Gardner City (part 2 of 2)

But he was more than a business man by far - a man of affairs was he in a large sense, built altera generous pattern, to serve many u:?eg, and to answer numerous ends in life. He was a many-sided man. Of versatile gifts, of wide sympathies, of broad views, of comi)rehenaive purposes and aims, of a liberal spirit, he w.as restricted to one line of effort, to no narrow field of desire or endeavor. Nothing relating to the public good or to the prosperity and welfare of the coranumily was foreign to him or failed to enlist his interest and active support. His ability, his manly character, his disinterested spirit were recognized by his fellow-citizens, who were swift to acknowledge them and ready to honor them by suitable tokens of confidence and appreciative regard. At ditferent periods he held by election and appointment the responsible offices of selectman, School Committee and town treasurer. When in Winchester in 1861 he was chosen Representative to the General Court, and again in 1868 in the district of which Gardner formed a part, though he was a jirononnced Democrat, while the district was decidedly Republican - his wellknown ability, combined with his >ound judgment and fair-mindedness, securing for him the cordial support of many of his political opponents. As a Democrat, he was repeatedly nominated for Congressman and State Senator. At the organization of the Gardner Savings Bank in 1868 lie was elected president, and in 1872 was called to the presidency of the Fir.-t Nalional Bank upon the retirement of Amasa Bancroft, a position which he held till his decease. He took an active part in the long struggle to secure the construction of the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad and contributed very largely of his personal effort and pecuniary means to that result, In recognition of his services the corporation made him, for many years, one of its vice-presidents and finally its president. An ardent admirer of the princij)les, ritual and objects of the Masonic order, he was greatly interested and chiefly instruuienlal in the founding of Hope Lodge in Gardner, of which he wai made first IMaster. Devoted to the mystic rites, he was held in high esteem by his associates, and rose by regular gradation to the thirty-second degree in the ascending series of honors conferred under the jurisdiction of the order.

Whatever he deemed a benefit to the community and town received his cordial encouragement and support. His name was identified tor twenty years with almost every public improvejnent that was made.

He was the prime mover in ihe project for establishing a system of water worlcs. He toolj part in tl)e preliminary proceedings relating to the founding of a Public Library. He furnished means wherewith to start a printing-ofTice and a local paper in the place. The lithotype business, which has risen to considerable import;ince and given the town a notoriety in circles which did not know of it before, was inaugurated mainly through his inilnence and by his help. Mr. Heywoodhad great interest in and sympathy for young men, and often aided such as manifested a laudable ambition to make a successful start in a business career and (ill an honorable place in life by his counsel and pecuniary means. He was liberal to benevolent and charitable movements and objects, and the deserving poor and unfortunate were often relieved and cheered by his unostentatious acts of kindne-s and good-will. He was a faithlul friend to the needy and suffering, and will long be held by such in grateful remembrance. A friend also to religion and to religious institutions, he contributed liberally to the activities connected with the First Congregational Church and Society, whose inHuence in the community he deemed most salutary and indispensable. Deeply interested in the erection of the church edifice which now graces the head of the Common, he was made chairman of the building committee, and to his inflnence and efforts its e.xistence was largely due. Not narrow and exclusive, but broad and tolerant in his religious views and sympathies, he respected those who honestly differed from him in opinion, and often, by his contributions, aided other churches than his own in their early struggles to get a foot-hold in the community in order to do some earnest Christian work for God and num. The high regard in which Mr. Heywood was held, not only by the people of his own town, but by the general community, as a businessman, a high-minded citizen and a public benefactor, was abundantly attested at his obsequies, when a vast multitude from all the region round, and from far-away places, gathered in the spacious church he had done s^o much to rear, to express by their presence the sense of los which filled their hearts, and to pay respectful and appropriate honors to his name and memory.

Seth Heywood

Seth Heywood was the youngest of the five sons of Benjamin and Mary (Whitney) Heywood who lived to grow up to maturity, all of whom were intimately connected with the chair-making industry in Gardner and elsewhere, and most of whom gained a creditable reputation for business enterprise and efficiency through their manufactured goods, distributed far and wide in this and other countries of the globe. He was born November 12, 1812, and spent the first twenty years of his life upon his fiither's farm, which then comprised a large portion of the territory now covered by the central village of the town. Having shared the educational advantages which the public schools offered him in his youth, he went to work, before attaining his majority, for his older brothers, then engaged in business under the style of B. FHeywood & Co., and with the enterprise long identified with the family name he has been connected to the present day - first as workman for several years, then as partner in the management from 1845 to 1882, and finally as confidential adviser and friend. He is the only surviving member of the original firm of Heywood Brothers & Co., reorganized and put upon permanent footing in 18(51. Less aggressive and venturesome than his brother Levi, with whom he was so long and so intimately associated, he yet has not only witnessed the growth of the gigantic establishment to which he has been attached from its very inception, but, in his more quiet, unobtrusive way, by his influence and counsel, as well as by his pecuniary means and more active eflbrts, has done his full share, no doubt, to promote its development and wonderful success. Fortunately, when he desired to lay aside the responsibilities pertaining to the management of the still growing business, he had sons trained under his own care to something of his own wi?e and prudent methods, whose ability and efficiency had been thoroughly tested, to whom he could resign the weighty interests he had helped to guard and conserve in the assurance that they would not sufi'er detriment by the change.

Extremely modest and unassuming, Mr. Heywood has not only shrunk from everything that might seem to partake of the spirit of self-seeking or desire for popular favor, but also from taking positions of public trust which he was in every way well qualified to fill, and to which his fellow-citizens would gladly have called him had he consented to yield to their wishes. He has, however, been induced to accept the office of treasurer of the town, a position which he held for several years, discharging its duties with scrupulous fidelity and care. He was sent to the General Court in 18G0, his political opponents confiding in his good judgment, integrity and interest in the public welfare, helping to secure to him whatever honors a seat in the lower branch of the Legislature might be able to confer upon him. He has been officially connected with the management of the National and Savings Banks of Gardner, as director and trustee respectively, from the time they were instituted to the present day, and to his financial ability and conservative spirit is due, in proportionate dfgree, their acknowdedged strength and their good standing in the financial world.

He is also a member of Hope Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, and is in good repute as a brother of the mystic tie. Public-spirited and liberallyminded, kind and charitable, he is ready to do his part in all movements and enterprises in which the good of the people at large and the prosperity of the town are involved. He is a Trinitarian Congregationali.st by religious association, though of the more liberal type, and has always been a generous patron of the First Congregational Church and Society. As a man and a citizen he is above reproach and without guile. Of agreeable, though retiring manners, reti cent, but cheerful in disposition and countenance, eminently just in his dealings with all men, of incorruptible probity and honor unstained, no man in the community and town is more sincerely respected than he, and no one is deemed more worthy of trust.

Henry C. Hill

The subject of this sketch, Mr. Henry C. Hill, was the son of Bernard and Sarah More Hill, of Newport, E. I., where he was born November 8, 1821. Of his boyhood and early youth little has been learned. While yet but a lad he was employed in the paint shop of Levi Heywood & Co., at Boston, whence he was transferred in the year 1841, before attaining his majority, to the same department of the same firm in Gardner, where, by his fidelity and skill and manifest devotion to his employers' interests, he soon rose to ihe position of fnreman. Proving an efficient manager and displaying general business capacity, and, moreover, having shown himself to be a man of sterling principle and undoubted honor, he was deemed so i ssential a factor in the development and s.uccessful issue of the important industry with which he was connected, that in 1847 he was admitted as an active member of the firm, with which he remained through its several changes and under its varying names for twenty-one years, retiring with a satisfactory fortune in 1868. After severing bis old business relations he led a more quiet life, attending to, some less onerous but responsible public trusts which he had assumed, answering the calls that naturally came to him in a community whose interests and well-being he desired to foster and promote, enjoying the society of his friends and the hallowed intimacies of his own household until his death, which occurred on the 13th day of February, 1878.

Mr. Hill was a man of generous, noble nature, commending himself not only to his business associates and others with whom he met in a business way by his practical wisdom, financial ability, trustworthy judgment and downright honesty of purpose, but also to the general public by those more general qualities of character which go to make up a complete manhood, and which are calculated to secure the confidence and regard of all classes of people. As a consequence and proof of this, he was called to fill numerous positions of responsibility and trust, the duties of which he discharged with such fidelity and care, with such cheerfulness and courtesy, as to constantly gain to himself new friends or to rivet more closely friendships formed before. For two years he served the town on the Board of Selectmen, and was an influential adviser in regard to many matters of public interest and concern. Upon the retirement of Mr. Charles Heywood from the presidency of the Gardner Savings Bank, in 1876, Mr. Hill was chosen to fill the vacant place, in which he served with highly creditable faithfulness and sagacity until his failing health obliged him to desist. He was for some years director of the First National Bank of Gardner, and to his valuable and highly appreciated services to that institution his associates furnished ample testimony in the resolutions passed by them at the time of his death. Interested in the principles and ritual of the Masonic fraternity, he assisted in the founding of Hope Lodge as one of the charter members, and served as its second Master to the acceptance of his brothers of the craft. He was also a member of the Jerusalem Encampment of Knights Templar of Fitchbnrg, and of the Worcester County Commandery. Politically attached to the principles and policy of the Democratic party, he was repeatedly honored, under its auspices, with the candidacy for Congress in his Representative district and for both houses of the State Legislature.

Interested in public aflairs, he kept himself wellinformed upon what was going on about him to the last. The prosperity and welfare of his adopted town he had much at heart, and contributed liberally to what he deemed conducive thereto. He cultivated literary tastes, and collected in his own home a considerable library of well-selected standard woi'ks, which he found to be a great source of comfort and satisfaction when failing health obliged him to withdraw from more active life. His habits and inclinations were largely domestic. He took great delight in making his home cheerful, pleasant, attractive, happy, and sought his chief enjoyment in the bosom of his family. His kind, thoughtful, constant effort in this direction and behalf fill that home, now that he has left it, with tender, touching, sacred memories.

Mr. Hill was not formally connected with any church, but he held the Christian faith in sincere respect, and honored Christian institutions by his personal influence, encouragement and liberal pecuniary support. He was a regular attendant upon the public religious services of the First Parish of the town, and one of the last acts of his life was to give two thousand dollars to aid in the erection of its present beautiful and commodious house of worship. Unassuming in manner and in spirit, he abhorred shams and pretenses, and delighted in what is substantial and real, whether relating to articles of manufacture or to personal character, and sought to illustrate in himself the genuineness he professed to believe in and admire.

Philander Derby

The second largest chair manufacturing establishment in the town of Gardner is that of which Mr. Philander Derby is the acknowledged head, and to which he, above all others, has imparted life, energy and indeed all the essential elements of its phenomenal success. The career of this man is in many respects a remarkable one, full of interest, full of instruction, full of encouragement to all humble, honest workers in any and every field of human effort and achievement. Its more salient and suggestive features are herein brought to the reader's notice.

Philander Derby was born in the town of Somerset, Windham Co., Vt., June 18, 1816. He was the son of Levi and Sally (Stratton) Derby, of the same place, graudson.of Nathan and of Abigail (Pierce) Derby, of Westminster, and great-grandson of Andrew Derby, one of the early settlers of the last-named town, and for many years clerk of the proprietors, previous to its incorporation. He worked upon the home farm till he was twenty-one years of age, when he left the familiar fields and hills behind him and went forth to seek his fortune. Coming to Massachusetts to visit relatives and friends, and to find, if 2)ossible, some favorable opening for himself, he after a little time made an engagement with Phelps & Spoffbrd, of Sutton, to work in and about their factory, doing such incidental and odd jobs as might be a-signed to him in tte interest of his employers. There he remained two years and then went back to his old home and made an arrangement with his father to take the farm, with a view of settling upon it and devoting himself thereafter to the primitive calling of tijling the soil.. At the e.xpiration of three years, however, he changed his plans, gave up the place and again turned his steps to Massachusetts. He went to Terapleton, entered the chair-shop of Mr. Windsor White, in whose employ he continued two years. Having mastered the trade of making chairs, as he thought, and feeling himself competent to carry on business for himself, he removed to Jamaica, Vt., not far from his native town, and there, in the midst of a lumber region, where material could be easily obt.'iined, he began manufacturing on his own account. Not succeeding to his satisfaction, he sold out his investment and the third time took his way to the old Bay State. Coming to Gardner - the place of all others for the chair business - he made an engagement with Ruge, Collester & Co. as a workman, at the termination of which he was employed by S. K. Pierce, with whom he afterward entered into partnership, which continued but a short time. At its dissolution, Mr. Derby, thrown out of a place, tried two or three kinds of business, but, finding nothing that suited him, seized upon the opportunity offered him to purchase a halfinterest in the chair manufactory owned and managed by Abner White, located at the site now occupied by A. & H. C. Knowlton & Co. Not long afterwaid he bought out his parlner and continued the business by himself for several years, covering the period of great financial depression in 1857 and reaching to the time of the breaking out of the war iu 1861, when the whole land was filled with uncertainty and alarm and all business interests and enterprises were seriously disturbed and imperiled. It was a time of trial to Mr. Derby, just fairly started in the chair manufacture, with the burden of heavy responsibilities resting upon him. But he nerved himself to meet the crisis iu a manly way. By various expedients requiring hard work, sagacity and a resolute will, he succeeded in going through the ordeal without serious harm, meeting his obligations as they matured, saving his business, maintaining his credit and his honor unimpeached and firmly established before the world. Taking a fresh start, he has gone on from that time to the present in a career of exceptional prosperity, as detailed in one of the chapters preceding these sketches.

The success of Mr. Derby is due chiefly to himself rather than to any fortuitous circumstances or outside aid - to his untiring industry, his determined purpose, his unfaltering perseverance, which no discouragements could check, no obstacles deter and no dark forebodings overcome. These native endowments, acting along the lines and according to the conditions of business prosperity, have given him the victory .crowned, him , wiih well-earned and durable honors. It is, however, a matter of simple jusiice to note the fact that he has had in his wife a valuable helper throughout his business caret r. Her faith and courage have reinforced and fortified his energies in some crf''ihis more trying experiences, while in the practical management of his afJaiis her cool judgment and clear-seeing sagacity have often rendered him essential service.

Mr. Derby, though closely confined to the building up and developing bis business interests, has not been disposed to ignore his relations to the general public nor to be indifferent to matters pertaining to the welfare of the community. He has been ready and happy to do his full share in supporting the institutions of society, to contribute to benevolent and charitable objects and to help in any enterprise which he deemed promotive of the good order, real prosperity and enduring welfare of the community. Declining all invitations to public office, he has yet consented to serve for some years as director of the National Bank and as trustee of the Savings Bank in his own town. A man of principle and honor, he shares the confidence and regard of his fellow-citizens ; a friend of temperance, he commends the cause by both precept and and example. A Republican in politics, he is true to his convictions, but holds no one in disesteem for honestly differing from him in relation to matters of public policy. An Orthodox Congregationalist in religion, he is tolerant of all faiths and seeks to honor his Christian profession by a Christian life.

Sylvester K. Pierce

name stands at the head of this biographical sketch. Mr. Pierce was the son of Jonas and Achsah (Hayncs) Pierce, of We.stiiiinster, where he was born April 11, 1820. He was a descendant in the seventli generation of Anthonj' Pierce, who came to lliis conntry from England about the year 1G30, settled in Watertown, Mass., and was made a freeman there September 3, 1034, becoming the common ancestor of a large posterity, whose representatives are scattered all over the United States. When Sylvester K. Pierce was but three years of age his father died, leaving him and several other children to the care and training of a mother who, with limited resources, struggled hard to provide for her dependent ones the means of subsistence, and to fit them for the duties and responsibilities of maturer liie. At tlie age of eleven he was sent to reside with a sister, who had married a farmer of his native town, where it was thought he could be better cared for than at home, and where he remained three years, going thence to spend another year with another sister similarly situated in Ashburnham. At the expiration of that period, when fifteen years old, he came to Gardner and engaged in the service of Elijah Putnam as apprentice to the trade of chairmaking, under an arrangement by the terms of which he was to remain two years, and receive, besides his trade, board and schooling, the sum of $120 in money. After this he was for five years employed as journeyman in Ashby and Ashburnham, when he returned to Gardner and entered upon that career of business and financial prosperity which is sufficiently indicated in its appropriate place in the preceding historical sketch of the town of his adoption. That active and successful career was brought to a sudden termination by his decease January 28, 1888. A man of large frame and of robust constitution, he had enjoyed general good health until, having contracted a violent cold which in its early stages took the form of typhoid pneumonia, he came to his death five days afterward. Like many another successful manufacturer and prominent citizen of Gardner, Mr. Pierce was a good example of a self-made man. Starting out in life from humljle conditions, deprived of a father's protection and guidance when but a child, put to manual labor at an early age, compelled by necessity to forego many of the comforts and delights so acceptable to youth and so desirable at all times, and to endure many privations and hardships, dispossessed of advantages and opportunities so helpful to the development of a self-reliant and well-balanced character, he yet, by his own energy, ambition, industry, sleepless vigilance and unfaltering perseverance in the pursuit of business ends according to business principles and methods, built up from inconsiderable beginnings one of the largest and most substantial manufacturing enterprises of the town in which he lived, and became one of the most active, prominent and influential, as he was one of the most wealthy, of its citizens. 'For a generation he was the leading man in the industrial interests of the community where he resided, and the renewed life and increasing prosperity of the villiige of South Gardner during these later years are largely due to his ellorts and inlliience. The enlargement of his business as the years have gone by called in workmen with their families from abroad, conducing to the material growth of that part of the town, as well as to its social, educational and religious advancement and importance. The immense establishment with wdiich his name is especially identified is the most prominent feature of the neighborhood, while his residence opposite, with its imposing front of fine architectural design and stately proportions generally, arrests the attention of every passer-by. A furniture and carpet store erected by him, and put in operation in 1869, has attracted patronage from a wide circle of surrounding country, and his farming operations, carried on as a sort of pastime or recreation supplementary to the more onerous duties of his regular business, have won the recognilion of connoisseurs in that department of human activity.

Politically Mr. Pierce belonged to the Republican party, but, while loyal to its principles and devoted to its interests, never aspired to leadership in its councils or to any office at its disposal. He hasi however, been called to, and has filled acceptably, important positions in financial enterprises both in his own and other towns, his business sagacity and integrity securing to him the confidence of those having important trusts in charge. He was for many years a director of the Wachusett Bank, Fitchburg, and of the First National Bank, Gardner; also a trustee of the Gardner Savings Bank, and of the People's Savings Bank, Worcester. To him have been assigned, from time to time, important interests in the mnnagenient of town aflairs. He was a member of the First Congregational Church and Society in the town, serving for many years on the board of management connected therewith, and taking an active interest in all matters pertaining to church activity and usefulness. A kind husband, an affectionate and devoted father, an enterprising and honored citizen, his sudden removal from the midst of his earthly labors, while " his eye was not yet dim nor his manly force abated," was a loss to his family and to the community widely felt and deeply lamented.

Edward J. Sawyer, M.D.

Edward Julius Sawyer, son of Rev. Pember and Laura Sawyer, was born in West Haven, Rutland County, Vt., August 3, 1829, and died at Gardner, Mass., May 10, 1883. He received his early education at New London, N. H., and Chester Academy, Vt., where were laid the foundations of that broader and more thorough culture which characterized his maturer life.

lectures at the Medical College in Castleton, in the S-irae Slate, from whicli iustiuition lie grailiiatcd with the honors of a degree in June, 1853. He soon alt, r began the prai.-tice of his profession at Acworlh, N. H.; hut, at the expiration of five years, desiring a larger field and better opportunities, he removed to Gardner, Mass., where he found an opening and a sphere of activity more congenial to his tastes and belter suited to his ability and power of useiulness. Entering into his work here with earnestness and zeal, he soon gained the confidence of the community and secured a good practice, which grew year by year till his decease.

Dr. Sawyer was well qualified for the duties of his profession and fully equipped for every department of service in it. Thorough in his diagnc sis and skillful in his treatment of disease, of deliberate judgment and high character, he was often called upon to act as professional consultant in difficult cases, where he proved himself as acceptable and trustworthy as he did in the more regular duties of a family physician.

In the sick-room he was cheerful, sympathetic and encouraging, his presence and personal influence contributing to the benefit of his patients as well as his prescriptions. There was to him a sacredness in his work which called into exercise all his best powers, and to those committed to his professional care he gave unwearied and conscientious attention.

But Dr. Sawyer commended himself to the confidence and esteem of the general public not only by his professional ability and success, but by his manly qualities, his courteous manners and consistent Christian life. He was a pleasant companion, a faithful friend, a public-spirited, honorable and honored citizen. Well read in the current literature of the times, familiar with passing events, of broad sympathies and generous culture, and withal a ready, entertaining speaker, he was often called upon to address public gatherings ou important occasions, which he was able to do with ease and eloquence and to the edification and delight of his hearers.

Dr. Sawyer was one of the founders of the Worcester North District Medical Society, and for two years its president. He was also a member of the Mjissachusetts Medical Society and of the American Medical Congress. During the war he was appointed examining physician by Governor Andrew, a position which he filled with credit to himself and acceptably to all.

Politically he was a Democrat of the "old school," and as such received the nomination of his party as a candidate for important offices in both the State and National Legislatures. But he was not guilty of "offensive partisanship," and so commanded the respe:t of his political opponents and received a commission of justice of the peace at three different times from a Republican Governor.