I thought this might be of interest to readers of the list. Hope it makes it through the servers given its lenght. Son of Francis Twichell and Sally Fish of Athol, Mass.: 1. Ginery Bachelor TWICHELL was born on 25 Aug 1811 in Athol, Worcester, Massachusetts. He died on 23 Jul 1883 in Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts. Genealogy of the Twitchell Family, Record of the Descendants of the Puritan Benjamin Twitchell - Dorcester, Lancaster, Medfield and Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1632 - 1927. Compiled and Edited by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Private printing by Herbert K. Twitchell, New York, N.Y. 1929. p. 304. He was a life member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., historigrapher of that society, in a biographical sketch of is career, says: "Mr Twichell's career has been such as could hardly be possible, certainly not probable, under any other than the free institutions of this country. Born of a plain but vigorous stock, breathing, in his boyhood and youth, the air of the rough hill-country of northern Massachusetts, enjoying the privileges of that common school education to which every New England boy and girl is entitled, he rose from humble employments, through the rank of stage-driver to become a large proprietor, owning and managing various lines reaching from Massachusetts into new Hampshire and Vermont. His experiences and successes as an express rider are also well remembered. "When the railroad age had been fairly inaugurated, he left the kindom of horses, in which he had ruled and reigned, and turned to the iron track and iron horse. From assistant superintendent he became superintendent and then president of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, already when he took it, one of the improtant roads in the country; but it was immensely enlarged and improved during the period of his connection with it, partly by te rapid growth of the country, and partly by his wise and efficient management. During this period, the Boston and Worcester and Western Roads were united, making the Boston and Albany Railroad. His presidency ended when the two were united. His connectin with the road lasted in its various forms of service, for about twenty-nine years, and was characterized so far as he was concerned, by magnanimiyt, a large and gererous conception of the true interests of the road in ralation to its patrons. There was nothing of the mean and narrow in his disposition." He was the third in line of succession, of the presidents of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, a contemporary of Thomas Nickerson, Alden Speare and other noted railroad builders and operators of the last decades of the 19th century. In 1866, he was chosen a member of the 40th Congress, representing the 3rd district of Massachusetts, and was re-elected to the 41st and 43rd congresses. He was not a talking, but a wise, working thoroughly useful and practical member of the national legislature. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, in her book entitled "Stage Coach and Tavern Days," on page 301 says: "From 1830 to 1846 a brilliant comet flashed its way through the stage-driving world of New England; it was Hon. Ginery Twichell, who was successivley and successfully post-rider, stage-driver, stage proprietor, most noted express rider of his times, rail-road superintendent, president of the Boston and Worcester Rail-road, and member of Congress. "Some thirty years ago or more a small child sat in the 'operating room' of a photographer's gallery in Worcester. Her feet and had, were laboriously placed in a tentatively graceful attitude and the back of her head firmly fastened in that iron 'branks-without-a-gag' fixture which then prevailed in photographers' rooms, and may still for all that I know. A sudden dashing inroad from an adjoining room of the photographer's assistant with the loud and excited exclamation, 'Ginery's coming, Ginery's coming,' led to the immediate and unceremonious unveiling of the artist from the heavy black cloth that had enveloped his head while he was peeping wisely throug the instrument at his juvenil sitter, and to his violent exit; he was followed with equal hast and lack of expanation by my own attendant. Thus basely deserted I sat for some minutes wondering what a Ginery could be, for there was to me a sort of mensgerie-circus-like ring to the word, and I deemed it some strange wild beast like the Pygarg once exhibited at the old Salem Taver. At last, though fully convinced that my moving would bread the camera, I boldly disengaged myself fom the claws of the branks, ran to a front window, and hung peering out at the Ginery over the heads of he other occupants of the galery, who regarded with eager delight no wild or strange beast, but a great stage-coach with six horses which stood recking, foaming, pawing in front of the Baystate house across the street. Adignified and self-contained old man, ruddy of face, and dressed in a heavy great-coat and tall silk hat, sat erect on the coachman's seat, reins well in hand - and suddenly Ginery and his six horses were off with rattle of wheels and bloing of horn and cheers of the crowd; but not before there was imprinted forever in unfading colors on my young brain a clear picture of the dashing coaching life of olden days. It was an anniversay of some memorable event, and the member of Congress celebrated it by once more driving over his old-time coaching route to meet the cheers and admiration of all beholders. "The predecessor of Baystate House, the old Central Hotel, ws the headquaters of Twichell's stage line during the sixteen years of his connection with it. It was built in 1722, and rooms in it served various purposes besides those of good chear - one being used as a county jail." "I do not doubt that the coach which I saw was the one thus referred to in the Boston Traveller of June 1, 1867, as Mr. Twichell occasionally drove it until the year of his death: "The vernerable coach built by Moses T Breck of Worceste, and used 30 years ago in the heart of the Commonwealth by Hon. Ginery Twichell for special occasions before railroads were fairly in vogue, passed theough our Boston streets on Friday. The vehicle was of a most substantial pattern; no repars have been needed through all these years except an occasional coat of varnish and new upholstering. In 1840, by request of the citizens of the twon of Barre, seats were added on the top of the vehicle, so that a party of 32 persons could be accomodated (12 inside and 20 outside). The largest load ever carried by the ponderous carriage was a party of sixty-two (62) young ladies of Worcester, who, uniformly dressed, were driven on a blackberry excursion to the suburbs by Mr. Twichell himself, eight matche horses being required on the occasion. During the exciting presidential campaing of 1840, the staunch vehilce was used for conveying the sovereigns to and from political gatherings in the towns surrounding old Quinsigamon.' "There is still living in Boston, at an advance age, but of vigorous mental powers, Mr. Henry S. Miner, the last stage-driver of Ginery Twichell's stage-route, perhaps the last person living who was connected with it. He has scores of tales of stage-coach days which he has capacity to frame in interesting language. I am indebted to him for many letters full of information and interest. He says" 'Ginery Twichell was a shrewd, quiet, persevering amn of but few words, and those to the point; his voice was clear and low, never raised to horses or men. Affable, sociable, he ws a man that would make friends, and hold them. He was smooth-shaven and red-faced, but strictly temperate. He had one habit of rubbing his hands rapidly when in carnest conversation. He had but a common-school education and might be called a self-made man. Before through railroads were completed, Mr. Twichell collected the November election votes on horse-back from Greenfield to Worcester, 54 miles, covering the distance in four and one-half hours. He had relays of horses and men every 6 to 10 miles. As the work always came in the night, he was many times thrown by his horse stumbling, but always came out all right. At one time he slept in his clothes with buckskin underwear, at the American House in Worcester, in wait for dispatches from English steamers. He had men and horses on the raod to Norwich for one week waiting also. When the dispatches arrived he mounted his horse and started for Norwich; he met the boat, and the dispatches were in New York hours ahead of any other line. I am the only one of his drivers living, and one hostler is living." " A friend who remembers riding with Twichell eulogizes him in the warmest terms for his passengers as comfortable as possible. He had an inexhaustible fund of racy aneedotes which he would tell so well that it was a perfect treat to ride upon the box with him. He was a general favorite, especially with the country folks, and the boys and girls on the road, and with these he always had a joke to crack whenever it came his way to do so, to the infinite amusedment of the travellers whom he had in charge. He carried many small and valuable parcels, and executed commissions for the people like an expressman. After a period of self-denial in early life, through-out which he had saved his liberal earnings carefully, he was enabled to purchase from Mr. Stockwell the stage and two horses which he drove between Athol and Barre. About 1837 he started withMr. Burt and Mr. Billings a stage line from Brattleboro to Worcester. "In 1843 he was engaged in driving a stage of his own between Barre and Worcester. Not long afterward he was sole owner of a line from Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Brattleboro, Vermont. The Postmaster-General about this time advertised for mai contracts, and Ginery Twichell went to Washington. It was supposed by the owners of the other lines, who knew he had gone thither, that he would not undertake to execute more than on contract, but his own private views, it appers, were somewhat broader, for he contracted with the Government to carry the mails upon a number of routes, greatly to the astonishment of others in the business; and what was better still, he accomplished what he had undertaken very satisfactorily to the Postmaster-General, and came to be regarded as a sort of Napoleon among mail contractors. He became the owner of a large number of fine stages and horses. He ran a line from Worcester to Northfield, sixty miles, three times a week; from Worcester to Winchester fifty-five miles, daily; from Worcester to Keen, fifty-four miles, three times a week; to Templeton, twenty-five miles, daily; from Templeton to Greenfield, forty-eight miles, daily; from Barre to Worcester, forty-four miles, daily. In all this was two hundred and eighty-six miles of stage-route, and it took a hundred and fifty-six horses to do the work." "The Unrivaled Express Rider, Ginery Twichell, who rode from Worcester to Harford, a distance of Sixty miles in Three hours and Twenty minutes through deep snow, January 23, 1846. It commemorates an exploit of his which was much talked of at the time it took place." Ginery Bachelor TWICHELL and Theolotia RUGGLES were married. Theolotia RUGGLES (daughter of Capt. Creighton RUGGLES) was born on 26 Apr 1820 in Hardwick, Worcester, Massachusetts. Genealogy of the Twitchell Family, Record of the Descendants of the Puritan Benjamin Twitchell - Dorcester, Lancaster, Medfield and Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1632 - 1927. Compiled and Edited by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Private printing by Herbert K. Twitchell, New York, N.Y. 1929. p. 304. Theolotia Ruggles was a descendant of Rev. Timothy Ruggles of Roxbur, who married Mary White, third daughter of Deacon Benjamin White, Eldest son of Joseph White of Brookline, Mass. These Whites came from Roxbury. Ginery Bachelor TWICHELL and Theolotia RUGGLES had the following children: 2 i. Delia (twin) TWICHELL was born on 4 Oct 1847. 3 ii. Julia (twin) TWICHELL was born on 4 Oct 1847. 4 iii. Calla TWICHELL was born on 19 May 1849. 5 iv. Frank TWICHELL was born on 20 Dec 1850. 6 v. Edward G. TWICHELL was born on 1 Jan 1852. 7 vi. Alfred D. TWICHELL was born on 5 Feb 1853.