Worcester County, Massachusetts - Biographical sketches (4 of 5 so headed), 1889

Biographical sketches

Among her citizens, there is not one whom the people of Leominster hold in higher esteem for integrity, good judgment, business and professional ability than Hamilton Mayo.

Mr. JIayo is the only son of William and Maria JIayo, of Westminster, Mass., where he was born February 26, 1S51. From the schools of his native town he entered the Meriden Academy, Meriden, N. H., and graduated in 1869. The next four years were spent at Dartmouth College, from which institution he graduated in 1873, and from the Albany Law School in 1874. He was immediately admitted to the bar and in February of the following year (1875) opened an office in Leominster.

Since that time Mr. Mayo has devoted his energies to the practice of his profession and to such financial duties as naturally come to a man in his position. As a lawyer, Mr. Mayo is careful, correct and painstaking ; a very safe counselor, one who gives advice with a sufficient reason back of his advice. His analysis of whatever comes to his hand is very clear and eminently satisfactory ; he would win a case rather by clearness of statement and justness of argument than by fervor of appeal. His mind and temper are distinctly judicial.

Mr. Mayo is also a careful and successful financier, and holds, with credit to himself and profit to others, important trusts in this direction. He is president of the Leominster National Bank, a trustee and one of the board of investment of the Savings Bank and has in charge valuable estates.

In all the duties and the relations of a citizen, Mr. Mayo bears an honorable part ; he is willing to give both time and effort for the permanent and healthy growth of the town. He has taken active part iu civil affairs, both in shaping the policy of the town ami in matters of administration. He is now a member of the Water Board and for .some years he served the town as one of the School Committee. After the death of Dr. C. C. Field, Mr. Mayo was elected chairman of the board. Although not an active director of work in the school-room, he gave the town most excellent and efficient service in this office, and his retirement from the board was a distinct and positive loss to the schools of Leominster.

As a public speaker Mr. Mayo does not often come before the people, but when occasion does bring him out he is listened to with marked respect and attention. His speeches show a sharp analysis of the subject, a full mastery of principles, and a clear statement of essential points - things which in themselves make for conviction.

November 20, 1878, Mr. Mayo married Florence G. Curtis, of Portland, Maine, a most estimable lady, whose death within the past year ended a home life of much promise.

Joel Smith

Mr. Joel Smith was born in Leominster, Aug. 23, 1812. He was a son of Joel and Abigail Smith, and was one of four brothers, of whom only the oldest is now living. At an early age he was left to the care of an uncle, Mr. James Divoll, whose residence was on Prospect Street, North Leominster.

On a farm located off this street, as it turns toward.s Shirley, Mr. Smith spent his boyhood up to the fourteenth year, and received his education in the public schools of the town. At the age of fourteen he went to Wilton, N. H., for the purpose of learning the carpenter's trade. His reason for giving up this plan may be stated in his own words : " My weight at that time was ninety pounds. After eleven months' service my weight was reduced to eighty pounds. Taking the advice of my uncle and elder brother, I returned to Leominster and served an apprenticeship with Jonas Colburn for the comb business." That this change was a wise one Mr. Smith's skill as a workman and success as a manufacturer of these goods is sufficient proof. When his trade was learned, after the manner of those times, Mr. Smith worked for some years as a journeyman comb-maker, and in ISS-t went to Willington, Conn., remaining two year.''. Returning to Leominsterin 1830, he began business for himself in company with Geo. W. Smith and John Nourse. The shop where they manufactured combs stood just south of the spot now occupied by the " Leominster House." Some years later Mr. Smith was in business with Abel Chase and Oliver Patch, in a building which stood on the site of what was afterwards the Union Comb Shop, now the Richardson Carriage Company's Works. When the building was enlarged and the Union Comb Company formed, Mr. Smith became president of the company, the other members being Oliver Patch, Stojihen Tisdale, John Bates and .lames Gallup. Mr. Smith was president (if this company for five years, from 18(57 to 1872.

The property was wholly destroyed by tire in 1872, and after the shop was rebuilt the company was changed and Mr. Smith withdrew. He soon started again for himself in a part of the Lockey Piano Shop, which then occupied the site of Valpey & Anthony's shoe factory. Here, in 1879, Mr. H. R. Smith, a son of Isaac Smith, was received into the business with his uncle.

The firm was known as Joel Smith & Company, and continued business until 1885, when Mr. H. R. Smith withdrew. During this time the firm met with a severe loss in the fire which wholly destroyed that part of the Lockey Piano Shops which stood south of the railroad. After the fire the business was again started in a shop connected with the factory of W- D.

Earl & Co. Here Mr. Joel Smith continued to manufacture horn goods after Mr. H. R. Smith left the firm, until he moved (within the pi'esent year) to more convenient quarters in a part of the comb shop of Mr. A. W. Williams, on Water Street.

The circumstances attending the death of Mr. Smith were as follows : As usual, Mr. Smith had witnessed the annual parade of the Fire Department, in the work and good name of which he was greatly interested. He was, so far as is known, in his usual health. Late in the afternoon he had spent some time in conversation with Mr. Gardner Morse, as to matters of mutual interest and memory. As the early evening was cool, Mr. Smith said he would go to his home and warm himself before it was time for supper in the town hall. He was present at the supper, and took part in the speaking as usual. Previous to the supper he and Mr. F. A. Whitney had made this agreement : that Mr. Whitney should call upon Mr. Smith for a speech, and upon its delivery should pay a certain sum - to be named by Mr. Smith - to the Fire Department. This arrangement, so pleasantly conceived, had just been as happily conpleted, and at the conclusion of his speech, which had been a very apt and pleasant one, he turned to leave the hall and died almost instantly.

Some mention should be made of Mr. Smith's work outside of his own private business. He was a man who never thought that all his time and energy ought to be consumed for his own personal profit. So far as town matters go, Mr. Smith was a liberal and public-spirited citizen. Of this his whole history is ample proof. Nothing which would in his judgment aid the town was foreign to his thought or eflbrt. Mr. Smith was one of the original corporate members of the Leominster Savings Bank, and a member of the board of trustees rom its first organization in 1867 ; also a member of its investment committee from 1873 until his death. He was appointed a director of the First National Bank of Leominster September 20, 1875, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his former ]):irtner, Oliver Patch, and was elected president in 1884. He was a director in the Leominster National Bank from its organization in July, 1884. During the more than thirteen years while he was director - with the exception of the time when he was a member of the Legislature - he was absent from the regular weekly meetings of the board only ten times. Mr. Smith often served and honored his town in places of public as well as private trust. It must suffice to mention in this connection his services in the Legislature in 1882-83. As a representative he did faithful and efficient service, honoring himself and the office which he held. Any mention of Mr. Smith would seem incomplete which did not make prominent his connection with the anti-slavery reform and the cause of temperance.

In those times, when it cost something to be au antislavery man, Mr. Smith was such a man. He was a member of the Leominster Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 18.38. Later, he was associated with such men as Dr. Joel S. Bingham, Dea. Isaac Cowdrey, Isaac Smith, Jonas Colburn and Oliver Patch in the Leominster branch of "The Auti-Man-Hunting League."

At the home of Mr. Smith there was always a warm welcome for the fugitive slave. The story cannot now be fully told, but it should be said that in all the work of those hot and eventful years from 1840 to 1861 Mr. Smith bore earnest and honorable part.

Mr. Smith was also an earnest, consistent and persistent friend of temperance. He gave time, money and effort to the cause. Whatever he undertook he did with a will. His whole heart was in his work. Leominster has had few more honored citizens.

Charles Loring Joslin

Among the early settlers of the town of Lancaster Thomas Josliu, who, with his wife and five children, came from England in the year 1635. He came to Lancaster in 16.53, after a residence in Hingham and AVatertown, Mass., and died there in 1660. His son Nathaniel, who, with his father, signed the first covenant for a' town government for Lancaster, lived there until 1676, when, in the fearful Indian massacre of that year, a large part of the inhabitants were killed or taken prisoners, and the rest were forced to abandon their homes. At this time he escaped to Marlborough, where he spent the rest of his life. He died in 1694.

His son, Peter Joslin, returned, as did many others, to the ancestral lands in Lancaster. In the renewed Indian attack of 1692 he was not as fortunate as his father had been ; in his absence in the field, his wife and three children, together with a woman living in the family, were killed. In a subsequent attack upon the town of Lancaster the Indians massacred his second wife, with her infant child. With this Peter Joslin, the connection of the family with Leominster begins. He was not until the very last of his life, however, a resident of Leominster, but he was one of the original proprietors of the " new grant." His name appears on the famous agreement which the town of Lancaster made with those who should purchase these lands of the Indians. This was in December, 1711, and at some time, probably not long after this, he acquired a considerable tract of land in North Leominster, which is still known as "Joslin Hill." He did not himself settle this land, but at least one of his sons, the issue of a fourth marriage, became a resident of this town. It is from this son, John Joslin, that the family of Mr. Charles L. Joslin -descends. Members of this family have always taken an active part in town and public affairs. John Joslin, Jr., a son of the first man of this name who settled in Leominster, was captain of the company which marched from this town to Bennington on the occasion of Burgoyne's invasion. A younger brother, Thomas Joslin, was killed in that battle. The firstnamed was a deacon of the town church for over forty years, town treasurer for a long period, and represented the town at the General Court. In the struggles for liberty this family has always been well represented, as is seen above, and as appears from the record of Colonel George C. Joslin in the War of the Kebellion.

Passing one generation, we find that Major Elias Joslin, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a life-long resident of Leominster. He was born here November 10, 1795, and died July 11, 1874. He took an active part in the military affairs of the town, went to South Boston in the War of 1812 as a member of Captain Tenney's company ; was promoted through the different grades to that of major. He married Elizabeth Stearns, who survived him ten years. The children now living are, - William, the eldest, who lives in Illinois; Charles L., in Leominster; John E., in Chesterfield, N. H. ; Mary E., who married N. G. Thorn, and lives in Haverhill, Mass. ; James T., in Hudson, Blass. ; Martha A., who married William B. Tisdale, and lives in Leominster; Colonel George C, in Boston, and Ella L., who resides in Cambridge, Mass.

Charles Loving Joslin was born in Leominster January 12, 1823, and received his education in the public schools. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed, as most other boys were, to learn comb-making. He served with Thomas G. & Joseph G. Merriam, who had their place of business where the town farm buildings now are. He remained with this firm until the death of Thomas G. Merriam, when he began business for himself, his partner being the late Dana Graham. They bought the business of Luther Longley, and located in a small building just beyond the present blacksmith-shop of Charles Welcome, on Central Street. Here these two young men started an active and increasing business. In two years the business demanded more room and something better than horse-power. To supply both, a tract of land containing ihirty-five acres, at the right of Central Street, was purchased, and the dam built, which flows the Union Comb Company's Pond, so called. On this land Mr. Joslin built a comb factory in 1846-47; and also began housekeeping in the only house which then stood on the land named above.

This business was continued for two years, when Mr. Joslin sold his interest to Mr. Graham, and built another fiictory on Union Street, where he made combs in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. E.G. Adams. The building where they began work was sold to Pollard & Butterick and in 1857 removed to a lot near the old hotel and was used for a clothing- house until it was destroyed hy fire. The firm then occupied a part of the first Lockey Piano Shop. But soon after this Mr. Adams sold his interest to Mr. Joslin, and on account of failing health retired from business. In the spring of 1871 Mr. Joslin built the main part of the A. W. Williams comb shop upon land which he had purchased of Putnam & Phelps. Here the firm of Joslin, Palmer & Williams carried on the comb and jewelry business for five years, when Mr. Palmer sold his interest to the other partners. They continued until 1883, when Mr. Joslin disposed of his interest to Mr. Williams. Mr. Joslin has not, since then, been engaged in manufacturing.

In public matters Mr. Joslin has always taken an active interest, and has served the town most acceptably in many places of honor and trust. He has frequently been elected moderator of the annual and other town-meetings ; was for several years a member of the Board of Selectmen, and in 1859 represented the town in the State Legislature. In all these places Mr. Joslin has earned the unqualified approval of his fellow-citizens.

Mr. Joslin has also been closely connected with the financial matters of the town. He was a director of the First National Bank of Leominster from its organization in 1864 until its charter expired twenty years later, and holds the same office in the Leominster National Bank. He is, at the present writing, vicepresident of the Leominster Savings Bank, and has been connected with that institution for many years. In all these relations Mr. Joslin would be regarded a safe and wise counselor.

In October, 184G, Mr. Joslin married Mi>s Martha J. Adams, of Townsend. They have four children - Martha D., who married John T. Brown, of New York; Clara A., who married J. W. Wetherbee, of Leominster ; Mary E., and Charles A., since June, 1884, the town clerk and treasurer of Leominster, who married Alice A., daughter of George F. Morse.

It thus appears not only that Mr. Joslin's family has been an honorable part of the history of Leominster from the very first, but that he has himself contributed directly and potentially to the growth and prosperity of the town. For more than forty years he was an important part of her industrial life, conducting his business with skill, honesty and success. In public position and private life he has acted as a man and a citizen of Leominster ought. He is respected by his fellow-citizens and has reason to respect himself. No one would think of mentioning the men who have and do conserve the best interests of Leominster and not include his name among the number.

Mr. Joslin occupies one of Leominster's most delightful homes, where he and his good wife are enjoying a well-earned rest from the more pressing cares of life.

Manson Dana Haws

Among the able and successful business men of Leominster, Manson Dana Haws holds an honorable place. Born here August 28, 1817, educated, for the most part, in the public schools of the town, spending his entire business life here, Mr. Haws is a thorough Leominster man in sympathy and desire. His father. Major Amos Haws, was only two years old when the family moved to Leominster, and so even he may well be called a native of this town. Honesty, prompt and energetic business habits seem to be a part of the family inheritance. Major Haws was a marked man in these respects, and the same is true of the present generation. They are of the sturdy New England stock, possessing marked individuality of character and holding honesty as a cardinal virtue.

Until his sixteenth year the subject of this sketch remained at home. Then, as his father had sold his boot and shoe business, he went to Fitchburg to perfect himself in that trade, spending a year with Manassa & John Sawyer. At the end of that time he went to Worcester, and served the rest of his apprenticeship with James Whitcomb, remaining until 1838. At the close of this term of service Mr. Haws was offered a position of superintendent of the shoe department in the Worcester Insane Asylum, but declined the ofler, and spent a year working at his trade in Sterling and Randolph.

In May, 1839, at the request of Bartimus Tenney, who had purchased the business of Major Haws, Manson Dana returned to Leominster to begin the manufacture of boots and shoes at the old stand. For engaging in this special business he does not seem wholly responsible, as there had been, so it would seem, for a long time in the Haws family a certain natural bent in this direction - father, grandfather and great-grandfather had lived by the awl and won honor from the last.

Manson D. Haws began the manufacture of boots and shoes June 9, 1839, and continued without interruption until November 1, 1885. At first the business included the making of both boots and shoes for men and women, but after a time the first part of the work was dropped, and the manufacturing largely confined to ladies' shoes, although some men's shoes were made so long as Mr. Haws continued to manufacture. As things are regarded to-day, this business was never large. At first three to ten hands were employed ; and during the last half of the time eighteen to twenty-five ; the value of the goods produced was about fifty thousand dollars a year. The shop where Mr. Haws began business stood nearly opposite his present residence. As the business increased a new building was erected, in 1850, on the site of the present factory. This shop has been twice enlarged, once to give more room for the business itself, and once to give room for steampower, as well as to increase still further the facilities for manufacturing.

Mr. Haws conducted his business with great skill and energy, making his own sales and purchases and giving personal direction to the work. He earned and deserved success. During the forty-six years that the manufacturing was in his hands there was no enforced idleness. The help were never out of work, except when they demanded a vacation, and for a brief time while the shop was enlarged. Few men who employ others can say as much. In these times, when men are eager for large profits and for wealth, even if it comes by uncertain ways, it is well to remember that there is success in the lawful and comparatively limited lines of trade.

In 1885 he rented his factory to Mr. O. H. Smith, and retired from manufacturing with the esteem of his fellow-citizens and the confidence of all with whom he had had business relations.

As a business man, Mr. Haws is prompt, exact and methodical. He believes in giving present and personal attention to whatever he wishes well done. He not only expects that the use of honest means will bring success, but he is careful and painstaking in his methods of doing business. Thus, when the government overhauled the internal revenue returns, after the war, Mr. Haws was one of the few men whose books were found correct - a fact in which he may take just pride.

Mr. Haws has also filled worthily many places of public and jjrivate trust. In 18U2 he represented the town at the " General Court." For six years he was one of the selectmen of the town, and for three years chairman of the board. In 1S7G he was appointed justice of the peace. He was for many years often called to preside at the " Annual Town-Meeting " and at other times and places. His service in all these ways has been most acceptable to his fellowtownsmen and honorable to himself. When the time came to furnish the town with a better water supply, Mr. Haws was the first to act, by causing an article to be inserted in the town warrant; and he was a member of the committee to select a suitable place for obtaining the water, and to go to the Legislature for a charter which would enable the town to take water.

Mr. Haws has, for many years, been prominent in financial aflfairs. At one time he was a director of the First National Bank of Leominster. He was, also, for some years, a trustee and one of the "board of investment '' of the Leominster Savings Bank. In 187-5 he was elected a director of the Rollstone National Bank of Fitchburg, which position he still holds. He is also a tru.stee of the Worcester North Savings Institution of Fitchburg, having been elected in 1879. In all these positions Mr. Haws has given faithful and honorable service. He has been, and is often, called to settle estates and to hold estates in trust. In more than one instance, when acting as executor, he has, by the request of the testator, been excused from giving surety upon his personal bond

In religious convictions Mr. Haws is a Unitarian of the old school, and has been, during all his active life, an active and influential member of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Society of Leominster. In his political faith he is a temperance Republican, straightforward and consistent in his devotion to its principles, although hardly to be classed as an active partisan. That his fellow-citizens consider Mr. Haws worthy of honor appears from the fact that the proposal to ofli'er his name as a candiate for Presidential elector from the Eleventh District, when made in a large meeting of his party, was received with marked approval.

Mr. Haws is a man of decided opinions, positive and determined in his purposes when convinced that they are right, and fully able to give a reason for his convictions.

After an active life, successful and helpful, Mr. Haws is spending an age of comparative leisure in a home which he built for himself, just over the way from the place of his birth.

George Franklin Morse

The Morses, whose descendants now live in Leominster, came to this country from England before the middle of the seventeenth century, for it is on record that Joseph Morse, the not remote ancestor of the subject of this sketch, settled in Ipswich, Ma.ss., as early as 1635. It appears from the town records of that town that Joseph Morse was a man of high intelligence and sterling character - one of those men whose religious convictions, views of civil polity and faithful allegiance to duty, as they understood it, have made New England famous and influential in this republic.

George Franklin Slorse is the second of eight children of Gardner and Mary Ann Morse, and was born in Leominster, Oct. 10, 1835, in the house known as the Micah R. Ball place, on West Street. His father is a native of Dorchester, Mass., but he moved to Leominster in the year 1827, when he was sixteen years of age. Like most Leominster boys of his time, Gardner Morse was apprenticed to learn the comb business. Indeed, the old apprentice system then prevailed in all trades, and it was held necessary for one to learn all parts of a business before he wasconsidered competent to work iis a journeyman or to manufacture for himself. There was, under this method, a loss in time, but a gain in intelligence.

Mr. Morse, after finishing his apprenticeship, began business at once. He married, in 1833, Mary Ann Willard, of Sterling, and was an active part of the social and business life of Leominster until forced by his advanced years to husband his remaining strength.

His home, for nearly half a century, was in what is familiarly known as the Morse Place, on West Street, to which place he moved in April, 1S3G. Here all the family were born, except George F., already named.

By force of location, therefore, George F. Morse began his education at what is called No. 2 ; at that time, however, a large and flourishing school. When the High School was organized, he was admitted as one of its first pupils, continuing liis connection for the next four years. At the age of sixteen he went to Boston to learn the importing business with the house Hill, Burrage & Co., two members of which were natives of Leominster - Alvah and Charles H. Burrage. With this house Mr. Morse remained two years, when he returned to Leominster and entered the employ of G. & A. Jlorse, spending the years 18o5-5G with them. This firm was engaged in the comb business, and also, as was quite the custom of that time, had a large store for the sale of general merchandise. Mr. Morse served as book-keeper for them.

In 18.57 Gardner Morse, William Booth, .Joseph F. Ooodhue and George F. Morse formed a partnership, under the name of G. Morse & Co., which continued until the Morse Comb Company was organized, with George F. Morse as secretary. This was the first stock company organized in Leominster. Within the year this company lost their factory by fire and did not rebuild, but the firm of G. Morse & Son took the place, and continued until the beginning of the war in 186L

From 1861 to 1863 Mr. Morse was in the Quartermaster's Department of the army. In 1862 he joined the Third Division of the Third Army Corps, then under the command of Gen. Whipple, and remained with the division until after the battle of Fredericksburg.

After leaving the army and before returning to Leominster, in connection with Gen. Augustus Mor-se, he bought the City Hotel property at Annapolis, Md., and held it for one year.

From 1864 to 1868 Mr. Morse was again engaged in the comb business in Leominster, but the year following he spent in Boston, as proprietor of the Creighton House ; but as he had little desire for this business, he the property, after a year of successful management, to Mr. F. E. Balch, and returned to his native town.

In 1871 Mr. Morse again commenced the comb business, this time adding the sale of horns to the of manufacturing. The name of the firm was Morse & Co., and the following year George F. and Albert G. Morse assumed that part of the business which pertained to the buying and selling of horns, organizing the firm of G. F. Morse & Co. For the next twelve years they pushed this business with great energy and marked success. The constantly increasing demand for horns during these years, for the manufacture of combs and jewelry, rendered extensive traveling necessary in order to obtain the goods, which must be gathered from countries where large herds of cattle are found. In furtherance of his business, Mr. Morse, in 1875, visited California, in

1880 Cuba and Mexico. Returning from Havana to the City of Mexico he had the good fortune to travel in company with Generals Grant and Sheridan, as the former was completing his tour of the world. In

In 1882 Mr. Morse was elected president of the South Hill Gold Mining Company of Amiidor, California, and spent a part of that year at the mines. He still holds this olflce and frequently spends the winter in California, looking after the interests of this property. When the Hecla Powder Company of New York was organized Mr. Morse was elected its president and served till 1888, when he refused a re-election. He is also a director of the Leominster Gas-Light Company.

At the first annual meeting of the Wachusett National Bank of Fitchburg, Mr. Morse was elected one of the directors, to which office he has been annually re-elected, and where he has rendered valuable service. In 1874 he was appointed notary public by Governor Thomas Talbut and still holds the oflice. He has also filled with credit to himself and with satisfaction to those who elected him many other places of honor and trust.

Mr. Morse is an energetic and successful business man. Beginning life with no special aids from fortune or position, the success which he has achieved may fairly and justly be attributed to his own skill and energy, and in it he may take lasting satisfaction.

In his religious views Mr. Morse is a Unitarian, and has always been warmly interested in that society ; in political faith, he is a temperance Republican, a decided, active and influential member of that party.

In his home life Mr. Morse has been most fortunate. In 18.59 he married Miss Mary Tufts, of Fitchburg, a most admiralile lady, pleasant and hel])ful, and their delightful family of five children - one son and four daughters - is not only one of the ]dea.santest of home circles, but must be strength and inspiration to any man. It is homes like this which force upon our attention the fact, that after all, very mucli of any man's power and success depends upon the fire-side.

As a native of the town, Mr. Morse has always been actively interested in all that pertained to the welfare and development of Leominster, and has been one of the important factors in her growth.

Nahum Harwood

The old homestead of the Harwood family is in Littleton, Mass. Here the elder brother, Hon. J. A. Harwood, still makes his home; at the same place Col. Nahum Harwood, the father, spent his life, and from this centre, for several generations, have come worthy representatives of the best New England life and thouuht.

Into this family and at this homestead Nahum Harwood, now of Leominster, was born, September 4, 1833. He was well born in the best New England sense - that is, born to an inheritance of ideas and character rather than of wealth. Young Harwood received both a common school and academic education : the first in the schools of Littleton and the last at the academy at Westford, Mass., and in that at Ludlow, Vt. This was the general course of education at that time, when it stopped short of the full college training.

After leaving school Mr. Harwood spent three years with T. & J. Doane, of Boston, and in their service became master of the business of civil engineering. To this profession he devoted several years in Massachusetts and Maine, and also at Omaha, Nebraska, but did not desire to make this the business of life.

Mr. Harwood's first business enterprise was that of making flour. For that purpose he operated for several years a mill at Harvard, Mass. This mill was sold to capitalists from Newburyport, who formed a company for the manufacture of leather board. Of this company Nahum Harwood was treasurer and active manager until 1868, when he formed a partnership with his brother, J. A. Harwood, of Littleton, Ma.ss., and the company purchased the Cozzen's ilill, so called, situated on the Nashua River, North Leominster. They at once began the manufacture of leather board. In time the business of making boot and shoe stiffienings and chair-seats was added and the capacity of the plant increased by new machinery and buildings until the manufactured l)roducts were trebled. The business now employs more than sixty workmen, many of them skilled laborers, and requires a one hundred and twenty-five horse-power, furnished by three water-wheels and a Putnam engine of large capacity. The works are run twenty-four hours each working day. This business has been from the start one of the thriving and profitable industries of Leominster ; it is conducted by Mr. Harwood on the most honorable and satisfactory business methods and has been a most decided success.

Of late years other business interests have taken some of the time and attention formerly given to the manufacture of leather board. Mr. Harwood has large business relations in California and often spends a part of the year in that State. He is also filling many places of honorable trust, more or less of a public nature. He is one of the directors of the Leominster National Bank and, of the Leominster Gas-Light Company, and is the vice-president of the Eastern Associates, a mutual benefit insurance association of Boston.

In politics Mr. Harwood is a Democrat, and favorably regarded by the men of his party. This will appear from the fact that he has three times been named as the Democratic candidate for State Senator. He was a delegate from the Tenth Massachusetts District to the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis in 1870. In 1880 he was the candidate of the party for the office of Presidential elector from the same district, and in the next year a candidate for representative to the General Court. In all these contests it is much to the credit of Mr. Harwood that his vote much exceeded the average vote of his party, and nothing to his discredit that he was not elected from a district so strongly Republican.

In 1858 Mr. Harwood married Miss Sarah J. Mullikin, daughter of the late John W. Mullikin, of Charlestown, Mass. They have two daughters ; the younger is the wife of Mr. W. H. Chase, nf the Leominster Worsted Co.

The prompt and effective business habits of Mr. Harwood have been implied in the description of his manufacturing interests. Whatever he undertakes is pushed by honorable methods, with characteristic energy and usually with good success.

Mr. Harwood has a most pleasant home and family ; has built up in Leominster a business which contributes greatly to the prosperity of the town ; is a man of marked ability and character, honored by his fellow-citizens and esteemed by all who know him. He must rank with Leominster's best business men.

Samuel Mekriam

Dea. Samuel Merrriam was for many years an active and influential part of the civil, business and religious life of Leominster. He was not a native of the town, but was born in Mason, N. H., July 29, 1818, and received his education in the public schools of that town. At the early age of seventeen he was entered as an apprentice to learn the tin and stove business with a firm having the somewhat suggestive name of Scripture & Ames. As the custom of the times was, he remained with this firm until he reached his majority, and then began work as a journeyman, first at Woonsocket, R. I., and then at Nashua, N. H.

The first business venture in which Mr. Merriam engaged w^as in West Boylston, Mass,, in the spring of 1844; but as the business failed fully to meet his expectations, he sold it in the fall of the same year, and moved to Worcester, Mass., where he began busi ness with P. D. Russell. Here he remained until 1850, when he moved to Fisherville, N. H., as it was then named, but is now Penacook, and at once entered into business relations with H. H. Amsden. In 1853, in connection with this gentlemen and B. F. Caldwell, he began the manufacture of pine furniture under the firm-name of Caldwell, Amsden & Co.

Wherever Mr. Merriam had his home, he was warndy interested in the prosperity of the place, and took an active part in the conduct of its civil affairs. Thus, while a citizen of Penacook, he served for several vears as a member of the Common Council

In the spring of 1864, Mr. Merriam came to Leominster, and iu connection with George Hall, of Nashua, N. H., purchased the land and water privilege at North Leominster now owned and occupied by the firm of Merriam, Hall & Co. At that time there was only a dam on this site, the remains of an old paper-mill. The new company at once erected the necessary buildings and prepared for the manufacture of chamber furniture. The business thus established has been continued under the same firmname - Merriam, Hall & Co. - to the present time ; but it is now owned and managed by George Hall & Son. Mr. Merriam was an active and energetic partner in this business until a few years before his death, when failing health compelled him to seek partial release from care and work.

In Leominster, Mr. Merriam exhibited the same public spirit which had marked his thought and action in other places. He served the town most acceptably as one of the selectmen, and was chairman of the board at the time of his death. He was a director of the First National Bank ; and in other ways also rendered able and honorable service for the community.

Mr. Merriam was evangelical in his religious faith and a Baptist in his denominational affiliations, having united with a church of this order while still a young man in his native town. He was greatly interested in all that related to the Baptist Church, willing to spend time and money for the success of bis denomination. He was an active member of the Central Baptist Church, one of its deacons and its Sabbathschool superintendent for many years. In all ways he was helpful in the work of the church and influential in its councils. And yet Mr. Merriam was not simply a Baptist ; he was an earnest and most worthy Christian gentleman, whose afl'ections took in the broad interests of the faith which he loved.

Mr. Merriam was interested in matters outside his own town and immediate church ; he was connected with the Baptist Vineyard Association and greatly interested in its work. He worked wisely for the development of that property and the success of that religious movement.

April 15, 1844, Mr. Merriam married Miss Sybel Preston, of New Ipswich, N. H. Of this union were born two children - a daugliter, who died in infancy, and a son, Edward Preston, a graduate of Harvard College, who died suddenly at Cottage City, August 15, 1885. Those acquainted with the facts in Mr. Merriam's life must admit that he was one of the potent factors in the best life, thought and growth of Leominster. He died December 30, 1880.

Hiram W. Pitts

Mr. Hiram W. Pitts was, for some years previous to his death, a prominent citizen of Leominster, actively interested in the prosperity of the town, although not directly a part of her industrial life.

The immediate ancestors of that branch of the Pitts family to which the subject of this sketch belonged lived in Taunton, Mass., and were, for several generations, actively engaged in manufacturing. In proof of this, it may be mentioned that the greatgrandfather of Hiram W. Pitts was a successful manufacturer of brass clocks ; that his son owned and operated a grist-mill, spending his life in Taunton; that. in the next generation, James Pitts, after marrying a daughter of Major Zebulon White, of Norton, Mass., who had won fame and honor during the Revolution by casting cannon for the Government, engaged in the business of a millwright in East Bridgewater and also devoted some time to the manufacture of cotton machinery. His children were: James, William, Hiram W. and Seth Pitts.

Of these Hiram W. was born December 2, 1814, and during the following year his father moved to what was then Lancaster, but is now Clinton, Mass. The land and mill privilege now owned by the Lancaster Mills Corporation was purchased by Mr. Pitts when that entire section of country was nearly an unbroken forest. He immediately erected a large saw-mill and also a small cotton-factory. These different kinds of business Mr. Pitts continued until his death, in 1835. It was in his father's mill that Hiram W. learned his first lessons in the business of cotton manufacturing. Until he was eighteen he spent the larger part of each year in such work in the cotton factory as suited his age and strength. Still, after the manner of those days, eight weeks of each winter and, until he was twelve years old, ten weeks of each summer were scrupulously given to the business of acquiring an education. It was during this time that young Pitts, impelled by hereditary tendencies or for some other good reason, devoted all the time he cotdd save from school to the repairing of clocks and to making and fitting knife-blades. In this way he was able to buy a few books and save some money for future use.

The first business venture in which Mr. Pitts engaged covered the lime from 1835 to 1842. During these years, in company with his brothers, he successfully manufactured satinet-warps in the cotton-mill above named. About the year 1842 this mill property was sold to E. B. Bigelow and the Lancaster Mills Corporation formed. After six months spent in Worcester, Mass., Mr. Pitts moved to West Fitchburg and was for two years superintendent of the mills owned by Colonel Ivers Phillips. He then spent one year in the mill which he owned at the time of his death. At the e-xpiration of this year Mr. Pitts, in company with Edwin F. Wheeler, began running a mill located at Sanquoit, N. Y. This mill was operated by Messrs. Pitts & Wheeler under contract, and soon after the owners of the property desired the company to take another mill owned by them and located at Coopers- town, N. Y. The offer was accepted, but Messrs. Pitts & Wheeler dissolved partnership and Mr. Pitts took the mill at Cooperstown, removed there at once and remained most of the time until he began business with Benjamin JIarshall, of Troy, N. Y.

Mr. Marshall was an Englishman by birth, but came to this country in 1803. He was at first largely and successfully engaged in commerce, but in 182.5 he turned his attention to manufacturing. In that year he built the mills at Utica, N. Y., and in 1826 he built the Hudson Print Works and the Ida Cotton- Mills, at Troy, N. Y. Later he came into possession of a cotton-factory at Middlebury, Vt. It was only in connection with this last mill that Mr. Pitts entered into partnership with Mr. Marshall. By the terms of the agreement, Mr. Marshall furnished the mill and capital, and Mr. Pitts managed the business, bought the stock and sold the goods.

In 1S51, in order fully to relieve Mr. Marshall of care, Mr. Pitts assumed the entire business, furnished the capital and continued the business of making sheetings and carpet-warps. There was a partnership entered into at this time with Frederick W. Harris, but it lasted only one year ; but in 1854 Mr. Pitts permanently increased his facilities by purchasing an adjoining mill privilege, a fourth interest in which he sold to Harmon A. Sheldon. Here they built a gristmill and conducted a successful business until 1866.

In 1858 Mr. Marshall died, but Mr. Pitts continued to occupy the cotton-factory at Middlebury, Vt., until 1862. In 1864 he acquired by purch.ase the millproperty in Fitchburg, which he owned and occupied at the time of his death, but he did not begin to manufacture there until the year 1867. In 1866 Mr. Pitts moved his family to Leominster, and remained a citizen of this town during the remainder of his life, although his chief business interest was in Fitchburg, and for a time after 1867 he again operated the cotton-factory at Jliddlebury, Vt.

Immediately after taking possession Mr. Pitts enlarged his Fitchburg mill, making its capacity more than three times what it had been before, and ten years later he erected a new mill, 101 feet by 48, with a large boiler-room and ample power. For the first year in Fitchburg, Mr. Pitts manufactured sheetings, but after that the whole plant was devoted to the making of carpet-warps, a business in which Mr. Pitts was remarkably successful.

Mr. Pitts was twice married. His first wife was Mi.ss Betsey Burdett, of Leominster, who lived only one year. His second marriage was with Miss Mary A. Merriam, of Fitchburg, and occurred in the year 1846. This wife and their three children survived him ; Abby E. and Ella L. live with their mother, at the old homestead in Leominster; B. Marshall Pitts, the only .son, continues his father's business, and resides in Fitchburg.

communities where he resided. He devoted most of his time and energy to his private business affairs ; still Mr. Pitts did good service for the town of Middlebury in places of honor and trust, and was a director of the Safety Fund National Bank of Fitchburg from its organizatiun until his death.