 1820; died 1821. 5. Edward Sherman, December 22, 1823: graduate of Harvard College 1844. 6. George Frisbie, August 29, 1826.

(VIII) Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, eldest son of Samuel (2) and Sarah (Sherman) Hoar, born February 21, 1816; graduate at Harvard College 1835. In 1839 he began the practice of law in Concord, Massachusetts, and aside from representing his native county in the state senate, was in 1849 made judge of the court of common pleas. In 1859 he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and in General U. S. Grant's administration was appointed attorney general of the United States in March, 1869. In 1871 he was high commissioner of the Washington treaty, and a member of congress from Massachusetts, from 1873 to 1875.

(VIII) George Frisbie Hoar, son of Samuel (2) and Sarah (Sherman) Hoar, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, August 29, 1826. The scenes of his boyhood were cast in pleasant places, "midst fine influences, all calculated to unfold the germ of the true life to be enacted. After his common school days at Concord he entered Harvard College, graduating in 1846. He chose the honorable profession of law for his calling in life, fitting himself in Harvard Law School and in the law office of Judge Thomas in Worcester. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and at once began the practice of his profession in Worcester, which city has ever since claimed him as one of her most honored citizens. Among his legal associates were Hon. Emery Washburn, and later Hon. Charles Devens and J. Henry Hill. Esq. Mr. Hoar very rapidly rose to a very eminent rank in his profession. By native genius of his mind, well disciplined by a thorough educational training, and augmented by an uncommon energy, he steadily moved forward and became a recognized leader. In 1869, when he entered congress, after twenty years at the bar, his legal practice was the largest of any west of Middlesex county and the most valuable in a financial point of view. point of view. It was in 1849 when George F. Hoar first entered the political arena as the chairman of the Free-soil party for Worcester county, where the party was the best organized of any county in the United States. When he was twenty- five years of age, in 185 1, he was elected as a representative to the general court of Massachusetts. He was its youngest member, but became the leader in law matters, and to him was given the task of drawing resolutions protesting against the com promise measures of the National government in 1850. He had so far advanced in political life that he could have succeeded Hon. Charles Allen in congress, but he would not listen to the call made by his friends to enter congress, as it would be to put politics ahead of law — his chosen profession. Had he at that time entered the congressional field he would no doubt have been among the foremost in civil war and reconstruction periods. He would not go to congress, but did not refuse to serve in the state legislature, which was pressed upon him. In 1857 he was a member of the senate and chairman of the judiciary committee. In that body he made a masterly report. He was always ready to make campaign speeches, and but few advanced more thorough, extended and logical arguments.

In 1868 Mr. Hoar was elected a representative in congress (Republican) as the successor of the late Hon. John D. Baldwin. In this, the forty-first congress, he was a member of the committee on education and labor, and his chief work was the preparation and advocacy of the bill for national education. The bill did not pass in that session, and Mr. Hoar reported it in the next, and finally in the forty-third congress it was passed by the house, but failed in the senate. In the same congress he vindicated General Howard, and supported Sumner in his opposition to General Evarts' scheme of annexation of Santo Domingo. As a member of the election committee in the forty-second congress he drew the bill and had much to do along this line. In the following congress he made his famous eulogy on Senator Sumner. He was instrumental in passing the Eads jetty bill, and thus was opened up the New Orleans ocean commerce line. But perhaps of more importance than all, was his connection with the electoral commission bill, he being associated with General Garfield, Judge Abbott, of Massachusetts, and Payne, of Ohio. In 1872 and again in 1874 Mr. Hoar had made known his desire to retire to private life, but each time felt his duty was in serving, because his state demanded it.

In 1876 his resolve to not be a candidate again for re-election was announced as final, and the people elected his successor; but the next Massachusetts legislature chose Mr. Hoar to succeed Mr. Boutwell as United States senator, and he took his seat March 4, 1877, at the beginning of President Hayes' administration. Here he rapidly rose in the scale and dignity of a true American diplomat and states man. He became chairman of many important committees, including that of privileges and claims and on judiciary. He was author of the bill for distributing the balance of the Geneva Award; the Lawell bankruptcy bill; the presidential succession bill: tenure of office act: bureau of labor statistics, and many others. The most of his time in the house and the United States senate was spent in working for bills, laws and measures of large scope and wide range, leaving others less competent than himself to discharge their duties in matters of not so much real importance to the great and growing nation.

In 1883 and 1889 he was reelected to his seat in the senate. To have been elected to the legislature so many times by a unanimous vote of its members was a new record for Massachusetts, and only bespoke of merit for him whom this brief memoir is compiled, giving him a rank along with Charles Sumner and Daniel Webster, who were in the same office, and as a contemporary with Samuel Hoar, his father. His voice had been heard in the national halls of legislation for thirty-five years, and he served as United States senator twenty-seven years at this period, his service being as long, if not longer than any American of our time.

Mr. Hoar had four times served as the chair man of the Massachusetts Republican state convention. In 1880 he was president of the national convention of Chicago, by which General Garfield was made presidential nominee. In his deliberations upon that occasion he proved his masterly fitness as a leader of great bodies of great men in exciting, eventful history making times. In 1898 President McKinley tendered him the ambassadorship to London, but on account of his extreme age and desiring to further serve in the senate he respectfully declined. He enjoyed travel especially in Europe. From his first visit to England in 1860, he had made trips as follows: 1860-68-71-92-96-99. He was a member of the Worcester Fire Society for fifty years. This society was formed in 1793, and was limited to a membership of thirty persons: it has come to be a social and historical body of much interest. In 1903 Senator Hoar wrote and had published what is known by its title, "Autobiography of Seventy Years." It is a neat and well written detailed account of his own life. It embraces two volumes and is dedicated to his wife and children — "a record of a life which they made happy," he says in its dedication. One paragraph in the introduction of this work reads: "The lesson which I have learned in life which is impressed more deeply as I grow old, is the lesson of Good Will and Good Hope. I believe that to-day is better than yesterday, and that to-morrow will be better than to-day. I believe that in spite of so many errors and wrongs, and even crimes, my good countrymen of all classes desire what is good and not what is evil."

While much of his time for more than one- third of a century had been in Washington, yet Worcester felt the touch of his influence and life. He was the prime mover in establishing a free public library in the city. He materially aided in placing the Polytechnic Institute on solid foundation. He was a great friend and help to Clark University. He was trustee of the Leicester Academy, and first president of St. Wulstan Society at Worcester. He also was instrumental in founding the Worcester Art Society and Worcester Club. He was an honorary member of the Worcester Mechanics' Association. He was the oldest member at the time of his decease of any save two of the American Antiquarian Society, and was an honorary member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, as well as active in the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was chairman of the public preservation committee of Massachusetts, and helped to mark permanently the old revolutionary landmarks by proper stones, tablets, etc. He bought the old house in which had lived General Rufus Putnam, at Rutland, and made it a permanently preserved historic relic of revolutionary times.

That the effect of his noble impulses and the care and consideration he always gave to the helpless and oppressed be not lost sight of, it should be here given as an illustration of this marked trait of his character, what relates to the early abolition days when he, a young lawyer practicing in Worcester, helped to de fend a person from mob violence. It was the case wherein a slave "kidnapper" during the "fifties" was arrested and tried in Worcester, but finally allowed to depart, with the promise of never returning. Many colored people here and many more radical abolitionists felt justice had not been meted out to him, and had it not been for young George F. Hoar, and his associates, he would have been violently mobbed. While Mr. Hoar was a life-long friend and helper of the colored race, he did not believe in the mob law. He ever took deep interest in the freedom of the south and gave liberally toward its educational institutions, believing, as he did, that education would sooner or later solve the race problem.

One more recent act of his great kindness was seen in securing the charge of two small Assyrian girls, who accompanied their mother to this country from Assyria in 1901 to be with the head of the family who had been here several years, and declared his intention of becoming a citizen in Worcester. Before landing at Boston Harbor, the officers discovered that one of the little girls was afflicted with a disorder of the eye known as trachoma, and considered incurable in adults and contagious. They, under the law, were ordered not to land on our shores, but to return at once to their native country. The family was poor, and the father a hard working citizen of Worcester, and the mother was to be thus ruthlessly torn from the idols of her heart. The various officials tried in vain to evade the existing law, but were thwarted. The steamer which was to take the little girls back was to sail the next day, but through the inter position of Senator Hoar, whose son Rockwood made the facts known to him, finally through a touching telegram to President Roosevelt, secured a peremptory order of release of the children, and they were brought to Worcester, cared for and soon cured. When the kind- hearted President visited Worcester a few months later, he wished to see them, and he met them at Senator Hoar's residence, where all parties were pathetically touched by the scene. It is small deeds that introduce us to great characters and tender hearts, such as was that of both Senator Hoar and President Roosevelt. Soon thereafter Senator Hoar had the law so amended that such a proposed hardship could not again exist in this country through "red tape."

While he of whom we write had his political enemies (and within his own party) perhaps no other man had been in public life so many years and made so few enemies, and even those who opposed his position were at all times personally his friends. In the part he took in opposing the action of the present Republican administration policy regarding the Philippine Islands questions — one where he crossed swords politically with many of our brainiest states men — all, even President McKinley, himself, knew of and respected his manly independent stand as against popular opinion. Mr. McKinley was of a different opinion regarding a vexed question, but personally was one of Senator Hoar's warmest friends. In Mr. Hoar's "Autobiography," he says: "It has been my ill fortune to differ with my party many times." One such occasion was when he bluntly said to Mr. McKinley, "You cannot maintain a Despotism in Asia and a Republic in America." The man with no opposers has accomplished little and has made but few friends, but he who in the pride and spirit of his manhood advocates the right, as he sees the right, and not from policy, is sure to accomplish what is demanded of a well rounded character, whether in politics, social or private life. Senator Hoar was broad minded, scholarly and patriotic in all he said and sought to accomplish.

Of his domestic relations, it may be stated that in 1853 he married Mary Louisa Spurr, daughter of Samuel D. Spurr, who conducted a dry goods house in Worcester, kept in a large two-story brick block on the north corner of Main and Central streets. Near it stood a large two-story frame house, which was the residence of Mr. Spurr. Mrs. Hoar, at her death, left two children — a daughter Mary, and a son Rockwood, who graduated from Harvard College in 1876, and was elected district attorney for Worcester county in 1899, serving until January 1, 1905. In the autumn of 1904 he was elected to a seat in congress as the nominee of the Republican party for his district. For his second wife Senator Hoar married Ruth Ann, daughter of the late Henry W. Miller, of Worcester. She died about a year in advance of her husband. Finally the end came, and he who had been styled "The Grand Old Man" was claimed by the death messenger, and the spirit took its flight at his home in Worcester, September 30, 1904. He was a firm believer in the Unitarian faith, and was identified with that church many years. His funeral was attended by one of the largest concourse of people ever seen in the common wealth on such a sad occasion. His remains now repose in Sleepy Hollow cemetery, at the place of his birth.

A most remarkable testimony to the popularity and worth of the Senator was furnished by the people of Worcester shortly after his death. A representative committee of citizens was formed to take charge of funds for a suitable memorial, and in a few months the fund was ample for the purpose, contributed by some thirty thousand different persons, representing nearly every family in the city and many in other parts of the state and nation. The memorial took the form of a bronze statue executed by the famous sculptor, Daniel Chester French, and it was located in perhaps the most conspicuous spot in the city, near the city hall, at the corner of Main and Front streets. The Senator is represented as seated in a massive bronze chair, with manuscript in one hand, his overcoat thrown over the left arm of the chair, and a bag of legal papers beneath the chair. The pedestal is a great monolith of granite bearing bronze tablets containing the inscriptions.

The statue was dedicated with appropriate ceremony June 26, 1008, in the presence of a vast gathering of people. Mayor James Logan presided. Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the United States Senate, a life long friend of the Senator, offered prayer and pronounced the benediction. Music was furnished by Battery B Band of Worcester. The speakers were Mr. Logan, Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., and Hon. William H. Moody, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. "And so we have erected this monument," said Mayor Logan, "paid for by the free-will offerings of over thirty thousand people, 2648 subscriptions of one cent, 22,820 from one cent to twenty-five cents, 3139 from twenty-five cents to one dollar, fifteen subscriptions of over one hundred dollars, and the subscriptions of one hundred and twenty-eight societies. And this has been done as a reminder to the youth of coming generations of the life he lived, and of the service which he rendered, that they may be inspired with the true grandeur of American citizenship as exemplified in the life of this patriotic public servant, useful citizen, faithful friend, charming companion, the memory of whose life and service will be to this community an abiding possession. * * The occasion is great because of the purpose for which we have come together, because of the character and fame of him whom we thus honor — our friend and neighbor — George Frisbie Hoar — a man whose whole life was characterized by unselfish public spirit, of unremitting, intelligent, well-directed effort for the welfare of his country and his fellow men."

Governor Guild paid an eloquent tribute to the life and character of the Senator, and rendered a glowing appreciation of his service to the commonwealth of Massachusetts. He said: "We shall remember him, indeed, in future years, as the last of the Puritans; not because he was austere — he exulted in the joy of living; not because he was prejudiced — he was a very crusader for the rescue of free thought in a free land; but because in public as in private life, he lived uncompromisingly according to conviction, and preferred defeat to equivocation. A seeker for the ideal, he had in marked degree the saving grace of common sense, and in him honest independence never degenerated into mere fantastic opposition. A wit, a scholar, a jurist, a statesman, a Christian American gentleman, we may well be proud that when posterity in the days to come names George Frisbie Hoar, it will be forced to add 'of Massachusetts.' "

Judge Moody spoke for an hour without notes, but giving ample evidence of thorough mastery of his subject. In closing he said: "It seems almost an intrusion here today, to his kindred, neighbors and friends, to speak of the beauties of his private life, his insensibility to the allurements of wealth, his indifference to the constant decay of his fortune, his devotion to the civic duties of this community, his love of city, home and family, his gentle Christian life and belief. The time of his departure was well chosen. We cannot but rejoice that he was spared the sorrow of the untimely death of his son, to whom he would have gladly yielded the few years of public life which remained to him. Fortunate it was that with hope undimmed, happy in the love of those dear to him, covered with honors which came because he had labored and spared not, sustained by faith in God and faith in man, he lay down for the eternal rest which we fondly trust is but another name for the life everlasting."

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• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 22 2019, 22:18:06 UTC