No. 7213 Nathaniel Foster Safford
From: One of a Thousand. A Series of Biographical Sketches of One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A.D. 1888-89. Compiled under the editorial supervision of John C. Rand. Boston: First National Publishing Company, 1890.
Safford, Nathaniel Foster, son of Nathaniel Foster and Hannah (Woodbury) Safford, was born in Salem, Essex County, September 19, 1815.
He fitted for college at the Latin grammar school in Salem; entered Dartmouth College, and graduated in 1835. He studied law with Hon. Asahel Huntington, of Salem, and commenced practice in Dorchester and Milton Village, where he since resided.
For over thirty years his office has been in Boston, where he has continued the pursuit of his profession, now extending in all over a period of nearly fifty years. In the early years of professional life he acted as a magistrate, and as master in chancery, exercising also jurisdiction under the operation of insolvent laws.
He was a representative to the General Court from the town of Dorchester in 1850 and ’51. In 1853 he succeeded Hon. Samuel P. Loud, as one of the board of county commissioners for the county of Norfolk, at the time when Roxbury, West Roxbury and Dorchester formed part of that county. Mr. Safford served as chairman of the board fifteen years, while living in Dorchester, and an additional term of six years while residing in Milton.
Mr. Safford has been instrumental in the entire extinguishment of corporate franchises in turnpikes and toll-bridges, and the establishment of free bridges and roads within those town limits; the location and relocation of highways, the remodeling of court-houses and prisons, and fire-proof apartments for records; also the location of railroad-crossings, and such local movements having for their object the welfare of that section of the county of Norfolk.
February 10, 1845, at Milton, he married Josephine Eugenia, daughter of Joseph (a descendant of George Morton, who arrived at Plymouth in 1623) and Mary (Wheeler) Morton. They have one child: Nathaniel Morton Safford.
From: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Compiled under the supervision of D. Hamilton Hurd. (Philadelphia, 1884), 20.
Nathaniel Foster Safford was born in Salem in 1815, and was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1835. He studied law with Asabel Huntington, of Salem, where he was admitted to the bar. Ho began practice in Dorchester in 1839, where be acted as magistrate, and also as a master in chancery in the period of jurisdiction under the insolvent laws. He was Representative to the General Court from Dorchester iu 1850 and 1851. In 1853 be was noun-oated by the Whig party to succeed Samuel P. Loude, who bad declined further service as county commissioner, but there having been no choice by the people after two trials, he was appointed by Governor Clifford to fill the vacancy. He was elected chairman of the board, a position which he continued to 511 by successive re-elections until Jan. 1, 1868. He was again elected county commissioner in 1872, and from Jan. 1, 1873, to January, 1879, be was chairman of the board. Ho now resides in Milton, but has an office in Boston.
From: Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Volume IX, 1890-1897. (Boston, 1908), 45-46
Nathaniel Foster Safford a Life Member, elected in 1873, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, September 19, 1815, and died in Milton, Massachusetts, April 22, 1891.
For more than fifty years, as a member of the Bar, he held an honorable place as a lawyer of eminent ability. From his early years of practice he was appointed to important positions of public trust. His deep interest in this Society, and his valuable services to it of many years, were notable, and he did much to build up its interests. Resolutions were passed by the Society at the time of his death, expressing the deep sense of his loss.
His immigrant ancestor was Thomas’ Safford, an early settler of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The line from him was by Jan’ Thomas’, Stephen’, Nathan5, to Nathaniel Foster°, father of Nathaniel Foster’ Safford, the subject of this sketch. The mother of Mr. Safford was the second wife of his father, viz., Hannah, daughter of William and Mary Woodbury, of Hamilton, Massachusetts. ML Safford’s wife was Josephine Eugenia Morton, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Wheeler) Morton, of Milton, to whom he was married February 10, 1845. Of this marriage there was one son, Nathaniel Morton Safford, who was born January 31, 1848. and who, with his mother, survived his father’s death.
He attended as a child the private schools of Miss Abigail Mason and Mr. James S. Gerrish, and later the Latin grammar school, of Salem. His father was recalled by a local antiquary, as “very respectable in appearance.” He was “a dealer in iron, grindstones,” etc. The son graduated from Dartmouth College in 1835. He was one of the youngest members in his class.
Upon graduation from college he began the study of law in the office of Hon. Asahel Huntington, of Salem. He was admitted to the Essex County Bar in 1838. He next opened an office at the “Milton Lower Falls” village, in a building standing where the chocolate mill now stands. This was equivalent to his going to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1839, as stated elsewhere. In the eighteen hundred sixties he removed his office to Boston, and practiced there till his death.
In the early part of his practice he was appointed a master in chancery, and acted as a magistrate. He was much interested in local town affairs, and excelled as a presiding officer. He was chosen representative to the General Court from the town of Dorchester for the years 1850 and 1851. He was chairman of the Board of County Commissioners for Norfolk County, and held the office for fifteen years. In 1872 he was again elected to the board, and again chosen chairman, for six years, making, in all, a term of twenty-one years.
The above sketch is prepared from a memoir by Rev. George Madison Bodge, A.M., published in the REGISTER, vol. xlvii, pp. 9-19.