and other outlets secured markets in distant countries. Industries and
enterprises which would in time develop other industries and enterprises
became the special objects of their encouragement. Where avenues of
prosperity and success were lacking, they must be created; and in
recognition of this necessity this family took the lead in making the
seemingly inaccessible, accessible, and the far, near, by building a
railway across the Continent. In this barest and most meagre outline of
the history of a single family may be found in miniature an outline of
the history of the development of Massachusetts, of New England.

In the early part of the seventeenth century the Ames family became
prominently identified with the Puritan movement in England. William
Ames, the divine and author, was among those who for conscience's sake
forsook his home, finding refuge in Holland. He became known to fame not
only as an able writer, but as Professor in the Franeker University.
Richard Ames was a gentleman of Bruton, Somersetshire, England. Neither
of these cast in their fortunes with the first Puritan settlers of
Massachusetts; but it is doubtful if the sufferings for conscience's
sake of those who remained behind were after all less rigorous than were
the sufferings of those who, self-exiled, sought homes in New England.
The two branches of the family were united by marriage and from them
descended the Honorable Oliver Ames, Lieutenant Governor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Ames family commence their genealogical tree with the first New
England ancestor, William Ames, son of Richard Ames of Bruton,
Somersetshire, who came to this country in 1635, and settled in
Braintree in 1638. A few years later he was joined by his brother, John
Ames, who settled in Bridgewater.