USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 12
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Thomas Hardy was one of the twelve first settlers of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1633. John Hardy came to Salem in 1637; and, in his sermon at Bradford, Rev. Mr. Perry records that John and William Hardy came to New England with Governor Winthrop and later settled at Ipswich. Eight young men of the name of Hardy had been graduated from Dartmouth College before 1828.
Henry Adams came from Devonshire, England, in 1650, and settled in Cambridge. Of the many who bore the name of Henry Adams who came from Devonshire between 1630 and 1650, it is difficult to make sure of the identical man; but for the Henry Adams who is spoken of by Alden and others, and who died Oc- tober 8, 1646, John Adams, his descendant, and the President after- wards, had a monument erected in Quincy, and in the inscription is the following: "In memory of Henry Adams, who took flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire, England, and alighted with eight sons near Mount Wollaston. ... One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, who was an original pro- prietor in the township of Braintree, incorporated in 1639." Henry, another son, removed to Medfield, in 1649, and was, for long, town clerk, and represented his borough for many years, between 1659 and 1675. Increase Mather says he was, while Lieutenant in King Philip's War, shot down at his own door by Indians, Febru- ary 21, 1676; and his wife was not long after accidentally killed by an Englishman.
Mr. Hardy passed through the common schools of Fitchburg, and was a member of High School class of 1888; though in the year preceding he had begun to learn the Brass Foundry business, which was owned and established in 1863 by his father. Here, on his completing his school studies, he entered upon the work of his life.
Since the incorporation of this brass foundry business in 1902,
FRANK OSGOOD HARDY
under the firm name of William A. Hardy and Sons Company, Mr. Hardy has been its Treasurer; and, while making this a growing institution, he has been called to added duties in wide fields of influ- ence. He was made a Director in the Fitchburg Safe Deposit Trust Company in 1901; a Trustee of the Worcester North Savings Institution in 1912; and a Trustee of the Burbank Hospital in 1910; and for three years he held the office of assessor of the First Parish (Unitarian) Church (1907-9). He has held important posi- tions on the Board of Trade and Merchants' Association.
Mr. Hardy has also been prominent in politics. As an ardent Republican he served in the Board of Aldermen of Fitchburg in 1908; represented the twelfth Worcester District in the House of Representatives in 1909, 1910, and 1911 and was elected Mayor of Fitchburg in 1912, re-elected in 1913, and for business reasons refused the nomination for a third term.
Mr. Hardy is an enthusiastic clubman; for he has great faith in not only the social, but the recreative, effect of club life. He is Vice-President of the Fay Club, President of the Alpine Golf Club, Member of the First Parish Men's Club, the Republican Club, the Watatic Club, the Tatnuck Country Club, the Brae Burn Club, the Camp Fire Club, and the Massachusetts Forestry Association, and is on the Board of Directors of several other clubs. He is fond of hunting, fishing, golfing, motoring, and of farming.
Mr. Hardy was married September 24, 1895, to Miss Bessie F., daughter of Sumner S. and Harriet F. (Mann) Lawrence, and granddaughter of Horace and Hannah (Sheldon) Lawrence, and Chester and Martha (Adams) Mann. These families were among the early settlers of Massachusetts. John Lawrence, born in Wis- sett, England, October 8, 1609, settled in Watertown in 1635 and was made a freeman in 1637. His wife was Elizabeth and they had five sons and two daughters, of whom Nathaniel, the second son, born in 1639, settled in Groton, and was made freeman in 1671. Thomas was admitted freeman in 1638, and died in Hingham, November 5, 1655. The Manns were descended from Francis Wy- man, born in 1621 in West Mill, Herts County, England, and set- tled in Woburn in 1644. With him, in the same ship, came his brother John, who also settled in Woburn; among their descend- ants have been many distinguished men, graduates of Harvard College, clergymen, physicians, and artists. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy have two children: Lawrence Adams and Helen.
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS HARDY
W ILLIAM AUGUSTUS HARDY, son of Sylvester W. Hardy and Mary Batchelder Hardy, was born in Pep- perell, Massachusetts, June 12, 1837. He died at Fitch- burg, Massachusetts, July 4, 1912.
His immigrant ancestor was Thomas Hardy, who came from England and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He and his brother, John, came over with Governor Winthrop, who gave them land, and they were among the twelve who planted the old settle- ment of Ipswich on the Essex shore of New England.
William Augustus Hardy attended the schools of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Guilford Academy at Laconia, New Hampshire. After the death of his father, for four years he lived on the farm of his Uncle George Hardy in Nelson, New Hampshire. Then after learning his trade in Lake Village, New Hampshire, in 1855, he removed to Fitchburg, which was his home for the remainder of his life.
He started in the brass foundry business on Water Street, Fitch- burg, in the early sixties, and the business is still conducted in approximately the same location. In 1876, in association with Charles Pinder, he engaged in the screen plate business. Mr. Hardy patented and made the first cast bronze screen plates, which have since become widely used in the manufacture of paper and pulp.
The firm of Hardy and Pinder continued until 1893 when Mr. Pinder retired. Then Mr. Hardy, under his own name, continued the business until, with the brass foundry, the whole concern was incorporated December 13, 1902, as William A. Hardy and Sons Company, the officers being William A. Hardy, President; Walter A., Vice-President; William C., Secretary; and Frank C., Treas- urer.
Mr. Hardy was naturally a mechanic, and in addition to patent- ing screen plates also patented several different styles of Journal Bearings now extensively used on steam railroads.
Minareardy
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS HARDY
Mr. Hardy was a member of Company D, Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and was wounded at Goldsborough, North Carolina. After the Civil War, he was a member of the Washing- ton Guards of Fitchburg, and the Boston Light Infantry Veteran Corps of Boston. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company which he joined in 1869. He was a charter member of Edwin V. Sumner Post No. 19, G. A. R. He was also a member and Past Noble Grand of Mt. Roulstone Lodge I. O. O. F., Past Chief of King David Encampment, in whose formation he was very prominent, a Member of the Nashua Tribe of I. O. Red Men, of the Fitchburg Board of Trade, and of the Merchants' Asso- ciation.
He was a member of the last Board of Selectmen of the Town of Fitchburg, and after it became a city was a member of the Common Council, the School Committee, a Trustee of Public Burial Grounds.
Mr. Hardy's first wife was Harriet F. Adams, who died in 1877. Their children are: Carrie F. (died 1902), who married Frank H. Ormsby of Boston; Walter A., and Frank O. Hardy.
In 1878 Mr. Hardy married Emma A. Sargent, daughter of James B. and Susan (Daniels) Sargent. Their children are: Theodore R., William C., George E., and Chester S. Hardy.
Mr. Hardy was an extensive reader and always kept himself well informed on the topics of the day. He was much interested in mechanics, history, and astronomy, and devoted much of his time to the study of questions relating to these subjects.
He was a man thoroughly genuine in his nature and was possessed of a fine sense of humor. He was never much concerned with things artificial or superficial, and to merely conventional ideas or customs he never even gave a thought. Mr. Hardy had a keen sense of his responsibilities and obligations, and endeavored to deal fairly with all with whom he came in contact, both in public and private life.
HENRY HOWARD
H ENRY HOWARD, the son of Alonzo P. and Emma G. (Babcock) Howard, was born at Jamaica Plain, Massachu- setts, July 5, 1868. His father was a successful manufac- turer, and a man of artistic tastes. He was exceedingly fond of music and composed a considerable number of Christmas and Eas- ter carols. His grandparents, Benjamin Howard and the Rev. William R. Babcock, D.D., were men of very marked ability and character, and his more remote ancestor, John Howard, a native of Marblehead, figured conspicuously in Colonial affairs in the pre- revolutionary days. This John Howard was a member of Colonel Glover's Marblehead regiment which took a prominent part in the early struggles of the Revolution in and about Boston, and later he was attached to General Washington's staff.
Although inheriting his father's love and appreciation for music, the spirit of energetic and enthusiastic leadership has been rather more dominant in Mr. Howard's character. Like his fa- ther, he is a manufacturer, but his active impulses have led him far beyond the field of mere commercial pursuits. His interests have been in the current problems of the day, and in this regard he has been a most conspicuous example of what the business man may do in public life.
Following his father's wishes, after finishing a chemical course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a stu- dent with the Class of 1889, he entered the employ of the Merri- mac Chemical Company as a chemist. Later he became assistant superintendent, superintendent, and vice-president, which posi- tion he now holds. As a chemical manufacturer his progress has been marked with success. He is recognized among the profession as one of the leading authorities on technical chemistry, to which he has contributed much by way of discovery and invention. His activities in organizing the New England section of the Society of Chemical Industry and his work as Executive Head of the Manu- facturing Chemists' Association of the United States have made for him a prominent and leading position among the chemical manu- facturers of the country. He is also a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, and the American Electro Chemical Society.
Public service and public work, however, have had their call upon his time. Being by instinct and early environment a yachts- man, he has taken a leading position in yachting circles. His greatest achievement in this regard was the founding of the inter-
Henry Howard
HENRY HOWARD
national races with Germany and Spain which have since been known as the "Sonder Class" races. He has properly been called the "father" of these races. In order to make them possible Mr. Howard made several trips abroad to secure the necessary co-opera- tion and support of Emperor William of Germany and King Al- phonso of Spain, who recognized in these races an opportunity to promote friendly relations between the respective countries.
The races, commencing in 1907, have more than fulfilled ex- pectations. In his capacity as chairman of the Regatta Com- mittee of the Eastern Yacht Club and Chairman of the Joint Com- mittee of the Eastern and Kaiserlicher Yacht clubs, Mr. Howard did much to insure the success of these races. Mr. Howard is a member of the Eastern and New York Yacht clubs in this coun- try and a member of the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club of Kiel. He is also an honorary member of the Royal Yacht Club of San Sebastian of Spain.
Mr. Howard is chairman of the Public Utilities Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, and a term member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to which position he was chosen by the Alumni of the Institute. He is also a director and vice-president of the Massachusetts Employees' Insurance As- sociation, and President of the Boston Dwelling House Company, which represents a successful undertaking on the part of a number of leading citizens to better housing conditions in Boston along the lines of the garden city suburb found in England. He is a Di- rector in the Metropolitan Trust Company, is Vice-president and Director of the New England Manufacturing Company, and Chair- man of the Committee on Foreign Relation of the National Foreign Trade Council, being the representative selected by the Manufac- turing Chemists' Association of the United States to represent the chemical industry of the country on this board.
Mr. Howard has been a life-long Republican. He is a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church and a member of the Corporation of the Church of our Savior at Longwood.
He was married, September 6, 1896, to Alice Sturtevant, daugh- ter of Eugene and Mary (Clark) Sturtevant, and granddaughter of Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, former Bishop of Rhode Island and late presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States and Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. Howard have had five children, four of whom are living, Katharine, Henry Sturtevant, Thomas Clark, and John Babcock Howard.
Mr. Howard's activities are multifarious, his plans are com- prehensive, and his efficiency is due to a fine discrimination be- tween the essential and nonessential.
EDWARD PAYSON HURD
E DWARD PAYSON HURD has been identified with many of our manufacturing corporations and is still active in the duties of directorship and high official positions.
He was born in Medway, Massachusetts, June 28, 1841, and is the son of Julius Curtis Hurd and Rebecca Ann Robinson. The in- fluence of his mother was particularly and strongly impressed on his character and life.
Educated in the public schools and graduating at the High School he completed his educational training at the Phillips Andover Academy. This education he supplemented by reading the stand- ard books and substantial literature.
In 1857 he commenced his business career in his father's estab- lishment as a clerk in the accounting department. When the Civil War began he enlisted for three years in the Sixteenth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. At one time he was detailed as chief clerk in Gen. Halleck's Headquarters at Washington and in the Provost Marshal General's Headquarters in charge until and after the ar- rival of Gen. Frye from the West, who then assumed charge. But at his own request and sincere desire he was returned to his com- pany and regiment. His regiment was stationed at Plymouth, North Carolina, where he was captured with his company. He was held as a prisoner of war for eight months, suffering the confine- ment at Andersonville and many other Southern prisons.
After his return from the war he resumed his business career, at first with his father and later with Samuel Slater and Sons, manu- facturers, in Webster, Massachusetts. The subsequent changes in his business connections showed his adaptability to different kinds of business and gave him a valuable experience. He was with Stev- enson Brothers and Co., Importers and Commission Merchants in New York City and Boston, and with George F. Hall of Boston. He was successively Discount and Collection clerk and receiving teller of the Continental National Bank of Boston. Later he was with the Mckay System of Manufacturing Companies; the McKay Sewing Machine Association; the MeKay Metallic Association; the Mckay and Thompson Consolidated Lasting Machine Association ; and the Mckay and Copeland Lasting Machine Association. He
Eduard Skind.
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EDWARD PAYSON HURD
was one of the three promoters of the United Shoe Machinery Company and has been actively identified with this company and its allied and subsidiary companies and corporations in this coun- try and in foreign countries since February, 1899. His activity and responsibility are shown in the positions he holds in these com- panies. He is Vice-President, Assistant Treasurer, Director and member of the Executive and Finance Committees of the United Shoe Machinery Company of New Jersey, the United Shoe Ma- chinery Corporation of New Jersey, the United Shoe Machinery Company of Maine, the United Shoe Machinery Company of Mex- ico, and the United Shoe Machinery Company of South America. He is also Vice-President and Director of the United Shoe Ma- chinery Company of Canada; Vice-President, Assistant Treasurer and Director of the United Awl and Needle Company, Booth Broth- ers Company, and the J. K. Kreig Company; Vice-President, Treasurer and Director of the S. A. Felton and Sons Company, Vice-President and Director J. C. Rhodes Company, Inc., S. O. & C. Company, S. O. and C. Corporation ; Director and Treasurer of the United-Xpedite Finishing Company ; Director and Assistant Treas- urer of O. A. Miller Treeing Machine Company; Director and As- sistant Treasurer and member of Executive Committee of the Se- curity Eyelet Company, Director W. W. Cross and Company, Inc., Boston Fast Color Eyelet Company, United Shoe Repairing Ma- chine Company, Boston Blacking Company, British United Shoe Machinery Company, Ltd., United Shoe Machinery Co. de France, Deutche, Vereinigte Schuhmaschinen-Gesellschaft, G. m. b. H. Schweiz, Vereinigte Schuhmaschinen A. G., Amercian Warp Draw- ing Machine Company, New England Automatic Weighing Ma- chine Company.
In politics Mr. Hurd is an Independent Republican. As an honorable citizen he has a deep interest in public welfare and sup- ports by word and deed the cause of good government founded on high principles. He belongs to the Masons, and in religious views he affiliates with the Unitarians.
Automobiles and horses furnish him with his principal out-of- door recreation.
Mr. Hurd was first married February 25, 1869, to Almira Gardner Pope, who died early in their married life. On October 16, 1872, he was married to her sister Sarah Louise Pope, daughter of James Pope of Dorchester. Four children, three sons, Edward Lawrence, William Robinson, and Malcolm, all associated with the United Shoe Machinery Co., and one daughter, have been born of this union.
JAMES FREDERICK JACKSON
T HE subject of this sketch was born November 13, 1851, in Taunton, Bristol County, Massachusetts. His father was Elisha Tucker Jackson, a man of sterling integrity, strong convictions, and sound judgment, who was born August 23, 1829, and died June 20, 1908. His mother, Caroline Keith (Fobes) Jackson, died when he was only five years of age.
His paternal grandfather, James Jackson, was born in 1807, married Julia Vaughan, and died in 1840. Salmon Fobes, born in 1781, and Chloe Fobes, were his grandparents on the mother's side. Mr. Jackson's ancestors were from England and Scotland, and were among the earliest settlers of Middleborough, Plymouth, and Duxbury. Among them were John Fobes and James Keith on his mother's side, and Abraham Jackson and Constant Southworth of his father's ancestors.
Young Jackson fitted for college in the public schools of Taun- ton, and graduated from Harvard in 1873 with the degree of A.B. He studied law in the office of Judge Edmund H. Bennett, in Taun- ton, entered the Boston University Law School, of which Judge Bennett was Dean, and after graduation in 1875 opened a law of- fice in Fall River. In 1878 he formed a partnership with John J. Archer, which was severed by Mr. Archer's death in 1882. Soon after, the firm of Jackson and Slade (David F. Slade) was formed, which was long continued as Jackson, Slade, and Borden (Richard P. Borden).
Mr. Jackson was elected city solicitor of Fall River in 1881 and continued in that office, with the exception of one year when he served as corporation counsel, until 1889. He was then elected mayor of Fall River in 1889, and reelected the following year. In 1898 he was named a judge of the Superior Court by Governor Wol- cott, but declined the appointment. In 1899 he was appointed Chairman of the Massachusetts Railroad Commission, from which
Janur F. Jacksac
JAMES FREDERICK JACKSON
position he resigned in November, 1907, to enter practice in Bos- ton, specializing in railroad and railway law.
Mr. Jackson enlisted in the state militia as a private in 1879, in Company M of the First Infantry, M.V.M., and retired in 1890 as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment.
He is a member of the Union Club and the St. Botolph Club of Boston and of the Harvard Clubs of Fall River and New York. His political associations have regularly been with the Republican party, though he left it temporarily to support Cleveland against Blaine. His church connection is with the Leyden (Congrega- tional) Church at Brookline, where he has resided since 1906.
Mr. Jackson married, June 15, 1882, Caroline, daughter of Eli and Julia A. (Sessions) Thurston, granddaughter of Eli and Fran- ces (Burrill) Thurston and Samuel and Hannah (Clapp) Sessions, and a descendant of John Thurston, who came from Wrentham, England, to Dedham, Massachusetts. They have but one child, Edith.
In reviewing what has been written of the life of Mr. Jackson the writer thinks that he may with propriety apply the words of Dean Stanley: "Give us the man of integrity, on which we know we can thoroughly depend; who will stand firm when others fail, the friend, faithful and true; the adviser, honest and fearless; the ad- versary, just and chivalrous; such an one is a fragment of the Rock of Ages."
LEWIS JEROME JOHNSON
L EWIS JEROME JOHNSON was born in Milford, Massachu- setts, September 24, 1867. His father, Napoleon Bonaparte Johnson, was cashier of the Home National Bank of Milford, a man of great industry, deeply interested in various movements for the welfare of humanity and especially active in efforts to sup- press the traffic in alcoholic drinks. He served in the Union Army from August, 1862, until the close of the Civil War, not enlisting, however, until he was satisfied that the success of the Union cause meant the abolition of slavery.
Lewis Jerome Johnson's mother, whose maiden name was Mary Tufts Stone, was a descendant of Massachusetts ancestry. The best known family names are Willard, Tufts, and Adams. Mr. John- son's remote ancestors were English and Scotch and all came to America before 1700. Among them was Col. John Jones, a mag- istrate of Ashland and Hopkinton, Massachusetts, in the early part of the eighteenth century; and others who were soldiers in the War of the Revolution.
The usual outdoor sports of boys, the ordinary duties of home and school life, reading of story books, books of adventure, travel, and animal biography, absorbed Mr. Johnson's boyhood. He pre- pared for college at the Milford High School, giving primary at- tention to Latin and Greek; graduated at Harvard (A.B.) in 1887, after a course devoted mainly to mathematics, geology, and engi- neering, and at the Lawrence Scientific School the following year, with the degree of Civil Engineer. He carried forward his engi- neering studies at the Eidg. Technische Hochschule (then called the Eidg. Polytechnikum) of Zurich and the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées of Paris, making a pleasure trip to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece before returning home.
He began active business life when a boy, as assistant in the bank with his father, spending afternoons and summers through- out his High School course at this work, and learning the busi- ness thoroughly. It was in accordance with his own choice and the wish of his parents that he went to college, and the influence of his father did much to turn his early liking for natural sci- ence into active interest in engineering. Although brought up in the banking business and having filled temporary vacancies as acting cashier of the Hopkinton (Mass.) National Bank and Acting Treasurer of the Hopkinton Savings Bank, his lifework was to be in Civil Engineering. He was appointed instructor in engineer-
Lemis Jerome Johnson
LEWIS JEROME JOHNSON
ing at Harvard in 1890 and became Professor of Civil Engineering at Harvard in 1906. He has also acted as consulting engineer in general structural practice in connection with work in Boston, New York, Chicago, and elsewhere.
For the past several years his research, practice, and writing have been devoted mainly to the field of reinforced concrete con- struction, of which the Harvard Stadium, with whose design and construction he was connected, is a notable example. He is au- thor of "Statics by Algebraic and Graphic Methods," published by Wiley & Sons, New York, also of numerous papers on subjects relating to engineering, and upon economic and civic questions. Among the most important of his civic and economic writings may be mentioned: "Initiative and Referendum, an Effective Ally of Representative Government"; "History and Meaning of the Proposed New Charter for Cambridge"; "Preferential Voting, Its Progress with Comments and Warnings"; "Taxation Blunders and Their Remedy"; "The Single Tax in Relation to Public Health"; "Preferential Ballot as a Substitute for the Direct Pri- mary." These were all addresses or magazine articles which were subsequently reprinted in various forms and given extended dis- tribution.
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