Representative women of New England/Helen C. Mulford
HELEN C. MULFORD, Superintendent for nine years of the Franchise Department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of Barnstable County Mass., is a native of Chatham, Mass., where she now resides during the greater part of the year.
She was born August 3, 1845, daughter of Isaac Bea and Maria J. (Marston) Young. She is a grand-daughter of Joseph. Jr., and Bethia (Bea) Young. ojreat-grand-daughter of Joseph and Anna Dickerson) Young, and great-great-grand-daughter of Hiatt and Mercy (Hinckley) Young.
Two of these ancestors, nanicly, Hiatt Young, of Chatham (born about 1739), and his son Joseph, fought in the war for American independence, Hiatt Young appearing with the rank of Sergeant on the Revolutionary rolls of the State. For a number of years he was in Captain Webb's, later in Captain Holbrook's company, Colonel William Shepard's regiment. It is related of him that upon reaching his little home after his discharge from the army, without a cent, weary and footsore, having suffered many privations and hardships, he left his footprints in blood upon the newly scrubbed floor, and that they never could be erased while the house remained standing. An old memorandum records the fact that the town refused to pay him the bounty which was his due, amounting to thirty pounds. His actual grave remains unknown.
The following is the inscription on a monument standing on a lot in the Universalist cemetery, now owned by Isaac B. Young, inscribed many years ago under the direction of his eldest son, Joseph: —
In memory of
HIATT YOUNG
WHO DIED OCT. 10, 1810, AGED 71 YEARS. IN THE FRENCH WAR HE SERVED IN MAJOR ROGERRS' RANGERS AND WAS TAKEN CAPTIVE BY THE INDIANS. HE ALSO SERVED SIX YEARS IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION, AND WAS ENGAGED IN SEVERAL BATTLES: l.ST AT THE SIEGE OF BOSTON; 2D IN THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND; 3D AT PRINCETON; 4TH, TRENTON; 5TH, TAKING OF BURGOYNE; 6TH, MONMOUTH; 7TH, RHODE ISLAND; 8TH, CORNWALLIS. MERCY YOUNG, HIS WIDOW, DIED OCT. 4TH, 1824, AGED 84 YEARS.
Joseph Young was so anxious that this inscription should be executed correctly before his death, which he felt was approaching, that he had the stone brought to his front yard, and the work done where he could look upon it from his sick-bed and see that no mistake was made.
Joseph Young was born September 25, 1762, in Liverpool, N.S., and died July 31, 1848, about one week after the completion of the monument. At the age of thirteen, in his father's absence, he had nominal charge of the support of the family. That his mother could spare him a few years later is shown by the fact that he himself enlisted before he was sixteen.
The following was recorded by him in later years:—
"I was so very small and short of stature that I had to resort to stratagem to pass the very yielding eye of an enlisting officer. I put on a pair of my father's big cowhide boots, and filled under my feet all that I could to raise me up. Then I put on all the clothes I could to make me stout. When I went before the examining officer, I stretched myself all I could, and was accepted. I was nine months in Jackson's regiment, six months at Provi- dence under Captain Job Crocker, nine months in Shepard's regiment under Captain Griffiths, of Yarmouth, in my father's name, and in the last twenty-four months of the war under Shepard, a part of the time in my father's name and a part in my own, serving in all four years, eight months.
" I stayed until peace was declared, and was discharged back of Newburg before General Washington took possession of New York, without a cent to pay my expenses home, which I reached after suffering many privations, to find my father and family in distresse(l circumstances, as neither of us had received any compensation for our services. At this time the Continental script was of such depre- ciation in value that a month's wages would not buy a bushel of corn.
"I travelled to Boston to secure our wages, which the government was paying by issuing notes, and found that Lieutenant Hamblin of the Fourth Regiment, who was paymaster, had disposed of our notes and run away to Canada with the proceeds, so that was the last that I ever heard of our w^ges. I was in the battle of Rhode Island under General Sullivan and in many other scrimmages, one at Moriseny, another near Redden between Valley Forge and Philadelphia, and many others, in which we stood our ground bravely and were not daunted to see a redcoat."
After the war Joseph Young married an esti- mable young woman, Anna Nickerson, daughter of Moses Nickerson. As he had no property to speak of, her family, who were Tories, ob- jected to the match, but in vain. He succeeded in surmounting all difficulties, and in later years assisted in the support of the Tory family and many of their relations.
Joseph Young displayed the same courage and determination in business that he had shown as a soldier, and rose from fisherman to master and owner of vessels. But the embargo came, and his vessels lay idle, causing him heavy losses. In the War of 1812 one of his vessels, within twenty-four hours of home, was captured, and two of his sons, Joseph, Jr., and Reuben, who were on board, were sent to Dartmoor Prison, being afterward released.
After the war was over, Joseph Young succeeded in retrieving his losses. It is related of him that he accunmlated a handsome property for his time. He reared a large family, six daughters and three sons, and was a very prominent citizen of Chatham, holding all the highest offices in the town and serving several years in the Legislature. He built a cotton factory in Harwich and a woollen factory in Chatham, and was, in fact, a leader in any enterprise that would help the community. He was very public-spirited, and was liberal in his benefactions to the poor. No one was ever turned away from his door empty-handed. A firm believer in the doctrine of universal salvation, he contributed largely to the building of the first Universalist meeting-house on Cape Cod. Joseph Young, Jr., was born February 20, 1796, and died November 27, 1869. Isaac B. Young, his son, who is now (1904) eighty-six years old and the last survivor of his branch of the family, is an honored citizen of Chatham. His youngest brother, George W. Young, died August 5, 1903. Maria J. Marston Young, wife of Isaac B., died January 3, 1894. She was a daughter of Arthur B. and Hannah J. (Jones) Marston, of West Barnstable, Cape Cod, Mass.
Helen C. Mulford was educated in the public schools of Chatham, and before sixteen years of age began a successful career as a teacher. She had the love and respect of all her pupils, and her popularity among them was an evidence of her kindness, her good judgment, and ability in dealing with those under her charge. She was engaged in this profession for several years, and among her most devoted friends are some of her former pupils. On July 14, 1864, she married Joseph W. Mulford, an Acting Ensign in the United States navy. Since her marriage Mrs. MulfoKi has resided in Boston and Taunton, Mass. (where she conducted a millinery and fancy goods business), and Bridgewater, and for several years has lived at her father's home in Chatham, Mass.
Mrs. Mulford is interested in the Universalist church in Chatham, of which her great
grandfather was one of the founders. She early became interested in the woman suffrage movement and in temperance work, and for the past nine years has been County Superintendent of the Franchise Department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She has supplied thirteen towns with literature upon the subject, has conducted an extensive correspondence, and aided the cause in many other ways. Mrs. Mulford not only takes an active interest in every movement for the advancement of women, but also in the efforts for good government and for the public schools. A local paper, referring to the campaign of 1891, said: "The women of Chatham have been carrying on a vigorous campaign under the leadership of Mrs. Helen Mulford. The town was districted in September, over seventy were assessed and registered, and nearly all voted. A correspondent writes: *Mrs. Mulford deserves unbounded credit for her work, for the campaign was a perfect success, and is so acknowledged by the men, notwithstanding that nothing whatever was done in the matter until the middle of September. The women took hold with zeal, and, though quiet and womanly in their work, were determined to carry it through. The best and most influential women, younger and older, cast their votes. The interest in town meeting was never so intense, as shown from the fact that more men voted than for four years. We shall do still better next year. All honor to the women of Chatham."
In 1889 Mrs. Mulford joined Frank D. Hammond Woman's Relief Corps, No. 141, of South Chatham, auxiliary to the Grand Army post of that town, and entered upon its work with enthusiasm. She was elected to fill various offices, and was chosen president the second year, but declined until 1901. In that year and in 1902 she was president of the corps, performing her official duties in a dignified and thorough manner. She was treasurer of the corps six years, and is at present corps patriotic instructor, having charge of the work of inculcating in the schools the spirit of love and devotion to country. She has been a participant in many department conventions, and has served on important committees in the State body, representing fourteen thousand women. Mrs. Mulford has been a National Aide and. special Aide in the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, and is a delegate to the National Convention to be held in Boston in August, 1904. This will be a gathering representing one hundred and fifty thousand loyal women of the country. Proud of her Revolutionary ancestry, she has taken an interest in the history of that great conflict and in perpetuating the memory of its heroes, and enjoys membership in Sarah Bradlee Fulton Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, the headquarters of which are at theJRoyall House, Medford.
In matters of business Mrs. Mulford shows executive ability and a knowledge of financial questions; in social life, those qualities that win and retain friends. Faithful to the highest duties of life, loving the principles of right and justice, and loyal to the cause of patriotism and humanity, she enjoys being identified with the progressive work of the world.