Daniel Read was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1814 and was elected to various public offices.  He was a Whig in politics and adhered always to staunch republican principles, but rose above partisanship and was universally respected.  Daniel and Susannah were thrifty New England Puritans, leading members of the Baptist denomination and parishioners of the widely known Elder Leland.  The cooking for Sunday always was done on Saturday, and the greater part of every Sunday, regardless of weather, was spent at church.  They and their children sat through a service of two hours in the morning, ate a generous lunch at the noon intermission, and were ready for another two hours’ sermon in the afternoon, through all the heat of summer and the terrible cold of New England winter.

Susannah Read remained always a devout and consistent Baptist, but Daniel became, in later years, a thorough Universalist.  Murray, the founder of this church in England, had come to the Colonies before the Revolutionary War, and by the close of the century the Universalists were organized as a sect, holding general conventions and sending itinerants among the people in the villages and country.  Some of these doubtless had penetrated to Adams and converted Daniel Read, who was always liberal in his belief.  He was an inveterate reader and pored over a vast amount of theological discussion which attracted so much attention in his day.  The family moved from Cheshire to a suburb of Adams called Bowen’s Corners.  Near their house was the tavern, its proprietor known to all the people roundabout as “Uncle Sam” Bowen.  He and Daniel Read never wearied in setting forth the merits of “free salvation.”  They were the only two persons in all that section of the country who did not believe in a literal hell.  It was the common sentiment then that only those disbelieved in endless punishment who had reason to be afraid of it, and, since both these men were exemplary in every other respect, it was impossible for their friends to understand their aberration.  Susannah Read, in the language of that time, “wore the skin off her knees,” praying night and day that God would bring her husband back into the fold, but her prayers never were answered.  Every Sunday regularly he accompanied her to church, and faithfully contributed to the support of the preacher, but he died, at the ripe old age of eighty-four, firm in his Universalist faith.

Susannah was the care-taker of the family and looked after the farm, inheriting the Richardson energy and thrift.  Daniel was genial, good-natured and very intelligent, but his health being impaired from army service, he was willing she should take the lead in business matters.  The farm was one of only a hundred acres, but was carefully and economically managed and, at their death, the Reads left about $10,000, which was then considered a snug little fortune.  Lucy, one of seven children, was born into a home of peace and comfort and had a happy and uneventful