Essex County, Massachusetts - Biographical sketches (7 of 8 so headed), 1888

Biographical sketches

Artemas W. Stearns was born in Hill, N. H., March 11, 1816. He was left fatherless at a tender age, and supported by his widowed mother, who was the village milliner.

When, at the age of six, his mother married again, he still remained at home until the death of his stepfather, who was accidentally drowned. Mr. Stearns was now ten years of age. His mother, being left with two other children, was unable longer to support all her family with her needle, and he was bound out to a prosperous farmer in Bridgewater until he became of age. At the expiration of the time he was to have one hundred dollars and a freedom suit. He was treated by lhe farmer as one of his family? attending the district ?chool during the winter months. Mornings and evenings he chopped firewood and took care of the stock of cattle. Being a trustworthy boy, the farmer often sent him to market from Bridgewater to Bristol, a distance of six miles, with an ox-team, carrying butter, cheese and sometimes ashes, which were used in the manufacture of potash. Finally, becoming dissatisfied with his occupation, he bought the remainder of his time, paying five dollars, lor which he still carries the receipt.

In August, 1833, io his eighteenth year, he went to Nashua, N. H., and entered the cotton factory, remaining there and in Lowell, Mass., for several years. This occupation not being suited to him, he decided to get a better education, and to this end he attended the academy at Newmarket, N. H., during the fall months, washing dishes and ringing the academy bell for his board. When he left the academy he taught in the district schools of Dracut and Andover, Mass., and Windham and Salem, N. H. In Windham he had a class in algebra, a branch which he had not yet taken in his course of studies, and he was on this account in a dilemma, but his will came to the rescue, and he determined to conquer by studying evenings and keeping ahead of his class, which he did, and no one ever mistrusting that he was not a thorough master of the higher mathematics. Thus it has been all through life by hard labor and close application he has overcome obstacles, and success has crowned his efforts.

In 1840 he began peddling through the country, selling silverw^are, spectacles, razors, dress silks, &c., from two tin trunks. He always carried the finest goods to be found in the market, and would also take orders for shawls or anything the buyer wanted, and bring it with him on his next trip. He also did the engraving on all the silverware which he sold, doing it evenings, denying himself all pleasure until his work was done.

March 5, 1843, he married Lydia, daughter of James and Abi (Duren) Searles, of Nashua, N. H., and settled in Methuen, Mass., continuing his peddling until the fall when, after buying his stock for the fall trade, he was taken with lung fever and his physician furbade him travelling during the winter. He then put his goods in a small shop quite near his house and hung out his sign. Success attended this venture and his small store soon became the scene of so much activity that the village people gave it the name of the Bee Hive. Here he remained about eighteen, months, when, finding his business had outgrown his accommodations, he sought a larger place for it.

In 1846 he started a branch store in the new city of Lawrence, remaining in a store on Amesbury Street two years, when he removed to Essex Street to get more room. In three years he was forced to move into a still larger store, and another three years found his business so much increased as to require still larger accommodations.

He now resolved to buy land and build for himself which he did on his present site. In 1877-78 he enlarged and beautified his store, and the present year he has again remodeled and enlarged his building, Avhich is unquestionably the finest business structure in Essex County. It is thirty feet wide, ninety feet deep, four stories and basement, the whole being occupied by him. The new building has a massive front of brown stone, with heavy plate glass windows. Mr. Stearns is justly proud of this building, which stands as a monument to crown the long years of untiring devotion to business.

When a young man Mr. Stearns united with the Orthodox Church in Methuen, Rev. John C. Phillips pastor. On coming to Lawrence he formed one of a new church, called the Central Congregational (now Trinity), and has always been one of its most liberal supporters. He has been chairman of the Board of Assessors for many years, but has never sought public office, being of a retiring nature. He was, however, in the Board of Aldermen in 1861, and has been very generous in donations for public enterprises.

In 1864 A. S. Wright, the head mechanic of the Atlantic Mills, proposed to Mr. Stearns and A. J. French to become partners in the manufacture of woollen yarns. At Mr. Stearns' suggestion the machinery for yarn was sold, and the mill equipped with machinery for making braid ; and a co-partnership formed under the firm-name of the Wright Manufacturing Company. At first fifty braiders were used. In 1874 the company was incorporated with A. J. French, president ; A. S. Wright, superintendent; Mr. Stearns, treasurer and selling agent. The company are now running more than one thousand machines, being one of the largest and most complete works of the kind in the United States, a large proportion of their product being goods of high class, heretofore imported. But for Mr. Stearns' pluck and effort this venture would not have been a success.

Lawrence National Bank, upon its organization in 1872, and in 1878 he was elected its president, and still holds the position. He is also one of the trustees and first vice-president of the Broadway Savings Bank.

He is one of the original stockholders of the Merrimack Valley Horse Railroad, and has been one of its directors since its organization, and is at present the largest stockholder.

Aaron Ordway

Among men who, during a long residence in Lawrence, have exhibited strongly marked individuality and intense activity in business and in general affairs. Dr. Aaron Ordway is a prominent veteran. A powerful ally in any cause he espoused, he has been, also, a wily and determined enemy to schemes and plans that he found well-grounded reason to oppose.

He came to the city in 1847, having previously been a trader in general merchandise at Springfield, Mass., and a practicing physician in Rumney, N. H. For twenty years, after coming, he was one of the busiest physicians of the city, and, for a long time, added to professional duties a thriving retail drug business. Faithful care of these interests called for uninterrupted action, and the doctor's temperament and physique fitted him to throw a vast amount of energy into the conduct of his private business, and yet continue active in matters of public concern, as a private citizen and as an alderman during two terms of service. So active was his life that his fellow-citizens wondered when he slept and rested, for he was the last man seen on the street or at business at night and the first abroad in the morning. Later in life he became financially interested in timber-lands and in the manufacture of lumber, and was at one time president of Brown's Lumber Company, of Whitefield, in Northern New Hampshire, and also of the Whitefield and Jefferson Railroad, in the same locality.

In religious matters Dr. Ordway has never been committed to any form of doctrine or wording of creeds, because of others' declaration, having well-grounded faith and opinion of his own, but he has liberally assisted many a struggling church and society in time of financial strait. He has also been a persistent and unswerving friend of the City Hospital.

In politics Dr. Ordway has been a party man of the intensest kind when he believed his party right, holding that right cannot be too boldly asserted or vigorously advocated; nevertheless, he could see a party desert its principles without joining in the stampede. He was a pioneer among early Abolitionists and an active sympathizer with the boldest reformers, whether in the anti-slavery or woman's suffrage cause. Long-continued intensity of action has undermined and broken a strong constitution and hardy physique, and, at the the age of seventy-four, he is an invalid, yet his courage is unabated and his mind unclouded.

In his active days his favor was much courted and his opposition feared by aspirants for political honors. Never on the fence or slow to declare himself, he was, in politic.^, as in all else, a determined opponent and a fast friend. It was said by some, that, when he appeared in a political contest as a cavalryman with a sorrel charger there was terror in the host he opposed.

He was born in Hebron, N. H., May 4, 1814. His father, Stephen Ordway, went from Amesbury, Mass., in childhood, to Dunbarton, N. H. From thence, at nineteen years, he removed to the northern plantation of " Cockamouth " (afterwards called Hebron), there founding a home, where he lived to the age of ninety-three years. John Ordway, brother of Stephen and uncle of the subject of this sketch, was the clerk and historian of the Lewis and Clark Exploring Expedition, an enterprise that opened up hitherto unknown regions of the West in the early years of the century and made the participants therein famous in American History.

Dr. Ordway married, for his first wife, Mary M. Kelley, of New Hampton, N. H., and four children survive her; for his second wife, he married Mary Ann Kelley, of Franklin, N. H., and with her he is enjoying as much of rest and quiet as broken health allows.