Gardner Asaph Churchill, 1839-1896
No. 22363 Gardner Asaph Churchill from The Churchill Family in America
Gardner Asaph, b. May 26, 1839; m.Helen Brastow Barrett, dan. of Nathan and Harriet (Ware) Barrett, and born in Boston, Sept. 2, 1839. Married in Wrentham, April 16, 1862, and died Aug. 20, 1896
Mr. Churchill was educated in the public schools of Dorchester. In his youth he went on several voyages as a sailor, part of the time in a ship engaged in the East Indian trade. He gained experience and studied navigation, so that he was fitted to fill a position of trust ; and when during the Civil War, he enlisted in the Navy, he was appointed, Dec. 15, 1862, acting ensign. After a period of training in gunnery on board the ship “Macedoniann,” he was assigned to duty on board the United States ship “Release,” and served as sailing-master of that vessel, and afterwards, in the same capacity, on the United States steamers “Memphis” and ” Shawmut,” and (with an interval of a few months’ furlough on account of sickness) he served until the surrender of General Lee, when, in in 1865, he resigned.
He was a gallant officer, and on one invasion, by his coolness and prompt action, saved the “Memphis” from destruction by a rebel torpedo ram, in the North Edisto River, March 6, 1864.
After the war, Mr. Churchill engaged in the business of printing with the firm of Rockwell & Rollins, and on the death of Mr. Rollins, in 1869, be became the junior partner of the firm of Rockwell & Churchill, in which progressive and prosperous house be remained till his death. He had excellent taste in all matters pertaining to the business, was of quick perception and good judgment in all matters in which he took an interest.
He served with credit for two terms, 1875-1876, as representative to the Legislature from Dorchester, and was a trustee of the Insane Asylum at Danvers three years He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of several patriotic societies, among others the Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of the American Revolution. He was interested in history and genealogy, was an active member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. He had for many years been interested in gathering material for a genealogy of the Churchill family, and in company with Mr. N. W. Churchill had, at the time of his death, nearly completed an account of the Plymouth branch of the family, to which his own line belonged, to the seventh generation, and it was in pursuance of his intention that his family decided to publish the volume which has grown to include the three grate branches, and eight or nine, instead of six, generations of tone branch. In 1887, Mr. Churchill compiled and published a genealogy of his own line in a neat pamphlet of eighteen pages, for private distribution. After his marriage and return from the War, Mr. Churchill lived at Wrentham for some years, and then removed to Milton Lower Mills, in Dorchester, where he lived till 1884, when he removed to Alban Street, Ashmont.
Children of Gardner A. and Ellen (Barrett) Churchill.
Mary Brewer, b. in Wrentham, Dec. 31, 1864; m. Franklin A. Wyman, of Dorchester, Feb. 9, 1898, and has one child: Dorothy Churchill Wyman, b. July 3, 1899.
Asaph, b. in Wrentham, Aug. 18, 1866; m. Helen Olivia French, dau. Of William Abrams and Olivia (Chapman) French of Jamaica Plain, June 14, 1900. They reside at Milton, and have on child: Olivia, b. Oct. 28, 1901.
Mr. Churchill fitted for college at the Roxbury Latin School, and graduated at Harvard in 1888. He fitted himself for the whole sale paper business, and in 1901 established himself in that business in Boston. Upon the death of Colonel Rockwell in 1902, he was appointed trustee of the Rockwell & Churchill printing concern.
Ellen Barrett, b. in Dorchester, May 19, 1877.
The following is from http://www.surveyhistory.org/loring_&_churchill1.htm
The firm Loring & Churchill was formed by Henry William Loring and Gardner Asaph Churchill in 1859 in Boston.
“Henry William Loring was born in Boston, December 28, 1807. He died in Hammonton, New Jersey on February 23 1885. He is listed in the Boston directories from 1831 to 1858 as a jeweler, watch maker and mathematical instrument maker. 1859-60 Loring (Henry W.) & Churchill (Gardner A.) mathematical instruments; 1863-65 Loring, Henry W. Mathematical instruments. H. W. Loring may have been employed by Charles G. King at 7 Broad Street because they both have the same address from 1850 to 1857. Both had the same address, 72 Washington Street and both lived in West Newton.”
“Gardner Asaph Churchill was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts May 26, 1839 and died at Gloucester, Massachusetts August 20, 1896. He is buried in the Milton Cemetery, Milton, Massachusetts. He is first listed in the Boston directories in 1858 as a clerk. He is listed in the 1859-1860 directory as a partner of Loring & Churchill.”
Reference: Smart, Charles E. The Makers Of Surveying Instruments In America Since 1700 Troy, New York: Regal Art Press. 1962