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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
A
DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
BRISTOL COUNTY
MASSACHUSETTS
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
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THE
FALL RIVER NEWS
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AND
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THE
TAUNTON GAZETTE
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WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
HON. ALANSON BORDEN
OF NEW BEDFORD
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THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1899
PART II
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Obed Nye
OBED NYE was descended from a family of English extraction, the American branch of
which is kin to some of the nobility of that name in England. His paternal grandfather, Capt. Obed Nye, of Sandwich,
was born in 1736, and was twice married; first to Mary Sellers, born in 1739, died March 28, 1707, and second to
Freelove Maxfield, born in 1748, died November 6, 1815. Captain Nye died November 10, 1815. By his first wife he
had twelve children, namely: Jonathan, born in 1760, married, in 1784, Hannah Mandell (born in 1762, died September
25, 1844), and died November 18, 1815; Obed, born in 1766, married Mary Marshall (died April 8, 1852), and died
August 25, 1796, in France, leaving two daughters, Prudence, who married Joseph Bates, and Sylvia, who married,
first, Johnakins Taber, and, second, William Mickel; Thomas, born in 1768, married Hannah Hathaway, and died in
October, 1842; and Gideon, Philip, James, Deborah (Mrs. Thurston Potter), Mary (Mrs. Sylvanus Bartlett), Susan
(Mrs. Ezra Smith), Mercy (Mrs. John Howland), Rebecca (Mrs. Luke Hammond), and Jane (Mrs. Reuben Swift). Capt.
Obed Nye was a well known sailing master and afterward a resident of Acushnet, where he died. The deaths of himself,
his second wife, and his son Jonathan, which occurred in November, 1815, were caused by a “spotted fever” or “black
death” epidemic that prevailed in that locality about that time. Jonathan Nye was a respected farmer in Fairhaven.
His wife Hannah, was a daughter of Lemuel Mandell, and their children were Sarah, born June 16, 1785, married Solomon
Matthews, and died November 26, 1866; Gideon, born November 21, 1786, married in December, 1811, Sylvia Hathaway,
and died March 12, 1875; Rebecca; born September 25, 1788, married, in 1813, Alfred Nye (born in 1785, died January
19, 1864), son of Barnabas and Deborah Nye, and died March 29, 1867; Clement D., born in August, 1791, married
in 1818 Susan, daughter of Asa and Virtue (Swift) Russell, and died in August, 1842; Clarissa H., born August 15,
1793, married October 8, 1815, William Gordon; Susan, born February 11, 1796, died August 11, 1804; Mary, born
February ‘7, 1798, married Davis Thacher, and died March 20, 1875; Obed, the subject of this memoir; Deborah, born
January 29, 1802, died November 20, 1803; Jonathan, born April 17, 1804, died October 27, 1853; and Susan M., born
August 24, 1807, married July 4, 1828, Warren Thacher, and died May 1, 1891.
Obed Nye was born in Fairhaven (Acushnet), Bristol county, Jan uary 25, 1800, and received a limited education
in the common schools of his boyhood. At the age of fourteen he began his business life as a clerk in the general
store of Swift & Nye, at the Head-of the. River, in which capacity he remained until he had reached his majority.
He was then admitted to partnership under the firm name of Swift, Nye & Co., which continued for many years.
Mr. Nye was connected with this business until 1861, when he retired, having accumulated a competency.
Mr. Nye commenced his business career on borrowed capital, and by the exercise of those sterling principles of
honesty, energy and thrift which characterized his entire life, he achieved eminent success, and always had the
respect and confidence of all who knew him. He was emphatically a self-made man. His integrity and uprightness
won for him universal esteem. He was a man of good habits, of strong powers of thought, and of decided principles
and opinions, and in all his intercourse he was social, genial and companionable. Robust in mind and body, and
broad and liberal in his Christian charity, he held to the doctrines of the Unitarian belief, but regularly attended
the Orthodox Congregational Church. In politics he was originally a Whig and later a staunch Republican, and for
a time represented his district in the lower house of the Massachusetts Legislature. For many years he was the
local agent of the Hingham Fire Insurance Company, and he also acquired a wide reputation as a measurer of lumber.
Active and energetic in temperament, benevolent and charitable in all his dealings, and zealous in promoting the
general welfare of his town, he was a good citizen, a kind neighbor and an honest man. His death occurred January
29, 1878.
On the 16th of October, 1821, Mr. Nye was married to Miss Abby, daughter of William Hathaway, jr., and Abigail
Perry, his wife, of New Bedford. Her father was for many years one of New Bedford’s leading citizens and a prominent
factor in the great whaling industry. She was born June 5, 1801, and died May 10, 1864. They had nine children:
Laura Hathaway Nye, born October 3, 1822, married Capt. Charles Spooner Taber (seesketch in this volume) and resides
in Fairhaven; Helen Hathaway Nye, born February 16, 1824, died May 20, 1831; Abby Perry Nye, born June 20, 1826,
married David Franklin Hall, and died January 19, 1893; William, born in 1827, died in 1828; Ann Hathaway Nye,
born November 17, 1829, died July 9, 1831; Helen H., born August 5, 1832, died December 29, 1834; William H., born
August 2, 1834, married Abby S. Davis, and died March 14, 1882; Francis H., born February 28, 1837, died May 3,
1864; and Rudoiphus S., born May 17, 1839. Abby Perry Nye and David F. Hall had four children: Abby Frank Hall,
born September 7, 1851; Ella Frances Hall, born August 5, 1852; Obed Nye Hall, born October 19, 1856, died in 1859;
and Charles Taber Hall, born August 15, 1865. William H. Nye and Abby S. Davis had Emma Taber and Ella Hall Nye
twins, born May 15, 1855, of whom Emma T. married Willard R. Pulsifer, has one daughter, Abby Caroline, and resides
in Malden, Mass.; Annie T., born December 3, 1858, married Rev. Thomas Edward Potterton; Lillian Forrest Nye, born
March 12, 1867, married Lieut. Andrew J. Henderson, U.S.N., and has two sons, Leland Forrest and Richard Lawrence;
and Helen Hathaway Nye, born April 19, 1869, married, November 9, 1898, John Henry Appleton, a well known lawyer
of Boston.
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