William S. Gleason

William Segar Gleason (born 1809), of an old Billerica farming family, sat on the town's Board of Selectmen for fourteen years, from 1862 to 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880, carrying the town through the Civil War years. He was born in Billerica on November 1, 1809, a son of William Gleason Jr. and Sally Bacon of Bedford, and was baptized in August 1811. His grandfather, the first William Gleason in town, appears on the tax list in 1754; he leased the old College Farm on the east side of the Shawshin and some years later bought it, and it stayed the family home until 1850, when William S. Gleason moved to the village. In 1883 Hazen recorded him as living there "on the south side of Andover street."

On June 1, 1842, he married Mary Baker, born in 1819, a daughter of John and Sarah Baker, English immigrants who lived on Andover Street; her brother was the butcher and later selectman Ebenezer Baker. Their daughter Sarah was born on July 13, 1843.

Gleason was the town's Collector of Taxes for 1862, and in the same years he served as selectman, assessor and Overseer of the Poor, the three offices then held together by the board. The selectmen's statement printed in the spring of 1865, signed by Gardner Parker, Gleason and Charles W. French, shows how much of their work was the war: the town paid a bounty to 32 recruits that year, $4,000 in all, paid state aid to soldiers' families, and borrowed on town notes to cover the cost. Gleason himself was paid for recruiting expenses, for work on the town's bridges and, the next year, for "collecting statistics."

Returned to the board in 1874, he served through 1880 alongside George P. Elliott and, until 1879, Edward Spaulding. In 1876 he represented the district in the General Court. He was still selling gravel to the town for its roads in 1890 and 1891. His death has not been found in the surviving town reports.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 64: William Segar Gleason, born 1809, married Mary Baker 1842
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 63: the Gleason family and the College Farm; William S. Gleason moved to the village in 1850
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 6: John Baker family; daughter Mary married William S. Gleason
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 305: list of representatives (William S. Gleason, 1876)
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 307: list of selectmen (William S. Gleason, 1862-68, 1874-80)
6. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850: birth of William Segar Gleason, Nov. 1, 1809
7. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850: marriage of Mary Baker and William S. Gleason, June 1, 1842
8. Billerica Town Report 1865, war department expenses (William S. Gleason, recruiting expenses)
9. Billerica Town Report 1865, selectmen's statement (Gleason collector of taxes for 1862; signed as Selectman)
10. Billerica Town Report 1866, payments to town officers (Gleason as selectman, assessor and overseer; collecting statistics)

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.