USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
David Foster Slade was the son of Jonathan and Emeline (Hooper) Slade and was born in Somerset, November 5, 1855. He died June 28, 1914. His father's marked characteristics were : keen judgment of men, honor, loyalty, fairness, and generosity.
In his boyhood upon the farm, David Slade took especial inter- est in poultry-raising and gardening. Such occupation was valua- ble in developing ambition and the sense of responsibility. His mother's influence was very strong on both his spiritual and intel- lectual development.
The books that he found most helpful in fitting him for his work in life were those dealing with American History, biography, and poetry, especially of patriotic nature or describing New Eng- land life. "Sander's Fifth Reader" was often quoted by him as suggesting high incentives to youth.
Mr. Slade was unable to apply himself to regular school work on account of a serious affection of the eyes, from which he later completely recovered. He fitted for Brown University in the schools of his home town, and in the Fall River High School, and was graduated from college in the class of 1880. Among his class- mates were W. H. P. Faunce, now President of the University, John Taggart Blodgett, Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, and Zechariah Chafee of Providence.
On graduating he entered the law office of Morton and Jennings, composed of Hon. James M. Morton, later for many years Jus- tice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Andrew J. Jennings.
David + black.
DAVID FOSTER SLADE
Hosea M. Knowlton was district-attorney at the time. Afterwards Mr. Slade entered the Boston University Law School, from which he was graduated with the degree of LL.B. in 1883, and was ad- mitted to the Bristol County Bar in June of that year. The wishes of his parents and his own personal preference determined this choice of profession.
In the succeeding August, Mr. Slade formed a partnership with Hon. James F. Jackson, for many years Chairman of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners, under the firm name of Jackson and Slade. In 1891, Richard P. Borden, Esq., was admitted as a partner, when the firm name was changed to that of Jackson, Slade and Borden, and so continued until Mr. Jackson retired in 1906, when the name was changed to Slade and Borden, and so re- mained until Mr. Slade's death.
The firm had a large practice, and held high rank for honorable dealing, legal knowledge, and tried ability in the profession. Pro- fessional activities did not, however, absorb Mr. Slade's whole at- tention. Always a firm Republican, he was soon drawn into pub- lic affairs, and represented his city (Fall River) in the Massachu- setts Legislature for three successive years, 1894, 1895, and 1896, serving on the Judiciary Committee each of the three years and as clerk of the Joint Judiciary. In 1895 he was also on the Com- mittee on Federal Relations, and in 1896 was a member of the Committee on Rules, the Judiciary and Rules being the most im- portant Committees of the House. In his work on these Commit- tees he was distinguished for his intelligence, his judicial tempera- ment, and the thoroughness with which he performed his duties. He left the House with an enviable record as a wise and safe legis- lator.
In 1899 he was chosen a member of the Governor's Council and was re-elected three successive terms, holding the office three years under the governorship of W. Murray Crane, and one year under the administration of Governor John L. Bates.
On retiring from the Legislature, Mr. Slade was appointed by the Governor a member of the Commission to build a new jail at Fall River. On the enactment of the National Bankrupt Law, in 1898, he was nominated Referee in Bankruptcy for Bristol County, but declined the office.
Mr. Slade was a power in the councils of his party, and exerted a strong influence upon its deliberations and action. At different times he was Treasurer, both of the city and county organizations, and a member of the State Central Committee. In all these ca-
DAVID FOSTER SLADE
pacities he did hard and effective work, and won the confidence and high esteem of his party associates.
His attention was not limited exclusively either to his pro- fession or his political party. For many years he was Vice-Presi- dent and Trustee of the Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank, and was appointed Commissioner on the Abolition of Grade-Crossings both at North Adams and Lowell. He was the Chairman of the first Board of Trustees of the Shirley School for Boys and had large responsibility in the establishing of the School.
Mr. Slade's college society was the Alpha Delta Phi. He was a member of the Quequechan Club of Fall River, of the Massa- chusetts Republican Club, and of the Massachusetts Bar Associa- tion, serving as a member of the Legislative Committee for the latter organization. He was a member of the Lake Mansfield Trout Club at Stowe, Vermont, which has a distinguished member- ship not only from Vermont but also from many other States. Mr. Slade spent his summer holidays whenever possible at Stowe, where he owned one of the best farms in the town. He made many friends and was devoted and loyal to Vermont.
In religious faith he was an Episcopalian and was vestryman of the Church of the Ascension in Fall River. He was active in its behalf, generous of his time and means to any of its calls, and through the Presidency of the Randall Club labored hard and faith- fully for its welfare.
October 25, 1883, Mr. Slade married Annie M., daughter of Walter C., and Jane F. (Alden) Durfee. Mrs. Slade is of dis- tinguished New England ancestry. On her mother's side she is a descendant of the famous John Alden of Mayflower memory. The Durfee family came to New England about 1660.
Mr. Slade was a good example of the scholar in politics, and illustrated in all his activities what can be done for his community by a high-minded citizen, a man with broad sympathies, skilled in the interpretation and application of the laws of life, with pride in his city and a readiness to give himself freely to the promotion of its welfare. In social life he was both prominent and popular, for his was a very pleasing personality-cheery, sympathetic, and generous. He had a helping hand for all his friends. He en- joyed out-of-door life, and hospitality was one of the leading fea- tures of his home. He liked his fellowmen, was temperate in habit, and always ready for any service he could render to his friends or to his city.
No Lawton Such
WILLIAM LAWTON SLADE
A MONG the early citizens of Massachusetts there were men who discerned, even before the great and fertile lands of the Middle West were open to settlement, that this State, with its barren and rocky soil, could never compete successfully with the States that are better adapted to agriculture. They, therefore, set about developing the manufacturing resources of the Commonwealth. They dammed the streams in which the State abounds and reared the mills, many of which remain until this day. Along the seaboard and on the greater streams large corporations undertook the crection of mills which involved capital too large for the single individual. Thus were laid the foundations for the great manufacturing interests of the State.
Among these pioneers was the family of William Lawton Slade. His ancestor, William Slade, was born in Wales during a short stay of the family, who were natives of Somersetshire, England, whither they returned soon after his birth. He came to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1659 and was admitted to the colony as a freeman. Here he remained until 1680 when he removed to Swansea, Massa- chusetts. He made large purchases of land, and started a ferry across the Taunton River which took the name of Slade's Ferry. First a sailboat crossed the stream; then one propelled by horses ; finally two steamboats. This ferry remained in the family for over two hundred years, William Lawton Slade with his brother, Jona- than Slade, being its possessors, when the bridge was built in 1876.
William L. Slade was born in Somerset, originally a part of Swansea, Massachusetts, September 6, 1817. His father was Wil- liam Slade (1780-1852), a man who was active, energetic, and of the highest integrity. His mother was Phobe Lawton. His grand- fathers were Jonathan Slade and William Lawton. His father, although possessing the ferry, had also become a manufacturer. William L. Slade was educated in the common schools of Somerset
WILLIAM LAWTON SLADE
and finished in the Friends School at Providence, Rhode Island. While engaged at the first in farming, he soon developed a prefer- ence for the manufacturing interests in which his father had been engaged. He became largely interested in the manufacturing con- cerns of Fall River. He was one of the first board of directors and later President of the Montaup Mills Company, which was organized in 1871 for the manufacture of seamless cotton and duck bags, at that time a new industry. He was one of the promoters of the Slade Mills, built on a farm long owned in the Slade family, the first to be erected in the Southern District of Fall River, being a Director and President. He was also a Director of the Stafford Mills. He owned stock in a number of other Fall River concerns. In 1860 he was chosen a Director of what later became the Fall River National Bank.
Although Mr. Slade was closely connected with business enter- prises of the most varied character, holding, as we have seen, Directorship in mills and banks and many other important offices of trust, he was at heart a staunch lover of nature and the soil. He owned several farms of notable excellence and all through his career his agricultural tastes and sympathies stood prominently forth and gave the clue to his enthusiasm regarding all matters pertaining to the farm, and furnished also an interpretation of the affection he felt for the family homestead where he lived. Mr. Slade and his brothers were among the very foremost citizens of Somerset and as such were looked up to by all residents of the pleasant town that was so long their home.
In politics, Mr. Slade was identified with the Republican party and, while he never sought office, his fellow townsmen frequently draughted him into service. He was an efficient Selectman of his town for many years. In 1859 and again in 1864 he represented Somerset in the Lower House of the Legislature, during which time he served on the Committee on Agriculture and on the Com- mittee of Public and Charitable Institutions. He was one of the committee on arrangements for the burial of Charles Sumner. In 1863 he was a member of the Senate, serving here, too, on the Committee on Agriculture. During all his public career he was a total abstainer and a staunch advocate of temperance. He had a large experience in the settlement of estates and for that purpose was often appointed a commissioner.
WILLIAM LAWTON SLADE
October 5, 1842, Mr. Slade was married to Mary, the daughter of Asa and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Sherman, at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in the Friends Meeting House in which George Fox preached when in this country and which is still used. Their five children were Caroline E., who married Hezekiah A. Brayton of Fall River; Abigail L., who married James T. Milne of Fall River, but who is now deceased; Mary, who married Velona W. Haughwout, and who also is deceased, leaving three children. Sarah S. and Anna M. died in infancy.
Mr. Slade died July 29, 1895. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Slade Mill, the following testimonials to his char- acter and services were ordered entered upon their records:
"William Lawton Slade, President of the Slade Mills, died at his home at Somerset, Massachusetts, on Monday, July 29, 1895. He was one of the originators of this company and has been its President since the date of its incorporation, in 1871. He always identified himself with its interests and its welfare has been his constant care. He gave freely of his time and thought to the busi- ness of the corporation. Every subject presented to his considera- tion received from him calm consideration and mature deliberation and his judgment was universally respected. He was broad in his views, far seeing in his suggestions, and looked not alone to the present but to the future.
"He was a man of noble presence, high character, sound judg- ment, and unswerving integrity. He was pleasant in his manner and universally respected.
"This corporation has lost in him a firm friend, a wise counselor, and a sagacious adviser, and its directors, each and every one, feel a keen sense of personal bereavement."
No words could speak more eloquently of the splendid life and influence of Mr. Slade than do these unstudied sentences that come from the hearts of his business associates, the men who knew him and loved him best.
CHARLES SUMNER SMITH
C HARLES SUMNER SMITH is the second son of Francis Smith (April 8, 1822-July 17, 1908), and Abigail Prescott (Baker) Smith, September 13, 1823. He was born De- cember 19, 1857, in Lincoln, Massachusetts. His grandparents were Jonas and Abigail (Fiske) Smith, and Jacob and Lavinia (Minot) Baker. On his father's side he traces his ancestry back eight generations to John Smith, who came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1636, where he was registered as a freeman. Among those prominent in the family line were Jonas and his son Jonas, Jr., of Waltham, Massachusetts, who served in the Revolutionary War, both being members of Captain Abram Pierce's Company in 1775. The first ancestor to settle in Lincoln was Zechariah Smith who came to the town before 1788.
His mother is descended in direct line from the Minot (or Minott) family. The first settler of this name in the country was George Miuott, who came from Saffron, Walden, Essex, England, to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1634 or before and was a representa- tive to the General Court and a Ruling Elder in the Church. James Minott was prominent in official and military life in the days just preceding the Revolution, and Lieut. Ephraim Minott, his son, was an officer in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Samuel Prescott, who finished "Paul Revere's Ride" to Concord, was also related to the Minott family.
The father of Charles S. Smith was a farmer, industrious, thrifty, and determined, a man of well-balanced judgment and of high ideals. His mother had the more intimate relations with the children. She had broad interest in their welfare, was ambitious for their education, and was a strong and influential factor in their development. His parents implanted in their son's mind the love of hard work and impressed upon him the value of a sound character.
Charles Sumner Smith attended the schools of his native town
Charles Stuwith
CHARLES SUMNER SMITH
punctually and regularly-first the district school with its varied influences and democratic tendencies, later the country high school. The concrete lessons of the farm on which he was born, its scenic beauty, and its varied interests gave opportunity for a broad natural education. From the high school he entered upon a higher course of study at Phillips Andover Academy, but difficulty with his eyes soon obliged him to interrupt his plans. As a boy he liked the liberty and varied tasks of the farm and early learned how to rise through them to mastery of the serious problems of life. He thus came to know the value of punctuality and stead- fastness and he magnified them in daily life.
After leaving Phillips Academy he devoted himself zealously and successfully to the home farm, but turned to English litera- ture, history, and the study of mathematics as a diversion from manual labor and farm administration. The New York Inde- pendent, which has been in the family almost since its first issue, became a sort of text-book for him on passing events, while its teaching did much to mould his choices and character.
As he was the only son remaining on the home estate, he became his father's mainstay and finally took the lead. For thirty-five years he has been sole manager of the farm and has come to believe the farmer's vocation a royal occupation for human kind. That it is so, and why and how it is so, appears more fully in the biog- raphy of his father, Francis Smith.
While engrossed with his own business he was at the same time interested in town affairs. He early took part in debate at the Town Meeting, one of New England's most typical, most influ- ential, and most democratic institutions. Eventually he entered official life in the town. For six years he was on the Board of Assessors, the chief factor in the town's financial system. Later he became a member of the Board of Selectmen, the characteristic governing body of a New England town, and served as its Chair- man continuously from 1898 to 1914. The same qualities that gave him success on the farm made him an influential and suc- cessful town officer. His principle has been that town affairs and town monies are to be treated as wisely, as thoroughly, and as painstakingly as private affairs and monies. Such a principle made his work not always popular, but it made it conspicuously useful. This did not require effort with him. His "bent" was
CHARLES SUMNER SMITH
that way. If the same spirit were more widely scattered in the country many public and corporation treasuries that fail would remain secure.
His early nurture had attached him closely to the Church and here again he was a definite factor in its official and financial life. New England religious life, with its Puritan flavor, is one of the strongest influences for good that the country has produced. It gives dignity, strength, and fidelity, and commands respect and con- fidence.
Mr. Smith early developed an interest in financial opportunities in Boston and New York. Here he was initiated by his father, who had, in a small way, been attracted in this direction. He gradually increased his interests till he became a leader in great corporations, and his good judgment, business acumen, and reli- ability have kept him in prominent and influential positions and given him conspicuous success. In 1902 he became President of the Old Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company, and he is also President of the Arizona Commercial Mining Company. Though spending most of his time at his Boston office, he still takes a keen interest in his country estate, directing its cultivation and beautification.
Mr. Smith declares himself a Republican in political preference and supports the policies and candidates of that party.
He married, March 6, 1889, Mary Isabelle, daughter of Thomas and Mary Frances (Weston) Smyth and granddaughter of Major Daniel Weston and Mary (Wheeler) Weston. They have had two children, a son and a daughter. The daughter died in infancy ; the son, Sumner, graduated at Yale in 1912.
This busy man finds pleasure and recreation in the numerous things that are ever pressing upon his attention and calling for his participation. Work is his joy. He attributes no small part of his success to the gracious influences of home, school, and church, and to the tuition one gets in the give and take of life. He counsels young men to "prize time and money ; to set before themselves some definite work; to be prompt in meeting engagements; to acquaint themselves with nature and with nature's God."
Francis Sonwith
FRANCIS SMITH
F RANCIS SMITH was the son of Jonas and Abigail (Fiske) Smith. He was born April 8, 1822, and died July 17, 1908, at Lincoln, Massachusetts. His earliest ancestor in this country on the Smith side was John, a "freeman" of Water- town, Massachusetts, who came from England in 1636. He could point with pride to the honorable part his ancestors played in the Revolution and to their substantial citizenship. On the Fisk side his ancestry goes back to John Fiske, who was born in Suffolk County, England (probably at Weybred), and settled in Water- town, Massachusetts, about 1637. He was a descendant in the sixth generation of Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, England. Many of his ancestors during the Reformation, and especially in the days of Queen Mary, endured severe persecution on account of their staunch adherence to Protestant principles. On both sides, then, Francis Smith had an ancestry that showed force of character, independence, and a progressive spirit.
In his boyhood and young manhood, Lincoln was a typical New England town occupied by comfortably circumstanced farmers of ability and intelligence. There was no variety of trades except as the individual farmer, in the exigencies of farm management, combined several trades in his list of accomplishments. A single store served the Community. A thrifty farmer must be possessed of initiative and of versatile ability.
Through favorable location (a few miles northwest of Boston) and productive soil, Lincoln possessed great natural advantages. Beautiful for situation, on a low range of hills, it appealed to the æsthetic and imaginative sides of life.
While possessed of a deep love for his children, his external atti- tude was not a sympathetic and magnetic one toward children and their interests. He did not take children on his knee and tell them how it was when he was a boy. He impressed the intensive side of life. In the absence of much detail it may be said that he en- joyed educational advantages beyond those furnished by his town
FRANCIS SMITH
and much beyond the average of his time. He attended academies at Milton, Massachusetts, and Hancock, New Hampshire. This means that he attended really modern secondary schools. These institutions were the products of one of the most notable educational movements of the century. Their coming was both the sign and the result of the failure of the old Grammar Schools, imported from Eu- rope, which supplied a secondary education that looked to the past rather than the present. Old letters written in these schoolboy days showed that he had noticeable command of good English.
He married, in 1850, Abigail Prescott Baker, daughter of Jacob and Lavinia (Minot) Baker. Mrs. Smith had enjoyed similar school advantages and had equal command of good English. Together they furnished a priceless language environment for their children.
Mr. Smith was a farmer first and chiefly. This is to say that he had a small republic to administer that requires and tests execu- tive power, skill, judgment, business talent, and citizenship, com- bines vocational and professional interests, private and official life, and develops dignity and worth.
He early came into possession of his father's farm that had an ideal location on the shores of a lake where nature was lavish of her beauty in hill and wood and stream.
He could do many things creditably. Time and means that others spent in going to repair shops in other towns he frequently saved by his mechanical ability.
He was a good judge of all that pertains to the farm. He had his farm well stocked with cattle and used it for a variety of crops, but he was particularly interested in fruit culture and had large and successful apple orchards. The peach, however, was his favorite, though the disease that spread through northern orchards together with the severe winters made crops uncertain and discouraged extensive plantings. He was an excellent judge of fruits, and he frequently served as judge in competitions. He fre- quently entered fruit competitions himself, both at local exhibitions and at the hall of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and he carried off many prizes.
As the farm was within a few miles of Boston he was his own marketman. He was a familiar figure "on the curh" in the Faneuil Hall Market, where crowded lines of market wagons made one of the most striking, interesting, and attractive scenes in Bos-
FRANCIS SMITH
ton's commercial life. Here he became one of the most successful salesmen of farm produce. Leaving his home at midnight he would be in the city in time for the early morning market at day- light, and by afternoon, sometimes by noon, he would be at the farm again to direct matters there. Such a life gives broad con- tacts, stimulates thought and initiative, and trains judgment. It was probably through this Boston contact that he was attracted by financial operations outside the farm, where he had his ups and downs like others.
He was interested in town affairs and a regular attendant at town meetings. He did not, however, take a very active part in town politics, nor give much time to concerns outside of his domain, but he served as collector and as selectman for several terms. In whatever public business he undertook he served with the same keen intelligence that characterized all his work.
He was a home man, seldom leaving the home acres except for the advantage of those acres, and then seldom for overnight. These trips were chiefly to the Boston Market and to his summer cattle range in the North. In his later years, however, he took an extended trip through the West. His constant presence at home, his emphatic views and persistent activity, with his practical, thorough, common-sense ways of doing things, in which he put strength and time to the most effective use and eliminated waste, formed an impressive part of the education of his boys. He died on July 17, 1908, not from disease, but as the quiet burning out of the candle.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.