Charles W. French

Charles W. French (1810 to 1876) was a North Billerica farmer who served on the Select Board for seven years, from 1862 through 1868, through the whole of the Civil War. He was born on May 2, 1810, the son of Ami French, who had come to Billerica from Tewksbury in 1805, when, at the age of 21, he agreed to support the aged Benjamin Danforth and his wife for the rest of their lives in return for their farm on the road to Lowell. Ami French died in 1836 at the age of 52, and that year Charles bought the farm, about forty-five acres, from his uncle Edmund French of Tewksbury, who had taken it from Ami in 1830. The old house on it, now 165 High Street, is known as the Benjamin Danforth House.

He married Roxanna W. Warren, born on March 23, 1813, and they had four children: Augusta Maria (1839), a Howe School pupil who married Thomas Spaulding in 1863; Charles Barrett (1840), also at the Howe School, who married in 1864; Marietta (1844), another Howe pupil, who married John E. Rowell in 1861; and Frederic (1847). The town's records of their births give his occupation as farmer. In 1845 he added ten acres between his farm and the road to Tewksbury, bought of John Richardson 2nd, and in 1864 he sold his son-in-law Rowell about forty-one acres, including the southern part of the farm and a lot by the Boston and Lowell Railroad; Rowell sold the corner with the buildings in 1872, when French still owned the land to the north.

French was elected a selectman in 1862 and re-elected each year through 1868, serving in the war years with Gardner Parker and William S. Gleason; as in other years the selectmen also acted as assessors and overseers of the poor. Their statement of February 23, 1865, which he signed, shows how the war weighed on a small town: in the year just ended the treasurer had paid a town bounty to 32 recruits, $4,000 in all, sent $1,000 to the State Treasurer "for recruiting purposes," and paid $3,738.18 in State aid to soldiers' families, and the town owed $13,373 on its notes. French saw to much of the work on the roads and bridges; the accounts of 1865 paid him for work on bridges and a culvert and for "going to Lowell to buy plank," and those of 1866 for repairing bridges and for men watching fires. The board's report of February 1866, again signed by Parker, Gleason and French, put the town's debt at $7,549.12, with $2,337.46 still due from the State for aid to soldiers' families.

Charles W. French died on July 5, 1876, at the age of 66, and was buried in the North Cemetery. His widow, Roxanna, died on January 10, 1880.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 60, FRENCH 32
2. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), births: Charles W. [h. Roxanna W.], May 2, 1810, g.r.2; children of Charles W., farmer, and Roxanna W.
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 307, list of selectmen: Charles W. French, 1862-68
4. Billerica Town Report 1865, selectmen's accounts: Charles W. French, work on bridges, plank, culvert; services as Selectman, Assessor and Overseer
5. Billerica Town Report 1865, financial condition of the town, Feb. 23, 1865, signed by selectmen Gardner Parker, William S. Gleason and Charles W. French
6. Billerica Town Report 1866, financial condition of the town, Feb. 22, 1866, signed by selectmen Gardner Parker, Wm. S. Gleason and Charles W. French
7. Catalogue of Howe High School, 1897, former pupils: Charles B. French [Miss Shearer, 1864]; Augusta M. French [Mrs. Spaulding, 1863]
8. Catalogue of Howe High School, 1897, former pupils: Marietta French [Mrs. Rowell, 1861]