My Genealogy Hound

RICHARD F. UNDERWOOD, an esteemed citizen of Northampton, who owns and cultivates a farm at Mount Tom Station, was born in Belchertown, Mass., March 11, 1842, son of Charles and Abilene (Bennett) Underwood.

His grandfather, Urijah Underwood, was a farmer in Wales, Hampden County. He was killed by a fall when quite an old man, and his remains rest in the churchyard at Wales. He married a Miss Staunton, who lived to see many of her neighbors and kinsfolk pass away, dying of old age in 1857. They reared five sons and four daughters, of whom two daughters and a son are yet living. The daughters are widows, residing in Mashapaug, Conn.; and the son, William Underwood, is a spinner in a woollen factory in Wales. Urijah Underwood was a member of the Baptist church, officiating many years as Deacon.

Charles Underwood, son of Urijah Underwood and father of Richard F., was born in Woodstock, Conn., in 1801. He spent his entire life on his farm, dying November 1, 1875, at the age of seventy-four. On December 30, 1824, he was united in marriage to Abilene, daughter of Joseph and Esther (Green) Bennett, who was born in 1809. Mrs. Underwood’s grandparents on the maternal side were Nathaniel and Sarah (May) Green. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Green, was one of the first patriots who suffered in defence of his country, being wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. Her father also, Joseph Bennett, was a Revolutionary soldier, and received a pension for his services. She died in 1889, and is resting with her husband in the cemetery at Belchertown. Mr. and Mrs. Underwood had eight children, seven of whom reached maturity, namely: Emily, wife of E. I. Allen, of Westfield, Mass.; Mary, wife of D. M. Olds, of Belchertown; Richard F., the subject of this sketch; Emma J., wife of William Johnson, of Westfield; Harriet L., subsequently Mrs. Beebe, who died at the age of twenty-six; Charles S., who died in September, 1875, at the age of forty-three; and Albert W., who died in 1888, leaving one son.

Richard F. Underwood attended the district school regularly until eight years of age. After that he worked on the farm during the busy season, attending school in winter only. In December, 1861, when in his twentieth year, he enlisted at Belchertown in Company F, Thirty-first Massachusetts Regiment, and served four years in the Civil War, the greater part of which time he was in active service. He took part in the Red River campaign, his regiment then being the Sixth Massachusetts Cavalry, and on April 8, 1864, was shot through the right leg. He was among the one hundred and one disabled soldiers who, left for a time in New Orleans, were shipped on board the steamer “Pocahontas” to be sent to New York City. The “Pocahontas” was run down by another vessel in the night, and forty of the poor fellows found a watery grave. Mr. Underwood will never forget the experience of that night. The vessel went down soon after she was struck. He and many of the men were struggling for a long time in the water. They clung to everything they could lay hold of to keep themselves afloat. For some time, while holding afloat with one hand, Mr. Underwood tried to save a man with the other hand by holding on to his beard, but was at length compelled to release his hold. During the whole of the struggle he was cool and composed, and felt no pain in his wounded limb. The physical suffering came later, when feeling returned to his benumbed frame.

During his term of service in the army Mr. Underwood saved up some one thousand one hundred dollars. A patent-right man who induced him to go to Ohio, swindled him out of one-half of the sum. He returned to Belchertown with more wisdom, if less money, and went to work for his brother-in-law at twenty-five dollars a month. Later he worked for one dollar and a half a day, when it took nine days’ work to pay for a barrel of flour, and kerosene was seventy-five cents a gallon. About this time he purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty acres below Mount Tom Station, and there he has since made his home. His business is general farming, which he carries on in a sensible and practical way. He is President of the Farmers’ Club of Easthampton. He has a handsome, large two-story house, finished in the finest hard maple, cherry, cyprus, and oak, which he erected in 1892-93, when he performed most of the work himself, cutting the trees in Montague, and floating the lumber down the river. He is a man of considerable mechanical genius, who can turn his hand to almost anything; while his dwelling bears high testimony to his good taste.

On December 28, 1869, Mr. Underwood was united in marriage with Leona, daughter of E. A. and Sophronia (Pease) Lyman. Mrs. Underwood’s mother was before marriage Clarissa Cook, a native of Chester, now Huntington, Mass. Both parents are deceased, the father dying in 1880, aged sixty-seven years, and the mother in 1891, aged seventy-nine years. Mrs. Underwood, who was a rarely intelligent woman, a model wife and mother, died April 11, 1894, in her forty-fifth year. They had eight children, of whom six survive. Lewis F. in his third year died of the bite of a rabid dog, and Walter A. died when thirteen months old. The remaining children are as follows: Laura K., who is her father’s housekeeper; Charles L., who is an able assistant on the home farm; Arthur J., a pupil in the Easthampton High School; Hattie Louise, a child in years, but a woman in stature and in character, who rides her bicycle with the ease and skill of a professional; William Albert and Chella Maria, aged respectively thirteen and eight years. Mr. Underwood took for his second wife Miss Myra L. Clark, to whom he was united in marriage October 9, 1895. She is a daughter of E. Alonzo Clark, a native of Easthampton.

Mr. Underwood favors the Republican party, but is an independent voter. He is a comrade of William L. Baker Post, No. 86, Grand Army of the Republic. He was a Deacon in the First Congregational Church for many years. He is an extensive reader and an original thinker, an advocate of “the greatest good for the greatest number,” and a loyal supporter of law and order.