History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Personal Sketches 205
the Kne of descent is (1) William, (2) Edward, (3) Joseph, (4) Benjamin,
(5) Abner.
The first ancestor of the Slade family in America was Edward, who was
born in Wales, Great Britain. Uttle is known of him except that he lost
his hfe on a voyage between this country and England. He had a son
William, born also in Wales, who settled first on the island of Rhode Island,
where he was admitted a freeman in 1659, and in 1680 he removed to
Slade's Ferry, in Swansea, now Somerset.
Abner Slade was reared a farmer and tanner, and succeeded his father
in business, and made tanning and currying his principal avocation during
life. When he first began it, the custom was for the tanner to travel
through the country on horseback and purchase hides, which, when tanned
into leather, were sold, largely on credit, to the farmers and traveling
shoemakers of the period. From this primitive condition of the trade Mr.
Slade built up a business of large proportions, which became very remunerative.
He was one of the most industrious, systematic, and persevering
of men, and looked sharply after the minute details of every transaction.
He was very successful, and this success may be attributed to his sterUng
integrity, his good judgment, and his earnest and steady persistency. He
retired, with a handsome competency as the reward of his apphcation and
energy, from active business about 1856, and the subsequent years of his
life were devoted, in a business way, only to looking after his various
investments.
He never accepted nor wished for ofiBce in town, nor had political
aspirations. He was a director of the Fall River National Bank many
years, and was interested in the Old Colony Railroad, and to some extent
in the Providence and Worcester Railroad. He was also a stockholder in
various corporations and manufactures in Fall River.
He married, Sept. 30, 1829, Sarah, daughter of Asa and Ehzabeth
(Mitchell) Sherman, who was born Feb. 20, 1810. (Asa, son of Samson and
Ruth Sherman, of Portsmouth, R. I., was born Dec. 22, 1779, and died in
Fall River, Dec. 29, 1863, aged eighty-four years. He was a hneal
descendant of Philip Sherman, who in 1636, with seventeen others, purchased
from the Indians the islands of Rhode Isand,—Patience, Hope, and
Conanicut. Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of Richard and Joanna Mitchell,
of Middletown, R. I., was born Oct. 17, 1782, and died in Fall River, April
22, 1858, in her seventy-sixth year. They had ten children, of whom Mrs.
Slade was the third).
Mr. and Mrs. Slade had no children, but they adopted a little girl of
about two years, named Sarah Bowers, to whom they gave the care of
parents until her death in her twentieth year. Afterwards they adopted
Adehne F. Cole, when she was seven years old, whom they reared and
educated. She was born March 29, 1849, and married Charles A. Chace,
son of Obadiah and Esther (Freeborn) Chace, of Warren, R. I., and they
have four children: Benjamin S., Arthur F., Warren O. and Sarah Slade.
Mr. Slade was an earnest and unassuming member of the Society of
Friends, and was held in the highest esteem by his brethren. The Friends^
Review gave this just and well-deserved notice of him: "Abner Slade, an
elder of Swansea Monthly Meeting of Friends, deceased, twelfth month,
second, 1879, aged eighty-seven. He was truly a father in Israel.
Valentine Mason
Valentine Mason was a native of Swansea, and was born Oct. 7, 1825,
the son of Valentine and Mary Elizabeth (Cole) Mason. He came of
Pilgrim ancestry and was in the fifth line of descent from Samson Mason,
"