This branch of the family remained in Massachusetts for many generations. David (1755-1806) was born in Southboro, as was his cousin Jeremiah. Jeremiah spent a short time in Westboro, and then moved "in 1812 to Hopkinton, in 1818 to Natick, in 1819 to Framingham, & to Grafton 1821."
David, the son of David and Jane Ward, was born in 1796 in Southborough. It is not clear when David arrived in Grafton. Rhoda, the daughter of Jeremiah and Lydia Bemis, was born in 1799 in Southboro, but by the time of her marriage (11/25/1824) was in Grafton. Her brother Aaron seems to have owned property in 1831 in Grafton.
David and Rhoda's son Otis was born in Grafton on November 5, 1825. Not very long after that, Rhoda died; the date of her death is not certain. It may have been in 1830 at the age of 31 or it may have been in 1831. She does seem to be alive at the time of the 1830 census.
After Rhoda's death, David married Harriet Pratt. David and Harriet had two children, David Marcus, born in 1839, who died in 1841; and Harriet Rhoda, born in 1843, who seems to have remained in Grafton, as did her half brother Otis (son of David and Rhoda).
Otis was married three times. His first daughter Irene moved to Upton after her marriage, prior to 1880; his daughter Mabel was just 7 at the time of his third marriage to Eliza Weston. After the death of Otis, Eliza, his widow, moved with their children to East Walpole.
Foster, son of Eliza and Otis, was a master mechanic who lived at various times in Ashland, Norwood, and Framingham. He worked for Dennison. It looks as if he was sent up to New Brunswick for Dennison's Canadian work. At any rate, he married a woman from New Brunswick whose name was Ethel or Lillian; her last name was Rogers or Lewis. Click here for more of her history.
There is a full history of the property in Grafton in a Land Court document filed to establish a clear title and dated 1983.
Transcriptions of the Grafton Vital Records include Births, Marriages, and Deaths.
Census records trace David and Otis.
There will be a separate page later for more about Grafton and other Worcester and Middlesex county towns important to this family. Information on Southborough, including Vital Records, is already available here. Some of the very early census records for Grafton and a very small area of Worcester County have been posted.
See also Grafton Massachusetts History, Photos and Info, created and maintained by Steve Clark and Dick Bolt.
Snapshot photographs exist of most of the people back to Otis; click here for the index to the photos.
Otis Converse seems to have been named after the Reverend Otis Converse, pastor of the Baptist Church in Grafton at the time of his birth. In turn, his son (Foster Otis) and his grandson (Wilbur Converse) each received part of the name. Foster probably received his first name from his greatuncle, Rhoda's brother, Samuel Foster, who seems to have gone simply by Foster.
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