Representative women of New England/Lydia G. Wellington

by Mary H. Graves

LYDIA GROUT WELLINGTON

LYDIA GROUT WELLINGTON, a member of the Ladies' Aid Association of the Massachusetts Soldiers' Home in Chelsea, is a resident of Worcester. She was born December 1, 1844, daughter of Edwin and Lydia Pierce (Barton) Grout, of Millbury, Mass.

On the paternal side she is a direct descendant in the seventh generation of John^ Grout, one of the early proprietors of Watertown. About the year 1643 John* Grout removed to Sudbury. He served as Captain of a military company and as a chirurgeon.

Jonathan' Grout, born in Sudbury in 1658 (son of Captain John by his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Nicholas Busby and widow of Captain Thomas Cakebread), married Abigail, daughter of John Dix.

Jonathan,' their son, born in 1702, married Hannah Hurd. He bought a farm in Worcester about 1744, and died there in 1748. Jonathan,* born in Sudbury, 1744, also resided in Worcester.

Jonathan,⁵ born 1772, son of Jonathan⁴ and his wife Anna, married Sally DeWolf, of Lyme, Conn., doubtless a descendant of Balthasar De Wolf, an early settler of the town. Jonathan Grout, known as Master Grout, long a successful teacher of district schools, was also a book-binder and bookseller, and publisher of several small devotional books.

His son Edwin,⁶ born in 1812, died in 1846. He married in 1836 Lydia P. Barton. Their daughter, Lydia Ann (now Mrs. Wellington), whose birth date is given above, was educated at the Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass. On September 18, 1866, she was married to General Arthur Augustus Goodell, of Worcester, a veteran of the Civil War. She became the mother of four children: Harry Barton, born August 13, 1867; Edwin Wilder, born March 15, 1869, who died February 4, 1890; Alice May, born May 1, 1871; and Edwin Howe, born February 8, 1873, who died in infancy. General Goodell died June 30, 1882, on the forty-third anniversary of his birth. The following is his military record: "Sergeant Major, Third Battalion Rifles, M. V. M., April 19, 1861; Adjutant, July 1, 1861; Captain Company C, Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, August 16, 1862; Major, January 29, 1863; Lieutenant Colonel, July 31, 1863, commanding regiment from that date until October 10, 1863, when severely wounded at Blue Springs, Tenn.; returned to regiment April 1, 1864; resigned May 5 in consequence of disability resulting from wounds. Brevetted Brigadier-general, United States Volunteers, for 'gallant and meritorious conduct in the field during the war.'"

On September 4, 1883, Mrs. Goodell became the wife of Fred Williams Wellington, who in former years had been connected in business with General Goodell. Mr. Wellington was born in Shirley, Mass., May 31, 1851, son of Timothy W. and Augusta (Fiske) Wellington and a lineal descendant in the eighth generation of Roger Wellington, one of the early proprietors of Watertown, Mass. He was educated in the public schools of Worcester (his parents having removed to that city in 1855) and in schools in Germany and France, where he spent two years. One year after his return from Europe he was clerk in the First National Bank, Worcester, and later he was in his father's coal office. The year 1871 he passed in California. He embarked in the coal business in 1872, anil is still in the trade, having been since 1889 president and general manager of the Austin C. Wellington Coal Company. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in 1882, he was successively promoted to First Lieutenant, Captain, and Assistant Inspector-general on the staff of Governor Ames, with rank of Colonel. He served on the staff of Governors Greenhalge, Wolcott, and Crane, and is now (1903) on the staff of Governor Bates with rank of Brigadier-general.

Greatly interested in the welfare of the Civil War veterans, comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mrs. Wellington has long been an earnest worker in the Ladies' Aid Society of the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea. She is also an active and esteemed member of the Woman's Club of Worcester.