Worcester County, Massachusetts - Biographical sketches (5 of 5 so headed), 1889 (part 2 of 5)

With a well-balanced temperament, conservative, but never timorous, naturally sagacious and enterprising, but willing to work with his hands until a sure foundation had been laid for the future, it is not strange that he was able to retire from active business and enjoy a quarter of a century of freedom from other than voluntary task.

Warren Williams, the son of Simeon Williams, was born in Woolwich, Me., July 2, 1811. His mother was Lydia Young, whose family, on the maternal side, was near of kin to Alexander Hamilton.

The family consisted ol nine children - one daughter and eight sons - one of the latter being the late Judge Hartley Williams, for many years an honored citizen of Worcester, who died in 1882.

In 1836 he came to Worcester to engage in the woolen machinery business, then conducted by L. & A. G. Coes, and later by Henry Goulding, with whom he remained for fourteen years, rising from a workman's bench to the position of foreman and superintendent, until 1851, when he became joint proprietor, with Fitzroy, Willard and others, under the firm-name of Willard, Williams & Co.

In 1858 he bought Charles Ballard's interest in the firm of Ball & Ballard, manufacturers of woodworking machinery, and continued this branch of business under the firm of Ball & Williams until 1801.

On the breaking out of the Civil War they added the manufacture of the Ballard Breech-Loading (Carbine) Kifles, invented by Charles Ballard, the former partner.

The demand for arms of this kind, created by the war, enabled the firm to dispose of their whole product to a single firm of purchasing agents for the State of Kentucky during the entire period of the war. The business proved very lucrative, and Mr. Williams retired from the firm in 1865, with a competence, and has not since been engaged in active business.

He has not, however, been idle, having found ample field for mental activity and usefulness, in congenial duties connected with the banks and other corporate interests with which he has been associated.

He was the treasurer of the Building Committee when the present edifice was built, and for many months devoted his personal attention to the superintendence of the work.

One of the original members of the Mechanics' Association, he has been a life member for over thirty years, and has filled various offices in that organization.

As a member of the Legislature he was actively interested in procuring the charter for the People's Savings Bank, and has been on the Board of Trustees of that bank for over twenty years, rendering valuable service on the Financial Committee, and is now one of the vice-presidents of that institution.

He has also been a director of the Worcester Safe Deposit and Trust Company for the past fifteen years, and for about an equal period he has been identified with the management of the Worcester Protective Union as the chairman of its Board of Trade.

Always a man of strong political convictions, and stanchly Republican, he is as nearly devoid of political ambition as it is possible for a man to be, and although frequently urged to accept public oflice, he has steadfastly shunned its honors and responsibilities for the past twenty years.

He has, however, served four terms in the State Legislature as a Representative from Ward 8, in the years 18().S and 'G4, and in 1868 and '69.

During his first term of service the Hon. Alexander H. Bullock was the Speaker of the House, and during his second term his neighbor and townsman was the Governor of the Commonwealth.

It is a matter of record that Mr. Williams was regarded as the Speaker's and Governor's right-hand man as a member of the Committees on Finance and Claims, in all legislation touching the economic administration of the government.

Warren Williams married Harriet M. Whittaker, of Princeton, Mass., in 1888, and the fortunate couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on the ICth of May last.

They have two children - a daughter, the sunshine of their declining years, and a son, Charles Austin Williams - the trusted and genial assistant cashier of the City National Bank, with which institution he has been connected for twenty-three years. Two grandchildren - Haskell and Warren, sons of Charles - represent the third generation and perpetuate the name.

Descended from a line remarkable on both sides for longevity, Mr. Williams is still hale and hearty, with his faculties undimmed, although now in his seventy-eighth year.

C.Eorcie Sumner Barton

Among the most extensive manufacturing establishments in Worcester is that known as the Rice, Barton & Fales Machine and Iron Company. The number of workmen employed is large and the products are favorably known in all parts of the country. Mr. Barton, whose name appears at the head of this sketch, was elected president at the time the company was organized under the act of incorporation, in 1867 ; he had, however, been connected with the business from 1845, at which time he entered as an apprentice. In the latter capacity he faithfully served his time, and step by step came to be, at the age of twenty-four, a partner. At present the manufactures are chiefly of machinery for paper-making and for printing calico, delaines and woolens, for hydraulic presses and other similar heavy iron work. The business is among the most extensive, and prosperous in the city.

At the time Mr. Barton first came Worcester was but an insignificant place compared with what it now is. But she was always fortunate, above most other places, in having among her people individuals conspicuous in various so-called upper walks of lifeindividuals who gave her a wide reputation and distinguished name. And though at the present time she can number among her citizens those well-fitted to sustain her reputation for statesmanship, for learning and social culture, it may yet be questioned whether she is not fast approaching that period in her history when she will be best known for her achievements in the industrial pursuits; for her great and varied mechanical works ; for her many useful inventions, and her countless inf^enious labor-saving contrivances. Which class of individuals alluded to - the learned or the mechanical - will prove most conducive to her prosperity and final greatness the writer is not competent to predict.

It is not wise, perhaps, to make comparisons among those to whom Worcester is so greatly indebted, in a mechanical way, where so many appear on almost the same footing. But of the individual whose name is placed altove it may be said, without detracting aught from any other whose name stands high on the roll of useful citizens, that his integrity of character and his career of industry, perseverance and self-discipline furnishes an example that may be profitably followed by every young man who aspires to a position of thrift and respectability like that which he now occupies.

The services of Mr. Barton have been in requisition from time to time in public offices where quick apprehension, good judgment and prompt action were necessary. He has served several terms in the Common Council and likewise in the Board of Aldermen ; has been a Legislative Senator, and in various offices of a more private character, like that of railroad director and president, and as trustee, vicepresident and president of the County Mechanics' Association has rendered valuable service. In all the various official positions he has consented to occupy he has ac(iuitted himself with honor and to the satisfaction of his constituents.

Mr. Barton was born in the picturesque town of Millbury, on the 18th of July, 1825, and is yet in the vigor of manhood. His education was better than that of several other prosperous individuals named in the present work, inasmuch as he added to his district school training an academic course. His father, Rufus Barton, was the parent of nine children, George S. being the youngest. At the age of twenty he left home and immediately applied himself to learning the trade of machinist - the trade which of all others was no doubt best fitted to his genius and inclination, a fact which his subsequent uniform success has abundantly verified. We find liim now, in the vigor of manhood, a person of dignified presence and genial manners, liberal in his views, and maintaining towards all classes the bearing of a gentleman. In politics he has always been a pronounced supporter of the principles of the Republican party.

It was not, however, in the maiuifacturing line which has here been chiefly spoken of that Mr. Barton's skill, shrewdness and various talents have been exclusively exercised. In other pursuits he has been active, ever exercising those peculiar qualities that are sure, in the absence of casual interference, to lead on to fortune.

If he has not visited every State and Territory of the Union, he has almost every one, as well as some of the neighboring islands, - Cuba and Vancouver among the number. And having circulated among the more intelligent classes, with his observing and inquiring mind, he has stored up a fund of valuable and available knowledge, which he knows well how to use for himself and healthfully dispense to others. Mr. Barton has had a son and daughter. The son, Charles S. Barton, is now president of the company of which his father is treasurer.

Mr. Lovell was born in Worcester on the 30th of April, 1818, and was the eldest son of Cyrus and Lois Lovell, then occupying a farm on the outskirts of the town ; and until he was thirty-eight years of age he pursued the vocation of husbandman as his chief employment. His advantages for education were quite limited, the District School, with a year at Phillips Academy, Andover, supplying about all that he could gain. He taught two terms, after which, at the age of twenty, he settled on a fiirm.

When he had arrived at the age of thirty-eight Mr. Lovell disposed of his farm and stock and moved into the town, which had then adopted the city form of government. Here he continued somewhat in the agricultural line by establishing an agricultural warehouse and seed-store. This was in July, 1857 ; and he followed the business nearly a score of years, or until October, 1875. At the latter date, having been so successful as to accumulate such a fortune as was deemed sufficient for all necessary wants and reasonable desires, he retired from busy mercantile pursuits, and has since lived a life of ease, so far as the cares,, perplexities and annoyances of active business are concerned. But he has by no means passed his time in "inglorious ease," without taking part in the manifold works of charity and benevolence, in which every true philanthropist delights to engage, and in which, at all times, there is enough to do. In all such works he has been active and liberal, to a degree that has received the merited applause of every wellwisher to the community.

During these latter years, however, he has had much to do in a line that requires prudence, judgment and no small amount of patience. The line here alluded to is that connected with the care and disposal of estates as trustee, executor or administrator. He has had much of this kind of business in hand, and has succeeded in settling matters to the satisfaction of all reasonable parties concerned, which is saying a great deal, where so many confiicting interests and jealousies are liable to intervene to the entanglement of claims and interests and the disturbance of the peace of families.

the endeavor to secure what was equitable and right between man and man. He is a director in the First National Insurance Company, a trustee in the Mechanics' Savings Bank, a trustee in the Kural Cemetery Association and a trustee in the Horticultural Society of Worcester County. His duties in these positions, and others not named, may well be supposed to require such unremitting attention that he can have little time to devote to indolent ease. He is not a shirk, as too many of us are liable to be in ofljces to which no pecuniary reward is attached.

As may well be imagined, with his time so filled, little could be spared for politics and the stirring affairs of public life; and, besides, his natural taste does not lead that way. He, however, never shrank from the duties that he felt it incumbent to assume. In 1867 and '68 he was an alderman, and in 1877 and '78 he was a Representative in the General Court.

As a party adherent Mr. Lovell was an old-time Whig; on the disruption of that organization he became a member of the Free Soil party, and thence passed into the present Republican party, in which he still remains, ever ready to liberally contribute for the maintenance of principles which commend themselves to him as best adapted to the general good.

In religion Mr. Lovell has always adhered to what is popularly known as the orthodox faith, - in other words, the faith of the old New England fathers, - the Trinitarian Congregational. And he has for these many years been so prompt in his religious duties and so liberal in his contributions for the maintenance of public worship, as well as all approved charitable and benevolent enterprises, that he will be sadly missed when the hour for his final withdrawal arrives.

Mr. Lovell has been twice married. His first wife was Eleanor Winch, with whom he was united April 18, 1843, and who died April 26, 1882. His second wife, whom he married November 20, 1883, was Mrs. Ellen C. Bigelow, widow of Samuel T. Bigelow, and who was the mother of two daughters at the time of her marriage with Mr. Lovell, which daughters and their mother are still living.

A life so full of activity in business and in the performance of social duties as that of Mr. Lovell may well merit a more extended notice than is here given, at least for the sake of example. But some men are so sensitive as to having their trumpets blown, as the vulgar expression is, that one who would willingly accord what is really due is restricted and admonished. To most of us a lively blast on the trumpet of praise now and then is quite refreshing, but Mr. Lovell is not one liable to appreciate laudation, and so no further attempt will be made to thwart his expressed desire.

Edward Earle

Edward Earle was born in Leicester, Mass., February 10, 1811. He was the fifth generation from Ralph Earle, who was one of the pioneers who settled in Leicester in 1 717, and the seventh from Ralph Earle, who came from England about 1630. His father, Timothy Earle (a successful card-maker, like his brothers), was the filth son of Robert Earle, Jr., whose five sons all settled on neighboring farms in sight of the paternal home. His mother was Ruth Keese, from Peru, N. Y., to which place she removed from Dutchess County, N. Y., with her parents, when but four years of age, her father having purchased a large tract of land in the then wild region around Lake Champlain. Her mother was a talented member of the Halleck family and an intimate friend of many of the prominent personages of her time. From his mother's side he inherited, mainly, " that calmness and soundness of judgment" which were among his chief characteristics.

His father died when Edward was about eightyears old, and his mother afterwards married her husband's brother Henry, who, being an invalid for a great part of his after-life, the care of the large farm and the management of the saw-mill upon it devolved upon Edward at a very early age. Here he developed those traits of industry and thrift which were natural to him and which were conspicuous throughout his life. He attended the district school and the academy in Leicester, and completed his education at Friends' School in Providence, R. I. He subsequently taught the school in the district in which he lived. In 1832 soon after he had attained the age of twenty-one he went to Worcester, Mass., and became engaged in mercantile business, temporarily as clerk in the Hour and grain store of his cousin, Robert Earle, and afterwards in co-partnership with Gen. Nathan Heard.

On the 1st of October, 1835, he married Ann Barker Bufl'um, daughter of David and Susan Ann Bufium, of Middletown, R. I., a woman of great intelligence and decision of character, who joined heartily with her husband in the enterprises of benevolence and philanthropy which engaged so much of his time and attention.

Before his marriage, in 1835, he had left the flour business and had become connected with Joseph Pratt, under the firm-name of Pratt & Earle. This house was for many years more extensively engaged in the iron and steel business than any other in Worcester County, and he retained his interest in it long after the establishment and the assured success of his additional business, as (he senior member of the firm ofT. K. Earle & Co.

Soon after the death of his uncle, Silas Earle, in 1842, his brother, Timothy K. Earle, then in his minority, purchased an interest in the machine-card business of their late uncle, and after two changes in the firm, in a very brief period, Edward bought the interest of his cousin Timothy, and a co-partnership was formed with his brother Timothy K., under the title of T. K. Earle & Co., which continued until his retireuient in 1869. For a short period after embarking in this business it was continued in the Silas Earle factory in Leicester, and then removed to Worcester.

After his retirement from the firm of T. K. Earle & Co. he took no active part in business, although his time was fully occupied with his real-estate interests, and in the management of public and private trusts. His public life began iu 1843, as a member of the Board of Selectmen of the town of Worcester. In 1851 he wiis a Representative in the State Legislature - the memorable year in which, afttr an " earnest and protracted struggle," Charles Sumner was elected Senator to theCongress of the United States. In 1853 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Worcester, and from 18(il to 1871 he was a member of the School Board of the city, resigning his office in 1871 to accept the mayoralty, to which he was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. James B. Blake.

While on the School ]5oard he was a zealous advocate of the introduction of drawing into the public schools, was interested in the Training School, and afterwards in the establishment of the State Normal School. " He was always prompt in attention to business and level-headed, while not too conservative."

As Mayor, he was an " honest, faithful and honored public servant, careful of the rights and property of the citizens ; infusing by his personal presenceand the purity of his private character into every department of the city government the ideas of honesty, justice and frugality. His motto seemed to be 'Substance, and not Form,' and this idea pervaded his acts through life. His was a most illustrious example of that pure, original Ciuaker simplicity which adorns and beautifies, while it ennobles and Christianizes everybody and everything with which it comes in contact.

" He always bore the burdens and honors of public office with quiet and unostentatious dignity, and labored with his full ability faithfully to discharge all its trusts and duties. At the time when the Ooverument was seeking new methods of dealing with its wards on the frontier, he was selected by the Society of Friends as one of the Indian Commissioners, to act in consultation and connection with the commission appointed by the President. He personally visited the Indians in their places of abode, studied their condition and needs, and pressed his opinions with the vigor of one who knew whereof he spoke."

He was interested in the anti-slavery movement from the beginning. The wrongs and sufferings of the negro always worked upon his sympathy to a great extent, and his mind was busy with schemes for the amelioration of the condition of the race generally, or for some individual member thereof. It was not unnatural, therefore, that after the proclamation of emancipation was issued, he should seek to do something to help the colored people to take their proper place in the State and community. He was very early made one of the committee of New England P'riends to investigate as to the most desirable place to establish a Freedman's Mission. To this end he, with others, visited various points along the line of division between the North and South, calling upon General Grant at his headquarters and making other interesting visits. Washington was chosen as the point for the operations of the committee. He spent weeks and months there at different times attending to the interests of the mission. After that particular enterprise was abandoned, he continued to contribute to the good work through other schools, although he never took active part in the management of any other. He was also, for many years, a member of the committee in charge of the Friends' denominational school in Providence,

As a member of the State Board of Charities, and in his later years its chairman, he found a place where the innate tendency of his character, his earnest conviction, clear insight and philanthropic heart made him of more value than men of more shining talents and of restless ambition could have been. He had no theories to defend ; no cumbrous equipment of book-learning or class-prejudice in which to encase himself against the impressions of the heart, - the call of duty and of reason. He gave himself wholly to the monitions of the " inward voice," following as that directed, no matter what might be the outward condition. This is a high quality, sure to give dignity to the conduct and opinions of men in whom it appears; and in Edward Earle it was tainted neither by self-conceit nor by any morose, suspicious or grudging sentiments. He was a plain, good man, with a serious kindliness of mien, and in spirit one of those

In his religious sympathies he was with the Society of Friends, in which he was an active and prominent member. He was a Friend, indeed, worthy of the name which the followers of George Fox, with modest discrimination, had chosen for themselves.

His youth and middle life were laborious and successful. No dollar of his wealth was unjustly earned, or left harm or wrong behind in the earning. He did not crave excessive riches, but retired in due season from the accumulation of wealth to what was more consistent with his plan of life, - the moderate and benevolent use of it. He was a faithful steward of what was entrusted to his care, and no small part of his means, as well as of his time, was given to public uses or in acts of charity. The catalogue of his good deeds is too long to be written on earth, and no man took less pains to publish them. Of his public employments none were very conspicuous. Such he never sought, being more anxious to put his shoulder to the wheel than to ride in the cushioned seat.

It is worth mentiouing that he was one of the founders of the American Social Science Association, having signed the call for the first meeting in 1865, and having been a constant member afterwards, though seldom taking part in any but the business meetings. In this, as in many of his other affairs, his wife was one with himself, and they were earnest from the first that women should have a place in the government of the association, which has always been the case. In person he was tall, robust and fine-looking. He generally was blessed with excellent health ; but when a severe cold, taken in a damp, unhealed car, on a raw spring day, developed into pneumonia, his system failed to rally from the disease, and he quietly passed from this life on the 19lh of May, 1877, in the sixty-seventh year ol' his age. His connection with many and varied interests, and the esteem in which he was held by the | community led to very general expressions of respect and sorrow in the public prints, from which, and from " Ralph Earle and his Descendants," by Pliny Earle, M.D., of Northampton, Mass., the foregoing account is mostly taken.

Timothy Keese Eakle

Of the many beautiful mansions that adorn the picturesque heights of Worcester, and by their solidity of construction, well-chosen and commanding situations, invite the notice of the passer-by, few equal that reared by the subject of this sketch. It is of stone, in a stately architectural, style, almost baronial in proportions, and commands interesting views of the city and surrounding country.

As the stranger pauses to admire this elegant abode he naturally desires to learn something of the one by whom it was reared. To his many friends, and to the great body of his fellow-citizens who knew him in life, his history may appear almost too familiar to need recapitulation. He was born in Leicester, Worcester County, on the 11th of January, 1823, was a son of Henry and Ruth Earle, and a lineal descendant of the seventh generation of Ralph Earle, an early settler of Leicester. The great-great-grandfather of Mr. Earle was also named Ralph. He was a noted artist, and is supposed to have produced the first widely-known historical paintings in this country, being four views of the Battle of Lexington. After the Revolution he went to England, studied under West, and became a member of the Royal Academy. Among his works while abroad was a portrait of King George III. After his return, in 1786, he exercised his skill in illustrating various interesting scenes in American history and scenery, as well as painting a number of portraits of eminent men of the time, among them those of President Dwight, of Yale College, and Governor Strong, of j Massachusetts. This Ralph's brother James was also an artist of note, but chitffy confined himself to portraits. Several other members of the old Earle family of Leicester might be named, did space allow, and much added regarding their skill in the mechanic arts, their inventions and their enterprise, all which would tend to show that it was and is a family to which the industrial community, and all others in fact, are greatly indebted. I But it is to the late Timothy K. Earle, who died on the 1st of October, 1881, at the age of fifty-eight year.s, and whose portrait appears in connection with this sketch, that our remarks must chiefly apply. As j before stated, he was born in the good old town of I Leicester, January 11, 1823. He obtained the rudiments of education in the common village school, was subsequently a pujul in Leicester Academy and in the Friends' School in Providence, R. I. And ' though he did not professedly become what the world J calls a scholarly man, he was yet competent to take an intelligent part in the discussion of the higher topics of the day. He became a resident of Worcester in 1842.

Mr. Earle was twice married, his first wife having been Nancy T., daughter of William E. Hacker, of Philadelphia, the marriage taking place September 12, 1849. By her he had five daughters and one son. Two of the daughters are now living - Marianna BL, wife of Edwin Brown, of Worcester, and Nancy H. His second wife was Caroline C, daughter of Daniel Osborne, of Dover, N. H. By her he had three children, two of whom, Daniel Csborne Earle and Caroline Earle, are now living. The beautiful homestead is still occupied by the family, its many objects of refined ornamentation, the accumulations of wealth and taste, rendering it an enviable hojue, with only the recollection of the loss of the revered head of the household to mar the enjoyable serenity.

In a carefully-prepared family history, entitled "Ralph Earle and His Descendants," compiled by Pliny Earle, of Nortliampton, is given a concise account of the business career of Mr. Earle, from which the following is quoted : " He lived with his parents, and when not at school assisted upon the fiirra until after the decease of his uncle, Silas Earle, when he purchased, in company with Reuben Randall, the card-setting machines, which had contributed very largely to the growth of the estate left by Silas. The several changes of ownership of Randall's interest followed that purchase, until the final formation of the firm ' T. K. Earle & Company,' with Timothy K. and his elder half-brother, Edward Earle, as the sole co-partners, together with the removal of the business to Worcester, have also been mentioned. When this company was formed Timothy K. was still in his min- ority, and neither of its members had any practical experience in the business. But Timothy K. was endowed witli a hvrge share of that michanical ingenuity which had previously appeared in several members of the family. He was quick of perception, apt to learn, industrious, energetic and persevering, and not devoid, withal, of a justifiable ambition, while Edward was a careful and prudent financier, who had acquired a knowledge of mercantile principles and methods from his experience in another line of business, and who possessed a coiistituti<inal cahnness - and soundness of judgment matured by years and improved by practice."

Thus equipped at the beginning, Timothy K. devoted himself to the work with a degree of assiduity and activity indicative, not only of a mind which acknowledges no criterion but success, but prophetic ol the assurance of that success. It is not our intention, as not necessarily our province, to give a detailed account of the business of T. K. Earle i& Company, or the steps by which their establishment was enlarged, until it became, as it still continues to be, the most extensive of its kind in the United States. Edward Earle retired from it in 18(39, and his interest was purchased by his half-brother, Thomas, who died in 1871. In 1872 Edwin Brown, of Worcester, son-inlaw of T. K. Earle, became a partner, and in 1880 a company, under the name of " The T. K. Earle Manufacturing t'onipany,"' was organized with T. K. Earle as president and Edwin Brown as agent and treasurer. Of Timothy K. Earle it has been justly said: "Quick to recognize ability in others, and to appreciate what w:is needed in his business, he always associated with himself employees and mechanics of only the highest ability.''

Mr. Earle was long an ardent advocate of temperance principles, was a liberal contributor to that and other reformatory and benevolent causes, and his exertions were so highly appreciated, and the reliance on his ability and integrity so great, that the " Prohibition " party, in 1S80 and '81, nominated him for the office of Lieutenant-Governor.

In religious sentiment Mr. Earle adhered to the Society of Friends, actively participating in their business meetings, and being sometimes a speaker in their worshiping assemblies.

The extensive business relations of Mr. Earle drew so largely upon his time and attention that he had little to spare for the duties of public oIKce, for which, indeed, he had little taste or inclination. He served in hardly any office, excepting that of School Committee.

William H15Nry Heywoop

Mr. Heywood was born in Worcester on the 14th of April, 1817. He early became aware that his success in life depended on his own exertions, and, without a murmur at the apparently more fortunate situation of others, or a shade of envy, addressed himself bravely to the work before him. From the time he was able to wield the hoe and rake until seventeen years of age he labored on a farm, during which time he availed himself of the op])ortunities afforded by the district school to procure such education as would be required in the position he was probably destined to occupy. Js ot only was this accomplished, but the foundation was laid for such after-acquirements as now enable him to maintain a most creditable standing.

At about the age of seventeen years Mr. Heywood began his apprenticeship at carpentering. Apprenticeship in those days was very different from apprenticeship at the present time, and it may not be invidious to claim that while the labors and hardships of the ajqireulice of the old time were more burdensome than they could be now, more thorough instruction and discipline were acquired. The employment of machinery nowadays in every department of mechanics and its adaptation to every detail has rendered much of the former personal skill obsolete. Mr. Heywood was a well-instructed workman, and successfully pursued the business of carjientcr for some twenty-five years - till 1853. He then engaged in other occupations, that demanded less personal exposure.

After retiring from his earlier imrsuits and being in more indepemlent circumstances, - not, indeed, where entire leisure coulil be indulged in, but circumstances in which his services were not in such constant and imi)erative demand, - he felt at liberty to accept various duties of a public nature: duties which, though unsought, he could not well refuse. He has been from time to time in the service of the city, aud always merited and received the api^robation of his constituents by his judgment, skill and carefulness. He served as street commissioner two years and as a member of the Common Council four years. And though iu the latter office he did not pose as an orator, his diligence and wise suggestions did not fail to receive the approval of his tellow citizens.

In various capacities, too, of a senu-public character he has served the interests of the community. He has been much employed in appraising estates and administering estates of deceased persons. And in these, as every one knows who has had much to do in that line of business, great care and patience are required to elucidate complex interests and decide conflicting claims. The best evidence of his success in all matters of this kind is, jierhaps, to be found in the circumstance of his having so many and such urgent calls for his services.

Mr. Heywood early imbibed a love for reading, and many a delightful and profitable hour has he spent in following out the thought or suggestion of some approved author. And now, in his advanced years, he finds much satisfaction and solid comfort in the habit so long indulged.

hered tenaciously to the faith of his fathers - the Trinitarian Congregational ; or, as it is now most commonly called, the Orthodox - and for many years has been a consistent and liberal-handed member of the Old South, or First Congregational Chnrch of Worcester.

Mr. Heyvvood was united in marriage, December 31, 1844, with Mary G. Sutton, of ^V'orcester. And the fruit of the union was six children, only two of whom (both married daughters) are now living.

It is seen by the foregoing that the life of Mr. Heywood has not been an eventful one. But it is such an one as many who have made a more conspicuous figure in the world, would wish, at the last, they had imitated. By example it attracts and by example it warns, thus accomplishing a most worthy end. To such men it matters little whether or not the trumpet of fame sounds along their path in life, for they realize that its keenest blast can never reach the other shore.

David Whitcomb.'

David Whitcomb was a son, and a true son, of that steadfast commonwealth, the (iranite .State. Rugged, solid, unhewn, and down out of sight, he was a foundation man and men builded upon him. He came of sturdy stock. John Whitcomb was his earliest ancestor in America and with his wife Frances was living in Dorchester, Mass., in 1638. Removing to Lancaster in 1654, he there died in 1662, leaving his widow to survive him for nine years longer. From this original pair the line descended through three generations of Jonathans to Abner who was in the 5tli from John and was the ninth child of his parents. Abner Whitcomb was a man of remarkable physical vigor. Born on the 4th of February, 1733, he outlived three wives and married a fourth on the 21st of February, 1806, when he had just entered upon his 73d year. The name of his fourth wife was Abigail Boynton. When her husband was seventy -five years old, their only child, the subject of this sketch, was born. The place of his birth was Hancock, the westernmost town in the county of Hillsborough. Abner Whitcomb, whose birthplace was Littleton, Mass., had pushed northwestward about thirty miles into New Hamp.shire and become one of the founders of Hancock. There it was he had found and married Abigail, who was the daughter of Thomas Boynton.

The first settlement of the town was in 1764. Fifteen years after, on the 5th of November, 1779, the town was incorporated and then named after the patriot whose bold and handsome autograph upon the Declaration of Independence is familiar to every school-boy. The suggestion of the name doubtless arose also from the fact that Governor Hancock was a large proprietor of lands within the township. It is a goodly town, full of hills and valleys and ponds and streams. Of the eight summits within its borders, Skatutakee, the highest, has an altitude of 2100 feet ; and of its seven ponds, the largest, Norway Pond, round and shapely, is the jewel on its breast. Lying close by the village street, it is withal nature's skating rink for the youth of Hancock. The streams, numerous but small, diverge from the centre irregularly towards the circumference. Its principal stream, the Contoocook river, skirts its eastern border. On the near southwestern horizon Monadnock looms up in solitary grandeur nearly 4000 feet high. . The principal street, running east and west, hardly more than a furlong in length, broadens at the west end into a Common fronted by meeting-house, townhouse and school-house; while the east end branches into three diverging roads.

On tirst coming to this town Abner Whitcomb had settled in a level place midway between Bald Hill and Noiway Pond and a mile or so north of the latter. There he remained until the marriage of his sun John, when the father gave up the homestead to the son and removed a mile eastward. But at the date of his marriage in 1806 he was living in a house built by him in his old age on Slain Street. In this house, still standing, David Whitcomb was born on the 30tli of May, 1808. His life in the parental household was of brief duration, and the after years of his childhood were cheerless and full of hardship. Put out at the age of seven to live in a family where unkind treatment was his lot, a chore-boy in another family at the age of nine, riding horse to plow, driving cows to pasture, tending a distillery, he found little time for schooling, and never had any from others worth speaking of. But in all his after life he was going to school to himself Thus he became an aj)t scholar of a wise teacher ; and though it could not be said that he grew wiser than his teacher, he certainly grew as wise. Meantime, his lather, very old and wholly blind, died when he was twelve years of age. His mother, leaving him behind, went to reside with her brother, the landlord of the Lamb tavern in Boston ; but in the end returned to Hancock and there died, leaving David alone in the world at the age of lilteen. He had never had a boyhood nor enjoyed the ameliorations of family life. Withal, as he approached his majority he came to have a sickly and somewhat consumptive habit of body. It was not strange that in later life the deep, almost !)reternatural furrows of his face told of that hard, harsh discipline of his early years.

At the age of eighteen he went forth into the world afoot to seek his fortune. A farm in the town of Gill, Mass., where now stands Moody's Mount Hermou School, was his first halting place. There he remained till Sej)tember, 1820, when broken health drove him back to Hancock. He had now attained his majority and found himself in possession of about $450, derived partly from his father's estate, partly from his mother's, partly from an uncle's gift and partly from his own earnings. This little capital was David Whitcomb's nest-egg, and the chickens were not long in coming. A step was taken towards that result when with improved health he went to Templeton, Mass., to ask for the place of a pedler from his cousin, John Boynton, who was a tinsmith. But John Boynton was a cauiious man and it had not yet been proved to him that David Whitcomb had enough capacity to be a tin pedler. Foiled for awhile in this forth-putting, he went back to (lill, staid a few weeks, then pushed on afoot to Northampton and ultimately to Ware. In Northampton he found a place with one Mrs. Mills to have the care of her horse and help in her kitchen at $5 a month. Iq Ware he sought for work in the mills, but found it in the hotel of Deacon Porter in the guise of building fires, helping in the kitchen and blacking boots. No work, however menial, came amiss to this dead-in-earnest young man. At last John Boynton heard of his doings, heard that he was 'smart,' aad in January, 1830, invited him back to Templeton. David Whitcomb lost no time. He went by stage to Petersham, thence on foot to Templeton and on the 18th of the same January made his first trip on wheels as a tin pedler. It was a trial trip, and a second followed; for John Boynton, cautious to the last, would not hire without atrial. David Whitcomb did not complain; it was in his nature to approve, rather. The trial was satisfactory, and an engagement for one year followed. For this service he was to have his board, $100 and a "vest pattern." This was the turning point of his fortunes. It was a humble beginning of what was destined to have a noble ending. Planting his foot thus firmly on the lowest round of the ladder, he mounted rapidly, yet round by round, until he stood at the top. From the pedler's cart he went into the shop, then into partnership with his employer. The partnership was formed in 1831 with an equal amount of capital from each. In the next year a branch was established in Leominster of which as junior partner he was put in charge. Under his management the business of the branch soon surpassed that of the principal establishment in Templeton, and in two years he was recalled to become the practical head of the whole concern. Meantime, on going to Leominster he had taken to wife Margaret Cummings, a descendant of one of the early settlers of Hancock. The union proved a source of lifelong happiness to which three children contributed in full measure.

On becoming established in Templeton he largely extended the business and made it prosper beyond all its former record. The partnership with John Boynton continued for fifteen years in uninterrupted harmony ; then, in 184(5, was dissolved and Mr. Boynton retired from the business. A new partnership formed in 18-18 with Col. Henry Smith, afterwards his son-in-law, was continued until 1853, when Mr. Whitcomb sold out the business to his partner and brought this part of his life to an end. He had been in the tin business over twenty years. He had worked hard with hand and brain and had accumulated a handsome fortune measured by the standard of a New England country town. But he was still in the prime of life and had no thought of rest. Though never robust, work for him was always pleasure. His next move, therefore, was to the business centre of the county, where he established himself as a partner with C. Foster & Co. in the hardware business. His coming to Worcester was in the spring of 1854; the copartnership began in January, 1855, and terminated in January, 1866. It was for him a new business, but the business soon felt the hand of a new master. What he did not know about the details of the business he more than made up by his knowledge of business in general. Above all, he knew how and when and what to buy. The outbreaking of the Civil War gave him his opportunity. That calamity, which took the business life out of many, put new life into him. He was sure that the nation was not going to pieces; equally sure that because of the war early and large purchases would yield large profits. He bought Russian sheet-iron, stored it, then sold it at a large advance to the great New York iron firm of Phelps & Dodge. A frightened manufacturer offered him linseed oil below the market price; a single cask, or five at most, had been the usual purchase; but Mr. Whitcomb bought fifty casks at a stroke and then sold them at war prices and profits. In like manner a hardware manufacturer, closing up because of the war, offered him staple goods at prices below what had ever been known, and, inevitably, Mr. Whitcomb ordered the purchase of all that could be had. As box after box came in and was packed away in every available place, the conservative senior partner became dismayed, but was afterwards comforted when they were sold out at fourfold their cost. This generalship in business left an indelible impression on the juniors in the establishment who afterwards took the business when he laid it down.

Near the close of his connection with the concern he was taking initial steps towards the most important business venture in which it was his lot to be engaged. In 1864 his son, G. Henry Whitcomb, had been graduated from college and then taken into the hardware store with a view to learn the business. Finding his progress impeded, he threw up the situation and went forth like his father, though in more comfortable guise, to seek his fortune. Taking a journey through the West and scanning the chances in its chief cities, he quickly made up his mind that the place for him was in the East and returned to Worcester. Presently, a newly invented machine for making envelopes attracted his attention. It had a promising look and he laid the matter before his father. The latter listened, left him to work out his own schemes, but furnished the money for the ven- ture. At the end of the first year the whole small capital had been sunk. This with many, perhaps with most, would have ended the mutter. But a second lot of money was thrown after the first, and both were recovered. The scheme looked none the less promising because of the failure. For the failure was in the machine, not in the scheme; and never yet was there a work to do for doing which a machine could not be made if only it were worth the while. To manufacture envelopes by millions a day was surely worth the while. So, that bad first machine was thrown aside, the best machines in the market were bought and set to work, by successive inventions the Whitcomb machine was developed, and in due time, the Whitcomb Envelope Company took its place among the great industries of Worcester. By the end of the year 1866, David Whitcomb had gone out of the hardware business and thrown himself with all needed capital into this enterprise. It was not a new field with a virgin soil for a crop that would raise itself. On the contrary, it was an old worn field calling for deep digging and careful cultivation. There was the sharpest competition to be encountered. The veterans in the business derided these 'prentice hands. A thing so obviously necessary to the ongoing of the world as an envelope had not been left waiting for the Whitcombs to take hold of What could they expect? So the old envelope-makers laughed at them. But the father's old head and the son's young enterprise proved more than their match. Wisdom, watchfulness, push and perseverance conquered ; and in the end the Whitcomb Envelope Company, if not actually at the head of the business in the United States, was a formidable rival for that pre-eminence.

We have sketched the business life of David Whitcomb. A far more important part,, both for himself and for his fellow men, remains to be considered. Had he done nothing and aimed at nothing but to achieve success in business he would have been a far richer man at his death but the world would have been far poorer. But when he began to be about thirty years of age, he met with that profound change which is most fitly described as a new birth. A new birth implies a new man, and such David Whitcomb became. In Leominster he and his young wife had made their church home with the Unitarians. On going to reside in Templeton they chose the Trinitarian church for such a home, although a Unitarian society, and a leading one, was there al.so. Soon afterwards, the Rev. Dr. Sabin became their pastor, and under his ministry, in 1839, they united with the church. The influence of this step at once became visible in the conduct of his life. He set up a family altar and there, morning and evening, maintained family worship. His workmen and pedlers, to the number of ten or more, were invited to share in this service. To all other christian duties he gave assiduous attention. Gradually, he came to be regarded as not only a pillar, but as the chief pillar in the church of his choice. But the most striking change was in his use of the riches which he was so rapidly acquiring. By nature he was not a liberal giver. Auri sacra fames was with him a natural appetite. He loved money and loved to roll it as a sweet morsel under his tongue. This he freely confessed. But under the new inspiration he schooled himself to give. In this thing, also, he put ofl' the old man and put on the new. Deliberately, systematically, persistently, he now made giving not only a business of principle, but a principal business. Beginning with the year following his ne^v birth, he sufJered no one of the forty-seven after years of his life to pass without making charitable gifts. In no year did the amount fall so low :i8 .'?100 ; in two years only was it less than $200 ; for thirty-two it exceeded $1000 a year ; while in the last seven years of his life the average annual amount exceeded §12,000. The whole amount of his known charitable gifts, testamentary and otherwise, exceeded $350,000. No part of this great sum was given to get himself a name. No one knew of it all while he lived. He did not himself know ; his right hand knew not what his left hand did. Several times he employed another hand to arrange and file the receipts covering a large part of this giving. When the work was done he was asked if he knew the amount and ansvvered no. He was asked if he would like to know and gave the same reply. One time he gave some thousands to found scholarships in another person's name. He was asked if mention of it might be made in the papers and he answered no. The largest amount of all his giving, save in one particular, was to colleges and other institutions of learning. Because of his own lack in early life he cherished a tender feeling for the claims of young persons seeking an education. But he refrained from giving his money for structures of brick and stone. He had no ambition to build a monument of that sort to his own fame. The spiritual building made of lively stones spoken of by St. Peter was what he had most at heart. An endowment of scholarships that would help a long succession of poor boys and girls was the favorite form of his educational gifts. With one school of learning he had special and important relations. This was the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, now the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His early friend and partner, John Boynton, had found it in his mind to bestow the bulk of his fortune for the education of the artisan class, the class to which he belonged. His first intention was to make the town of Mason N. H. his beneficiary. But under David Whitcomb's advice he changed his purpose in favor of Worcester. Having no formulated scheme of his own, he finally made over to Mr. Whitcomb by an absolute deed of gift the sum of $100,000 to be used as the latter should think best for accomplishing the object. Mr. Whitcomb studied the situation, and then took counsel with his pastor, Dr. Sweetser, and with Gov. Emory Washburn the adviser of Ichabod Waahburn who had a similar purpose in mind. At a later stage Stephen Salisbury came into the scheme, broadening and strengthening it with his sympathy, wisdom and money. The result, made operative in 1869, waa the Free Institute. To David Whitcomb, therefore, the city of Worcester primarily owes that noble school of practical science. Nor was it only by diverting the first great monetary stream from a remote field to the " Heart of the Commonwealth," that he became its benefactor ; out of his own resources he added to the treasury of the Institute more than $27,000. As its treasurer and as trustee also, he watched over and guarded its interests for many years. This is not the place to enlarge upon this new departure in an educational scheme. It is sufficient to say that as it was the first of its kind, so, after full proof of its admirable working, it became the model for others in different parts of the country north and south.

In 1883 Mr. Whitcomb made a voyage to Europe for his health, and it was thought to have prolonged his life for some years. But his work was nearly done. He gradually set his house in order and prepared, as few men do, to take his leave of life. His death occurred on the 8th of July, 1887. The event called forth many warm tributes to his memory from persons of distinction, college professors, clergymen and others whose friendship he had long enjoyed. A sentence from the one by Senator Hoar may well conclude this sketch : " He was one of the best types of the New England character, faithful and true and strong and wise."

four sons: Oliver, Tilley, Phineas and Moses, the eldest, Oliver, being the father of Samuel, whose son Calvin, born in 1773, married Susannah Solendine, also of Lancaster.

Alexander H. Wilder, the subject of this sketch, was the only son of this union, and came to Worcester in 1823, at the age of nineteen, and entered the registry office as a clerk under Artemas Ward, Esq , whom he succeeded as register in 1840. Mr. Wilder entered upon the duties of the office on the 17th day of June, 1846, and his name first appears in Book No. 409, and is signed for the last time in Book No. 945. Making due allowance for the greater length of modern instruments, it appears that fully one-half of the business of the office from the organization of the registry, in 1731, to the day of his death, in 1874, was performed under his administration.

[From the Worcaler Eeeiiiiig GazeUe, December 12, 1874.] The iQtelligence of Mr. Wilder's death, which took place at 2 o'clock A.M., Saturday, will be received with surprise and deep regret by the community where he has for so many years quietly and faithfully performed his official duties as Register of Deeds for this county. Mr. Wilder, at the age of twenty, was seized with rheumatic fever, which left him a cripple for life, but for fiftyone years, as clerk or Kegister, he was always at his post of duty, except when some special illneiis detained him, and until a few years past the occasions of his absence were rare indeed. He was a man of deep religious feeling, and contributed according to his means to many religious and charitable enterprises. Besides the large circle, here in Worcester, who will miss him from his usual place, there is a goodly number of prominent men throughout the county - the men who bear the trustsof their fellow-citizens-\v*o have for years visited his office at regular intervals, and in whose minds Mr. Wilder and Worcester were associated as inseparable - men whom he always welcomed with cheerful words, and who will feel that they have lost an old friend.

Alexander Hamilton Wilder

Worcester County has had no more faithful public servant than Alexander H. Wilder, the long-time register of deeds, whose life-work began and ended in that office, covering a period of fifty-one years of continuous service, from 1823 to his death on the 12ih of December, 1874. His portrait, which appears in this volume, was taken about ten years before his

He was born in Lancaster, Mass., July 20, 1804, and married, November 10, 1835, Harriet Eaton, of Philadelphia, whose mother was Eunice Wilder, another branch of the Wilder family, also of Lancaster, who married Nathaniel Eaton in 1792.

Alexander Hamilton Wilder was the direct descendant, in the seventh generation, of Thomas Wilder, one of the early settlers of Charlestown, Mass., who removed to Lancaster July 1, 1659. Nathaniel, the third son of Thomas, was killed by the Indians in July, 1704, and left four sons : Jonathan, also killed by the Indians in 1707 ; Nathaniel, of Petersham ; Ephraim, of Lancaster, who was a member of the General Court for several years, and Colonel Oliver Wilder, a man of note in his day. Colonel Oliver had

[From the Woycesler Spy, December 14, 1874.] The death of Mr. Alexander H. Wilder removes a public servant of uncommon modesty, faithfulness and industry. For more than fifty years he has been almost continually at his place in the office of the registry of deeds, and he has held the office of Register by successive elections ever since the year 1846. Of late years he has usually been the candidate of both parties, and elected, of course, without opposition. Probably no one who habitually transacts business with that office can remember the time when Mr. Wilder was not employed in it, and the experience of very few goes back to the time of the Register who preceded him. Hisunfailing courtesy and patience, his quiet and systematic business methods, his absolute rectitude and accuracy, made him a model official, whose service and example have been of inestimable value to the community.

Mr. Wilder was for many years a member of the Central Church, but transferred his allegiance to the Plymouth Church when that society was formed. His widow is still living at the age of eighty-eight, and his only son, Harvey B. Wilder, is the present Register

Harvey Bradish Wilder, son of Alexander H. and Harriet Wilder, was born in Worcester October 12 1836. Besides the education acquired in the schools of the city, he also attended the Thetford Academy of Vermont, and the Leicester Academy in this county. He began the business of life in the Registry office, under his father's administration, in

1853. In April, 1855, he went to Boston and engaged in the book-store of Ticknor & Fields until August, 1856, when he returned to Worcester and became his father's chief clerk in the Registry office. With the exception of this absence, and the year 1876, when Mr. Charles A. Chase was elected Register of Deeds - to fill the unexpired term of Alexander H. Wilder, deceased - Mr. Wilder has been constantly connected with this office for over thirty-four years. He was elected Register to succeed Mr. Chase, and entered upon his duties January 1, 1877. The office ranks as third in the State in the number of instruments recorded - Middlesex and Suffolk preceding - notwithstanding the loss of five towns, - Fitchburg, Leominster, Lunenburg, Ashburnham and Westminster which were set ofl!' as a distinct registry district, and called the Worcester North District, by an act of the Legislature, in August, 1884.

The records cover a period of over one hundred and fifty years, and some idea of the volume of the work may be gathered from the fact that during the last twelve years there have been completed three hundred volumes of records, each of six hundred and fiftytwo folio pages. The office has long been regarded as a model of systematic arrangement, orderly classification and accurate indexing.

Mr. Wilder has been a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts since 1873, and has held rank as second lieutenant in that corps. He is a member of the Quinsigamond Lodge F. anil A. M., and is widely known as a courteous official and a popular and companionable gentleman. He married, October 21, 1862, Anna F. Chapman, of Ossipee, N. Y., who died November 12, 1864. For his second wife he married Mary J., daughter of Dr. Jefferson Pratt, of Hopkinton, Mass., June 14, 1870. They have one son, Charles Pratt Wilder, born April 3, 1873. ^

Charles Francis Washbukn

The now extensive wire-drawing business of Worcester has an interesting history. It was commenced as far back as 1831, by Ichabod Washburn, who is yet remembered by many as a genial, benevolent and highly respected townsman. By his inventive genius, industry and enterprise he became one of the most people here, and was a man of marked Christian character and manly virtues; one who had deeply at heart, not only the material prosperity, but likewise the moral and intellectual advancement of his adopted home. He was from a good Old Colony family, a descendant of the seventh generation from that worthy Puritan, Governor Bradford. He came to Worcester in 1819, and here continued laboring for some time as a working blacksmith. He had a twin brother named Charles, who began his business-life as a practicing lawyer in Maine, but who left a fair practice and came to Worcester, where he joined Ichabod in his industrial vocation.

Charles F. Washburn, the subject of this sketch was a son of Charles Washburn, just named, and of course, a nephew of Ichabod. He was born in Harrison, Cumberland County, Me., on the 23d of August, 1827, and received a full high school education, but owing to ill health did not take a college course as had been intended. He, however, in a most practical way supplemented his academic attainments by travel in Europe.

Mr. Washburn early exhibited a decided taste for mechanics, and his first efforis in a business way were as an operative in the works of his father and uncle here in Worcester. And connected with those works he has remained to the present time, rising from one position to another, and now finding himself one of the principals in a business of almost incredible proportions. The corporate firm-name is the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company. Mr. Washburn is vice-president and secretary ; and the business is wire-drawing, rod-rolling, galvanizing and kindred work. Their wires for electric transmission, for telegraph and telephone purposes, have an esptcially high reputation. Their business is so extensive at the present time as to employ not less than three thousand workmen, and to turn out daily some two hundred and fifty tons, as mentioned in the sketch accompanying the portrait of Mr. Moen. In the chapter on Manufactures in preparation for the present work, by the competent hands of Charles G Washburn, Esq., assistant secretary and counsel of the company, so full an account of this, in common with the other manufacturing establishments of Worcester, will no doubt be given as to render any further notice here unnecessary. And a general remark of similar nature may be made touching the sketches accompanying other portraits in the present work These sketches are not designed to go much into detail regarding business relations, for matters of business are treated of in other connections ; but are designed to be more directly of a personal character. Mr. Washburn has not been conspicuous as a political partisan, but has served more or less in offices of a non-partisan character. He has been a member of the Common Council ; is now president of the Home for Aged Women, a notably beneficent and successful institution ; is a trustee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, as well as of the Washburn Memorial Hospital, founded by his Uncle Ichabod, and much commended for its great usefulness and excellent management. In religious sentiment Mr. Washburn is an adherent of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

As a politician he ranked with the old Free Soil party, and when the great purpose of that party was accomplished, and its dissolution took place, he passed into the Republican party, whose principles he still maintains.

In September, 1865, he was united in marriage with Mary E. Whiten, and they have been the parents of eight children, seven sons and one daughter.

Mr. Washburn is perhaps best known as a business man. As an officer of the great company with whose interests he had been so long and so intimately connected, he has fully appreciated his position. New lines of manufacture, akin to those primarily established, have received his patient investigation and, when found desirable, been adopted and developed. But their abundant means have never been wasted through heedless speculation or too sanguine expectation. To his exertions and judicious management it is reasonable to attribute a large share of the continued prosperity of the famed company with which he is connected.

Thomas M. Rogers

Thomas Moore Rogers, the only son of Nathan and Mary C. Rogers, was born in Holden, Mav 10, 1818. He found himself in a large family of half-brothers and half-sisters, the father having seven children living and the mother four by former marriages. His mother died in 1828, and his father took for a third wife Sarah Blair, of Worcester, by whom he had three children. As one of this large family, it was a matter of course that young Rogers should, at a tender age, learn to know in what hard work consisted. And he was early taught the lesson of self-reliance, being entrusted, at the age of twelve years, with the duty of driving the team to market with timber, wood and other farm products, and buying stock and supplies for the house and farm.

At seventeen he "bought out his time" of his father for one hundred dollars, which he paid in cash at his majority, and found himself with a little balance over in the savings bank. His education had been by no means neglected ; attendance at the district school, with two terras at the "select" or high school, and one at Westfield Academy, served as a training for intellectual faculties which were bright and active by nature.

Mr. Rogers came to Worcester in August, 1840, engaging as clerk with Blake & Trumbull, grocers, in Butman Block. In the spring of 1841 he formed the partnership of Smith & Rogers, for the manutacture of goat-skin shoes, at the north corner of Main and Mechanic Streets. Two months later the entire building was burned down with its contents. After settling all the debts of the firm Mr. Rogers was engaged to stprt a shoe-store at Oswego, N. Y . He returned to Worcester in January, 1842, and with George E. Chapin began the manufacture of boots over the store of Charles Boardman on Front Street. In April, 1844, he formed a partnership with John P. Southgate, for the sale of leather and "shoe-findings," on the present site of Piper's Block, removing to Paine's Block, at the corner of Pleasant Street, in 1850. Mr. Southgate retired from the firm in 1855. His place was soon taken by his son Reuben H., and Phillip Hunt being also taken as a partner, the firm was known as Rogers, Southgate & Co. In 1873 Mr.

Rogers sold out to his junior partners, who removed to Franklin Square. From 1873 to 1880 he was employed as assignee in the settlement of many bankrupt estates.

Mr. Rogers has been a large and successful dealer in real estate. His first venture was the purchase of an estate on Trumbull Street in 1847. This was followed by his buying a farm in Auburn, and next of a part of the Deacon Brooks farm at South Worcester, over which he constructed Canterbury and Southgate Streets. After several other purchases he bought of the Boston and Worcester Railroad Company an estate on Front Street, and built a block thereon, which he sold to George Crompton, with ten thousand feet of land running through to Mechanic Street. In

1867 he bought a large and sightly lot at the corner of Chatham and High Streets, on which he built a house to occupy as a homestead. In 1880, with Edwin Morse, he built the Odd Fellows' Hall building on Pleasant Street, and in 1883 built the block on the corner of Park Street and Salem Square, and bought a lot and stable on Market Street and other real estate in the city.

Mr. Rogers has always been interested in the welfare of his adopted town and city. He was a member of the Common Council in 1876-77 and of the Board of Aldermen in 1886-87. He served as trustee and a member of the investing board of the Worcester County Institution for Savings, and now holds the same offices in the People's Savings Bank, of which he is also one of the vice-presidents. He was for several years a director of the Citizens' and of the City Bank ; is director of the Street Railroad Company and president of the Worcester Electric Light Company. He married, in April, 1843, Mary S., daughter of Israel and Charlotte Rice, of Shrewsbury. The result of this union was two children, - Ellen Frances and Walter Thomas, - of whom the former survives. Mr. Rogers is of the " Orthodox " faith of New England, belonging to the liberal wing of the denomination. In politics he is a Republican, but he believes that all good citizens should have a representation, especially in city affairs.

Albert Curtis

ALBERT CURTIS. Mr. Curtis is prominent among the sons of Worcester who have been highly prosperous and who have made for themselves names that will always figure conspicuously in the history of her industries. He was born here on the 13th of July, 1807, and is consequently now to be numbered among her most aged, as he has long been numbered among her most useful and reputable citizens. He was one of a large family of children, and was bereaved of his father at so early an age that he could hardly have realized his loss.

Even before he had completed his first decade of years Mr. Curtis was, to a considerable extent, compelled to provide his own living. After remaining for a time with an uncle in Auburn, and afterwards with an elder brother in Tioga County, N. Y., doing what he was able to at farm labor, he returned, at the age of seventeen, to Worcester, robust in health and with a laudable ambition to so far better his condition as to be dependent on no one for support. His education up to this time was such as he had been able to acquire in the winter district schools, which, at that time, had not arrived at the degree of excellence they have now reached.

His first engagement after returning to the place of his birth was in the service of White & Boyden, who were manufacturers of woolen machinery. In their employ, as apprentice and journeyman, with a brief interval or two, he remained several years. In 1881, with John Simmons and Abel Kimball as partners, he commenced a business of his own, in the manufacture of machinery suitable for use in various departments of cloth-making. His business, from time to time, so broadened that in a few years he found himself not only in the manufacture of cloth machinery, but of cloch itself. He was presently the owner of extensive mill property, at times turning out large quantities of cotton sheeting, satinets and woolen goods of various descriptions. His early knowledge of machinery stood him in good stead in the various branches of his extensive business, and aided greatly in his accumulation of wealth. During his business career, too, he has formed one or two partnership connections that have been of great assistance, both by their added knowledge and experience and by sharing in the labors and anxieties incidental to so large and constantly increasing business relations.

Twice during his business career he has suffered largely by destructive fires; but, nothing daunted by such vicissitudes, immediately set about repairing and rebuilding.

Having in his early years imbibed a taste for reading, he acquired a good knowledge of books, and that, in its turn, begat a desire to pursue studies in various departments of intellectual culture; particularly has he been interested in historical and antiquarian researches ; has been a vice-president of the Worcester Society of Antiquity and an efficient member of some other like associations.

For the last thirty years Mr. Curtis has been the owner of many acres of farm land, and taken unbounded delight in the cultivation of choice products. But as to whether, on the whole, he has taken most pleasure in the -' rural sounds" of the farmstead or in the hum of factory machinery, the writer shall not venture to make a guess. He himself would very likely declare that both were, in their way, " music to his ears." Like most individuals whose lives are devoted largely to their own concerns, he has spared comparatively little time to public affairs, never seeking office, though not really shunning a public position when it appeared that a valuable end might be promoted. Before the adoption of the City Charter, as early as 1840, he was chosen a selectman of the town and served two years. He was a member of the Common Council the first year of the infant city, and an alderman in 1857.

In politics Mr. Curtis has been an unswerving adherent of the Republican party, having passed into it from its father, the Whig party, and from its grandfather, the old National Republican party, and, may it not be added, itsgreat-grandfather, the Federal. In his religious views he adheres to the Trinitarian Congregational faith, as his fathers did, and became a church member as early as 1828.

The first wife of Mr. Curtis was Mrs. Griffin, of Sterling, the marriage taking place in October, 1833. His second wife was Mrs. Bancroft, widow of Rev. David Bancroft, to whom he was married in 1880.

A Curtis genealogy has been prepared with much labor and care, which gives a good many family tracings and matter of enduring interest, especially to the family connections.

It will be observed that Mr. Curtis has already passed the boundary of four-score years. And were it allowable in a work like this, a good opportunity would be afforded for indulgence in a sentimental strain. What can be more grateful to the octogenarian than to look back upon a well-spent life - to trace, in the serenity of his old age, the progress through the volatile days of childhood, the hopeful years of youth and the ambitious period of manhood - to recall the faces of loved ones, and again live ONer the pleasant scenes that have been as sunbeams on the path. None of us, however, can indulge in a lifetime retrospect, and not fall here and there upon a gloaming passage. But it is not wise to sigh over what admits of no change ; wiser it is to linger on the brighter side. But the octogenarian who has no well-spent life to view in retrospect - what of him ?

Martin V. B. Jefferson

Martin V. B. Jefferson, of Worcester, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., May 19, 18?3. Hisgrandfather was a soldier in the^ Revolution, and also in the War of 1812. His father died when he was but eight years of age, and Martin was " put out to live " with an uncle in Holden, Mass., on a farm, where he received ten weeks' district schooling and his board and clothes as compensation for his labor. At the age of sixteen his natural independence asserted itself, and he went back to Uxbridge and learned the trade of shoemaking, having acquired which, he earned sufficient money by working mornings, evenings and during school vacations to pay his expenses at Uxbridge Academy, which he attended for four years. In 1853 he went to work on the Providence and Worcester Railroad as brakeman and baggage-master, but, having an arm and leg broken by a railroad accident, he was obliged to suspend work. On his recovery, in 1854, be went to California, where he remained six years. The first year he kept a restaurant at San Jose, the second year he sold fruit-trees at Sonora, but the remainder of his stay in California was devoted to selling milk from a large ranche where he kept from eighty to one hundred cows.

Having acquired a considerable sura of money, Mr. Jefferson returned to Holden in 1860, where he married a daughter of Deacon William Howe, of the firm of Hall & Howe, who were then running a small, oneset woolen-mill in Drydenville (now Jetfersonville), a village in the town of Holden. In November, 1860, he purchased Mr. Hall's interest in the mill, and for twenty-six years he was in partnership with his father-in-law in that business under the firm-name of Howe & Jefferson. Meanwhile the little one-set mill has been enlarged six-fold, and a second mill, with six sets of machinery, has been added, making a total of thirteen sets, the two establishments employing two hundred and fifty hands. The little village has grown to eight times its former size, and now supports two railroad stations on the Fitchburg and Central Massachusetts Railroads and a post-office.

Mr. Jefferson's business capacity, shrewdness and integrity have secured for him a merited success in business and the confidence and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances.

For ten years he served as selectman of Holden, a portion of the time chairman. He was a director of the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad for several years, is a director of the Cotton and Woolen Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Company, and also of the Quinsigamond National Bank of Worcester. In 1875 he removed his residence to Worcester for the sake of better educational advantages for his daughter. He was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1880 from the Nineteenth Worcester District by a handsome majority, and was returned in 1881. In politics he has been a stanch Republican since he cast his first vote for John C. Fremont for President in 1856. He is accustomed to congratulate himself that he has always paid one hundred cents on the dollar, a phrase which fully expresses the general estimation in which Mr. Jefferson is held socially and politically, as it does his financial and business standing. He brought to his legislative duties the same stirring qualities he has displayed in other things, and served on the important Committee on the Hoosac Tunnel, Troy and Greenfield Railroad. Mr. Jefferson was elected to the State Senate from the First Worcester District, which comprised the city of Worcester, in 1884 and 1885, and served on the Committees on Railroads, Treasury and Labor. In 1888 he was chosen as alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention from the Tenth

Congressional District. In 1880 Mr. Jefferson bought his partner's interest in the business, and now runs the mills himself, by the name of the Jefferson Manufacturing Company, making woolen goods.

Luci0S J. Knowles

Mr. Knowles was born in Hardwick, Worcester Countv, on the 2d of July, 1819, and was educated in the common school with a three years' course in the well-known Leicester Academy. He early manifested an inclination for mechanics and exhibited rare inventive genius; his boyish contrivances eliciting much attention and many predictions as to future achievements.

He left home at the age of seventeen and went to Shrewsbury as assistant in a store, where, in about two years, he rose to the position of partner. . But his penchant for mechanics made him so restless as to induce him to quit that employment, though all along he had found opportunity to indulge his inclination to some extent, and among other things had contrived certain improvements in reed-organs and other instruments and completed models for one or two improved appliances for steam machinery, especially that known as the Knowles Safety Steam Boiler Feed Regulator.

He gave up his store business in 1840 and began to stjidy into the feasibility of the application of electricity as a motive-power. Then he applied himself to gaining a knowledge of photography, at that time a newly-discovered process. For a while on from 1844, having invented a spooling-machine, he was in the manufacture of thread at New Worcester. Soon after that he commenced the manufacture of cottonwarp; and in 1853 he began the manufacture of woolen fabrics. His mind seems to have been almost unremittingly employed in devising some beneficial mechanical contrivance; so that during his life, it is asserted, he obtained at least a hundred patents for useful inventions chiefly connected with manufacturing machinery.

It was in 1866 that he came to Worcester and with his younger brother, Francis B. Knowles, whose portrait, with a biographical sketch, appears in the present work, began the manufacture of looms. The business rapidly increased and is now one of the leading industries of the place. The looms, of which it is said a greater variety are made than in any other place in the world, were invented by the partners and are fitted for the manufacture of a great variety of fabrics, from heavy woolen carpets to delicate silk

Mr. Knowles was somewhat in public life - was a legislative Representative in 1862 and 1863, was a member of the State Senate in 1869; in 1873 was a member of the Common Council of Worcester ; was a director in the Central National Bank; a director in the State Mutual Life Assurance Company ; president of the People's Savings Bank, and president of the Worcester Board of Trade. And various other institutions of a financial and semi-public character have had the benefit of his efficient services.

For his mechanical genius and skill Mr. Knowles had a hin;h reputation - a reputation that extended far beyond the limits of our own country ; and his inventions have in many ways, and to an untold extent, added directly and indirectly to the comforts and conveniences of the world at large, but his reputation foi true manhood, for liberality in the support of charitable and reformatory enterprises, for sympathy with the sufferiiig and relief of the indigent, was almost as extensive, and far more to be envied. His business connection with his brother Francis was characterized throughout not only by the most friendly of trade relations, but by true brotherly complaisance. And so intimately connected were the two in some of their inventions and improvements that it was hard to determine to which the highest honor was due, each being ever willing to accord to the other the greater share of merit.

It is often said that distinguished inventors usually live and die poor ; at least such of them as are dependent upon their own exertions for a livelihood, and that others, with more selfishness and worldly shrewdness, reap the benefit of the inventions; in other words' that the inventors beat the bush and the others catch the bird. It is undoubtedly true that the inventor 18 usually more absorbed in perfecting his invention than in calculations as to the benefit that may accrue to himself-so absorbed as to let slip the best opportunities for self-enrichment. It is also undoubtedly true that some inventors are moved by the lofty purpose of benefiting the world in general disregarding, or even sacrificing self-interest. But there are others, both" broadly benevolent and worldly wise, who maintain a well-balanced purpose of benefiting the community and at the same time advancing their own interest, and in looking at the result of the labors of Mr. Knowles it seems fair to conclude that he belonged to the latter class, for we find that he rose from comparative indigence to affluence, and at the same time so used and so disposed of his inventions as to greatly benefit otlier.s, not to mention that all along, with judicious liberality, he dispensed of his gains in ways most helpful to those about him.

Francis Bangs Knowles

Mr. Knowles is a native of Hardwick, in Worcester County, and was born on the 29th of November, 1823 His early education was sufficient to enable him at the age of seventeen, to take charge of a district school

And in the capacity of a teacher he spent a few years, though the profession was not exactly suited to his taste and was pursued with the design of being relinquished as soon as something more congenial presented itself He well knew that his success in life depended on his own exertions, and that something of broader scope must engage his attention if financial accumulation were to become a leading object. Yet such an object appears never to have actuated him in the light of an end, but as a means. And it IS seen by his after-life, when affluence had been attained, that he did not view wealth as an end to enable him to indulge in luxury and barren ease, but as a means by which he could benefit his generation and do something for the good of the world at large. And he was soon pointed to as one who fully recognized the higher duties of life, the paramount requirements ofreligion, benevolence and good citizenship. It IS the example of such an one that stands as a constant admonisher of the drowsy idler, the indifferent and irreverent. It is an example, too, that by its mute warnings and refreshing sympathies is so attractive. Thus, Mr. Knowles is found a constant and liberal contributor to the churches of the faith in which he was bred and to which he has adhered. To the Plymouth, the Piedmont Congregational and the Pilgrim Congregational, of Worcester, he has been especially helpful. But other religious societies and charitable institutions of various names and pursuing different ways of benevolence have shared in his bounty and received fresh courage through his wise suggestions and unstinted liberality.

Something, however, should be said of Mr. Knowles' business enterprises, through which he has been enabled to gratify to such a degree his generous inclinations. Like many another thrifty New Englander, he seemed, during his years of early manhood, to be searching for his true position - the position he was best fitted to occupy, and which would most surely "lead on to fortune." This is a trait that conspicuously distinguishes the American from the European, inasmuch as the latter seems to feel that the condition in which he was born is that in which he must die; having little conception of the advanced position an aspiring and energetic man might attain. Was it not Milton who wrote that Providence designed a niche for every one - a niche which would, if occupied, ensure the greatest usefulness and the happiest end? If that is so, it would seem, in looking over the community, as if many of us had somehow got into the wrong niches. But be that as it may.

After engaging in several manufacturing enterprises, in a subordinate capacity, Mr. Knowles appears, in 1845, in the first established business of which he was head and director. This was successful. It was the manufacture of buckskin gloves and mittens, and in due time developed into that of general furnishing and the sale of gentlemen's clothing. This was profitably produced for several years, when his elder brother, Lucius J. (since deceased, but at that time a steam-pump maker in Warren), offered a more desirable situation. A partnership was soon formed. The business was removed to Worcester in 1866, and the manufacture of looms on an enlarged scale commenced, a little in the same line having been done in Warren.

Lucius J., the brother, died in 1884, and since that time Francis B., the subject of this sketch, has been the chief director in the business, which has now attained to such magnitude as to rank among the very first of the industries of Worcester. A company was formed under the name of "Knowles' Loom Works," with Mr. Knowles as president, and has already secured a reputation eclipsed by none. The works are thus spoken of in that handsome and valuable volume recently published, entitled, "Worcester: Its Past and Present :" - " The Knowles Loom Works is one of the largest industries of Worcester. . . . The main building is five hundred feet long and three stories high, with an 'L' one hundred feet long. The looms are inventions of the proprietors, and include those adapted to the manufacture of carpets, velvets, plushes, silk and worsted dre?sgoods, fancy worsteds, cassimeres, fancy cottons, ginghams, tapes, fine hose, suspenders, silk ribbons and others. It is said that a greater variety of looms are made in this establishment than in any other the world over. Six hundred skillful workmen are here employed, and invention is ever busy with new time and labor-saving appliances to increase the capacity of the loom or add to the perfection of the fabric, so that new looms are now complete and more economical than old ones. The volume of their business is constantly increasing. These looms are also built abroad on royalty."

Several of the last winters have been spent by Mr. Knowles in Florida, in which State he now owns extensive tracts. He has orange groves - the pride of that sunny land - and large interest in hotel property, which yields not only a fair income to himself, but affords delightful temporary homes for winter sojourners from the bleak North. But above these temporal matters is the interest he takes in the educational and moral advancement of the people of his Southern home, - an interest especially obvious in his liberality to Rollins College at Winter Park, on which he has bestowed Knowles Hall and a fund for the maintenance of a scholarship for indigent students.

In polities Mr. Knowles has constantly adhered to the principles of the Republican party, and been liberal in his contributions for party ends, though never seeking or desiring official position.

As before intimated, he has been active in religious duties; has adhered to the old Trinitarian Congregational faith ; was especially assiduous in the foundation of the Pilgrim, the Plymouth and the Piedmont Churches, and has held the office of deacon in the latter ever since its foundation. Sunday-school

Mr. Knowles has been twice married. His first wife was Ann Eliza Poole, of Gloverville, N. Y., and by her he had one daughter and one son. His second wife was Hester A. Greene, a daughter of John R. Greene, of Worcester, the union taking place April 23, 1867, and by her he has had two daughters and one son.

James H. Wall

James H. Wall was born in Greenville, Leicester, November 28, 1810, son of Caleb and Sarah (Farnum) Wall. His father was a blacksmith, scythe manufacturer and miller in Greenville from 1799 to 1833, and son of Thomas and Patience (Arnold) Wall, of Smithfield, R. I. The mother of James H. was a daughter of Moses Farnum, a noted minister of the Society of Friends in Uxbridge, by his second wife, Elizabeth Southwick, of that town. The latter was a direct descendant in the fifth generation from Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, who were among those driven from Massachusetts by the persecuting Puritans two hundred and thirty years ago for being Quakers. After attending the public schools, which was only about eight weeks in the year, in his native village, and the usual accompanying labors on his father's farm, till he was in his eighteenth year, Mr. Wall, in the spring of 1828, went to learn the shoemaker's trade with the late Jeremiah Bond, in Paxton. In June, 1831, be started business in a small way for himself, doing custom-work in Clappville, now Rochdale. Here he remained till February 19, 1837, when he removed to Worcester, - then a town of seven thousand inhabitants, - and entered the shoe and leather store of the late Benjamin B. Otis, in what was known as Goddard's Row, first as workman and then as salesman and clerk. In the fall of that year he opened a shoe and shoe-findings store in an old wooden building which stood on the site of Grout's Block on Main Street, between Mechanic and Foster Streets. The following spring of 1838 he entered into partnership, in the same business, with the late John P. Southgate, in the old Denny house, which stood on the corner of Main and Mechanic Streets. In the spring of 1840 he sold out his interest to his partner, Mr. Southgate, and opened a boot, shoe, trunk and findings store in a building which stood where the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Block is. In 1842 he sold out to C. C. Clapp and S. P. Fitch, who continued there, and Mr. Wall opened a boot and shoe store in Brinley Block, where he was in partnership with the late Edward Southwick for a short time. In 1843 he entered into the real estate business, and December 14th of that year bought, with Edward H. Hemenway and Samuel D. Harding, the old Worcester House estate, comprising thirty-three thousand five hundred and forty eight square feet of land, on the corner of Main,

Elm and Maple Streets, for fourteen thousand dollars, by the subsequent management and sale of which he realized a handsome sum as his portion of the profits, from the advanced value. In other real estate operations he realized similar proportionate profits by his skillful buying and selling at the right time, from rise in values. He has probably owned a longer frontage on Main Street, in the southerly section of the city, than any other one person, except when the land was owned and occupied for farming purposes. At various times he has been the owner of nearly fifty acres of land, then vacant, now nearly all built over.