USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 21
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Such a life, aside from the personal interest attached to it, is both interesting and suggestive because of the industrial and social and sociological contrasts in country life that he witnessed.
There were momentous changes in modes and methods of farm- ing and in the character of crops. When Mr. Smith began farm life the old standard crops, hay, grain, potatoes, with dairy prod- ucts, were the staples. He lived to see small and large fruits and garden crops come into the forefront, while grain crops practically disappeared before the importations from the more prolific West. Again, in the twenties, the slow but sure methods of ancient date- the deliberate ox-team, the hand rake, the scythe, and hand sowing and planting-still ruled. Agriculture was traditional and em- pirical. At the end of the century quick acting farm machinery
FRANCIS SMITH
had taken the place of old appliances, and agriculture was rapidly becoming scientific. This change meant the building up land pos- sibilities and fulfilments as scientific principles. Agriculture was coming into its own. Francis Smith was ready to give his farm the benefit of anything that common sense approved; while not hastily adopting everything new because it was new, he was not ultra-conservative in such matters. He could not be called scien- tifically scientific, but he was intuitively scientific.
With these changes the social conditions of the farm had changed. When he began active life his town was occupied by the old families devoted to cultivating estates inherited from a genera- tion of farmers. It was in no sense a residential town. At the close of his life the town still had a larger proportion of its old families represented on its farms than was found in many New England towns, but a considerable part of the land had passed into the hands of business men of the metropolis or "country gentlemen."
But there was another social change-the most significant of all-caused partly by the rise of scientific farming. In Mr. Smith's earlier years farming was the substantial occupation of the most substantial class in the community. Later it lost some- thing of its dignity and was often looked upon with some dis- paragement. Its personnel in the country as a whole had also deteriorated. In large sections land had passed into the hands of small farmers of our foreign population. But at the end of his life farming was again calling for the best talent of the land and rewarding it-rewarding it because scientific cultivation made it more profitable and because intensity of demand for farm products here and abroad advanced prices. The National Government and State governments were experimenting for the best processes and ransacking the world for products adapted to all soils and all climates, while Burbanks were improving old species and making new ones possible. Farming suggested and demanded extended education. It gave scope for the highest ambitions. It offered con- ditions of country life that agreed with the new demands and opportunities. Modern inventions, that did away with the disad- vantages of distance, and the introduction of all the amenities of life began to make the country attractive again, even specially at- tractive, and inspired new idyls of country life.
franklowfod Smith
FRANK WEBSTER SMITH
F RANK WEBSTER SMITH, who has spent his life in educa- tion, is the eldest son of Francis Smith (1822-1908) and Abi- gail Prescott (Baker) Smith (1823-still living). He was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, June 27, 1854. An honorable colonial ancestry was the starting point of the family in this country and gave it substance and worth on which to build its history. Further details may be found in the biographies of his brothers, Charles Sumner and Jonas Waldo. But since the name Prescott reappears only in his own family, as the cognomen of his eldest son, Francis Prescott Smith, it may be well to note that his mother is descended from the Prescott family of honorable record, and is related to that Prescott who completed Paul Revere's mis- sion by taking his message over the last stage to Conford after Revere had been captured by the British on the Lexington Road.
In early life Mr. Smith worked with his father on the farm. This father had admirable ways of doing things, and these, as undercurrents in later life, may have played no unimportant part in inclining him to choose sane and scientific methods in education.
But he owed much to his mother also. She exercised a strong moral and religious force. She was ambitious for her children intellectually, and she encouraged and aided them in their special education. Aside from this general advantage this mother pos- sessed so forceful a personality and exercised such an insistent and generous care of her boys that she became a tremendous influence in moulding their lives.
Mr. Smith was a lover of school. His early education was gained in the district schools, white, not red, and in the ungraded village high school, both descendants of the old "Liberal School" of Lincoln. He finished his preparation for college at Phillips Andover Academy, graduating in 1873. The same year he passed
FRANK WEBSTER SMITH
the admission examinations to Harvard without conditions and with honors in Greek. He took his first Harvard degree in 1877, on his twenty-third birthday, with honors in the classics. His scholarship at Harvard brought him the honor of election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
His graduate and professional study took him to three universi- ties and abroad. Returning to Harvard in 1881 he spent two years there studying classical philology and economics, and took his A.M. degree in 1882. In 1899-1900 he took some courses in the Teach- ers' College, Columbia University, and he spent part of the years 1901-1905 in study at the University of Nebraska, where he took the Ph.D. degree in 1904, as a result of study and investigation in the three universities and abroad.
In 1877, the year of his graduation from Harvard, he was appointed an instructor in Atlanta University, Georgia, and re- mained there four years. In 1883 he was made teacher of classics and history in the State Normal School at Westfield, Massachu- setts, and held this position thirteen years. His leadership in education began here. He was appointed Superintendent of Schools at Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1896, and at once took a credit- able place among the educators of the State. He remained here till 1899. In 1900 he was Principal of Gordon Academy and Training School, Salt Lake, and Superintendent of the Congre- gational Schools of the State. The years 1901 to 1905 he spent in the University of Nebraska teaching and studying. Here he rose to the position of Adjunct Professor. In 1905, as the result of a competitive examination, he was appointed Principal of the City Normal School at Paterson, New Jersey. Immediately he became also a member of the City Board of Examiners.
His wide training and experience have made him an expert in methodology. He has also developed a love for literature, and abil- ity as an interpreter of literature.
He has been a leader among his professional associates and has held high offices in their societies and associations. His writing has not been prolific, but it has been substantial. He is the author of various articles on education, but his chief work is a volume now on press-"The High School, a Study in Origins and Tendencies."
In religion he is a Congregationalist. In politics he is an inde- pendent Republican.
FRANK WEBSTER SMITH
He married, December 31, 1894, Annie Noyes, daughter of Pro- fessor John E. Sinclair of the Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Marie (Fletcher) Sinclair. Mrs. Smith died in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1897. Mr. Smith married, October 23, 1900, Helen Louise, daughter of John and Margaret Eliza- beth Moore of Omaha. Of this second marriage two children have been born, Francis Prescott and Charles Webster.
Mr. Smith wrote for this work these suggestions that he offers to young people as to the best means to attain true success in life : "In general, a good constitution, a sense of humor, a joyous and courageous look ahead, a good education and power to use it, and, to infuse it all, inspiration from the Highest in the Universe. In particular, habits of industry and power to study a situation or problem with close application, gathering data from all sources as a basis for sound conclusions ; ability to make quick and clear judg- ments; power to project one's self into other conditions and situa- tions than one's own so as to be an appreciative interpreter; faith in the great essentials of a genuine religious life, and hearty and broad participation in church life, to give sanity and balance and to bring a just sense of values; a broad appreciation of one's rela- tions, and a disposition to fulfill them,-in other words broad public spirit,-as an antidote for the individualism to which the education of the last fifty years has tended. This is, in sum, a philosophy of living."
JONAS WALDO SMITH
J ONAS WALDO SMITH, chief engineer of the Board of Water Supply of New York City, was born in Lincoln, Massachu- setts, March 9, 1861.
He is the third and last son of Francis Smith of Lincoln, whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume.
His mother was Abigail Prescott Baker, a woman of active per- sonality, capability, and definite ideals, who exerted a strong influ- ence over her family. She was the daughter of Jacob and Lavinia Minot Baker of Lincoln, and a descendant, on the mother's side, of the Minotts who were prominent in civil and military offices in colonial days and made honorable records at Bunker Hill and elsewhere.
In boyhood and early youth Mr. Smith attended the district school and the high school of his native town. Here, under an exceptional high school master, he gained his first real interest in science.
As manager of the town's pumping plant, only a part of his time was occupied, leaving him free to continue his participation in farm work and undertake other interests. In this first engineer- ing position he studied the economics of running a steam plant with such success as materially to reduce the expense. He studied also the qualities of his machinery, noted and watched a weak point, planned for emergencies, and, when they came, met them promptly and surely without injury to himself or the machinery. He was "building the way" of judgment and learning to make his business a science, an empirical science now, but soon to be far more than that. The foundation of a career was laid here.
His next step in education took him to the scientific department of a famous school, Phillips Andover Academy, where he grad- uated in the early eighties. On leaving the Academy he at once entered the service of the Essex Water Power Company of Law- rence, Massachusetts, as an Assistant Engineer, and gained other valuable experience in hydraulics. Two years later he became a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the depart- ment of Civil Engineering, where he made a creditable record and rounded out his technical education, as far as formal school work was concerned. He utilized much of his vacation time in practical engineering work, chiefly with the Holyoke Water Power Company, and thus gained most useful practical experience to supplement
J.Walde Smith
JONAS WALDO SMITH
his study and help him financially at the same time. On graduat- ing from the Institute in 1887 he at once obtained a permanent position at Holyoke under Chief Engineer Clemens Herschel. Here were impressed upon him lessons of accuracy that eventually gave him prominence and helped him to leadership. When Mr. Herschel went to New Jersey to take the engineering management of the East Jersey Water Company, Mr. Smith went with him as an assistant engineer. In this position he participated in the great enterprise of building an aqueduct from the Passaic Water Shed to Newark to give that city a water supply adequate for its needs and growth-one that has proved an important factor in its phe- nomenal development. He served the Company for a dozen years and more, in this and other undertakings. His headquarters were first at Newfoundland, then at Montclair, and finally at Paterson, where in 1900 he was made Chief Engineer of the East Jersey Com- pany, and thus practically manager of its great interests. It was one of the conspicuous engineering positions in the country. While at Paterson he constructed the filtering plant at Little Falls that at once became a center of interest in water circles here and abroad. Here also he had a most thrilling experience at the time of the Passaic Flood. Barricaded in a critical building of the water plant, he battled during the night against the raging waters at the risk of life and limb and kept them at bay till the danger was over. This shows something of his mettle. His brave deed was generously recognized, but in it all he played the modest hero.
After such experience, in which he had been student, investi- gator, and practical engineer, with a clear record, it was not strange that when in 1903 New York City sought to improve its water supply he was made Chief Engineer by the Board of Aqueduct Commissioners. This gave him charge of completing the largest masonry dam in the world, the Croton Dam. Again in 1905 when the far greater enterprise of securing a practically inexhaustible water supply for an indefinite period in the future was undertaken, it was only natural that he should be appointed Chief Engineer under the new Board of Water Supply. In this position he has planned and supervised the construction of one of the greatest aqueducts in the world. It takes water from the Catskills by gravity and an immense masonry siphon under the Hudson to the New York mains at a cost of $200,000,000, and is one of the greatest engineering feats of the ages, rivalling the great Roman Aqueduct
JONAS WALDO SMITH
and challenging comparison with the Panama Canal. Under his direction it has been completed with a dispatch and thoroughness that make an epoch in Metropolitan building. It has brought into relief some of his most telling traits-his power to bend his energies persistently and with a quick force that makes for results, and his rare faculty of getting large aggregations of men to work enthu- siastically and happily toward a great end. He has thus succeeded in saving the city much time and annoyance, not to mention the saving in expense. A study of his work here reveals his secret of success.
Mr. Smith has withal special social qualities, often applied indi- vidually, but again in large gatherings in which he takes genuine pleasure in entertaining all those working with him. These quali- ties and his generous treatment of associates have won him friends everywhere. It is worth noting that he takes his fun as he takes his work, heartily, which helps to further his work still more.
December 30, 1913, he married Anne Louise Morse of New York City, daughter of Leander and Cordelia (Tupper) Morse of Digby, Nova Scotia, and granddaughter of Minor and Elizabeth (Wetherspoon) Tupper and Abner and Mary (Parker) Morse.
Mr. Smith is a member of the American Society of Civil Engi- neers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institu- tion of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, the New England Water- works Association, the American Waterworks Association, the Engi- neers' Club, the Technology Club, the Century Association, the New England Society, the City Club, and the Franklin Institute of New York, and the Hamilton Club of Paterson, New Jersey.
He has written many technical papers and reports, but has been too busy to prepare books for publication. His books are in great masonry and in great enterprises successfully completed.
This noted engineer, a leader in his profession, has certain posi- tive ideas as to the foundations of success. He believes in hard work and plenty of it, such as he had as farmer boy and has had ever since as engineer. He believes in courage to follow one's con- victions of right rather than in easy acquiescence in the popular way, and, as a corollary, he advises the cultivation of absolute in- difference to unwarranted criticism. As a balance for all he would suggest generous consideration for others. Definite ideas, these, a commentary in his career. These are the words of one who has done high deeds in his profession.
Franck Belkily With
FRANK BULKELEY SMITH
F RANK BULKELEY SMITH, lawyer and manufacturer, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1864.
His father was Charles Worcester Smith, a Massachu- setts Cotton Manufacturer, a good business man, fond of music and art, and his mother, whose name before marriage was Josephine Caroline Lord, was a woman who exerted a strong moral and spir- itual influence upon the character of her son.
His early ancestors in America came to this country from England, between the years 1636 and 1650. The Rev. Peter Bulke- ley and Col. Simon Willard were among the founders of Con- cord and Lancaster, Massachusetts; William Worcester was the first minister at Salisbury, Massachusetts; Thomas Lord was one of the first settlers of Hartford, Connecticut, and John Smith of Barre, Massachusetts.
In early boyhood Mr. Smith was fond of general reading and especially of works on history. He attended the Worcester High School and graduated from Harvard in 1888 with the degree of A.M. He was afterwards a student in the Harvard Law School, was admitted to the Bar in 1899, and since that time has practiced law in Worcester, Massachusetts.
As a lawyer, he has been connected with many industrial cor- porations. From 1889 to 1913, he was Treasurer for S. Slater & Sons, incorporated, Cotton and Woolen Manufacturers of Webster, Massachusetts, and in 1913 he became the Treasurer of the New England Cotton Yarn Company, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, of which he is also a Director. He is also a Director in the Gosnold Mills Company ; the Danielson Cotton Company ; the Hassam Pave- ment Company; the Lambeth Rope Company; and the Worcester Trust Company of Worcester.
His club memberships include the Union Club, the University and the St. Botolph Club in Boston, the Harvard Club of New York, and the Worcester Club in Worcester.
Politically he has always been a member of the Republican party, although he voted twice for Cleveland for President.
FRANK BULKELEY SMITH
In his church affiliations he is a Unitarian, and for recreation he finds much pleasure in Golf.
On June 5, 1890, he married Miss Nancy Hacker Earle, daugh- ter of Timothy Keese and Nancy Shove (Hacker) Earle, and grand- daughter of Henry and Ruth (Keese) Earle, and of William Estes Hacker and Nancy (Shove) Hacker. She, on her father's side, was a descendant of Ralph Earle, who was one of the early settlers of Newport, Rhode Island.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had five children, all of whom are now living. Bulkeley is a clerk with Kidder, Peabody & Company, of Boston; Willard is a clerk with F. S. Moseley & Company, of Boston; while Earle, Nancy, and Frank Grosvenor are still stu- dents at various schools.
He regards the influences of home, of private study, of early companionship, and of contact with men in active life, all as strong factors in his own success in life.
Being asked what advice he would give to young Americans anxious to attain true success in life, Mr. Smith replied, "Let them be earnest, with constant and hard work in any line of endeavor which they may elect."
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Harry UneatenSmith
HARRY WORCESTER SMITH
M ANY people may be pigeon-holed with as little difficulty as a mortgage or a receipt. They have only one side and a brief and narrow one at that. The records of Harry Wor- cester Smith's activities would require a whole filing-cabinet.
Certain of his characteristic qualities seem to have come to him from his paternal grandfather, John Smith, who, a poor boy, came to this country from England, and was a contemporary of Samuel Slater, the founder of the manufacture of cotton cloth in America. John Smith lived first at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and thence moved to the little village on the Ware river near Barre, which from his name was called Smithville.
From the "Rich Men of Massachusetts" published in 1851 by Forbes and Greene, we find that John Smith was "a man of indom- itable perseverance and energy," and in Wood's History of Barre Cattle Fairs we read :
"Here the grandfather of Harry Worcester Smith made cotton cloth and a fortune with American labor. Many have spoken of the fine majestic trees with white trunks scattered about Smith- ville and intruding upon the roadway, and it is interesting to note that some sixty years ago on account of their size and proximity to the road they were ordered to be cut down by the Selectmen, endan- gering, as they did, traffic at night. John Smith saved them for his descendants by guaranteeing to keep them painted white fifteen feet from the ground up, and this agreement has been rigidly ad- hered to by his sons."
His wife was Clarissa Worcester, whose sister was the wife of E. B. Bigelow, the inventor of the Carpet Loom and founder of the Bigelow Carpet Works at Clinton.
Their son Charles Worcester Smith, 1828-1883, a man of high integrity, distinguished for his remarkable sense of justice, was also engaged in the manufacture of cotton in Smithville, Stoneville, and Shirley. At Smithville, following the love of his father for nature and trees, he planted the beautiful avenue of Rock Maples which guard the entrance of the village as one enters from Barre.
He married Josephine McCurdy Caroline Lord, who, on the side of her father, Thomas Durfee Lord, was descended from a family
HARRY WORCESTER SMITH
possessing in fee from the Indians a tract of land almost cotermi- nous with the present State of Connecticut, the Lord family settled near the beautiful town of Lyme at Tantamaheag, on the bend of the river known to this day as "Lord's Cove."
One of Mrs. Smith's ancestors was the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, the learned Divine, who having been removed by Archbishop Laud from his position as Rector of the Bedfordshire Parish for non- conformity, came to this country and became the first minister of Concord.
Josephine MeCurdy Caroline Lord was a woman of wonderful tenacity of purpose and self-sacrifice. Her father, lured by the tales of the Prairies of the West, journeyed from Lord's Cove to Canton, Illinois, while the daughter Josephine was yet a child, and it was there that she was brought up.
Harry Worcester Smith was born on Elm Street, Worcester, November 5, 1865. He early manifested a keen love for wild flowers and animals and delighted in outdoor life. His father died when he was still a youth, but his mother had a powerful influence on his intellectual and moral development and by her example made him realize the value of intense application.
As he grew older, he found no pleasure in spending his school vacations in idleness and took up a position in one of the leading stores and worked hard. He fitted at the Worcester High School for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but after passing his first mid-winter examinations, on the advice of the late George Cromp- ton, he went to the Lowell School of Design where he took a course in designing and weaving. Desiring to strengthen himself in this line he went abroad, and first at the Chemnitz Technical School in Germany, then at the Glasgow School of Design in Scotland, and finally at the Bradford Technical School in England laid the foun- dation of that thorough knowledge of cloth-manufacture which afterwards enabled him to make valuable and lasting improvements in its machinery.
In October, 1893, he married Mildred Mary, daughter of George Crompton and Mary (Pratt) Crompton. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one son, Crompton Smith, and one daughter, Isabel Crompton Smith.
Through his father-in-law he became connected with the Cromp- ton Loom Works but retired at the latter's death and invested the $50,000, his share of his father's estate, in a manufacturing enter-
HARRY WORCESTER SMITH
prise-the Wachusett Mills-of which he was president for eighteen years.
In this enterprise he lost all his capital and twice as much more, the investment of his family, but meantime he perfected a number of inventions and brought out over thirty patents on automatic color weaving, which revolutionized the manufacture of ginghams, or drop box fabrics, in the United States and Europe. These he sold or leased under royalty to the Crompton & Knowles Loom Works and to the Draper Company, and was not only able to make good every dollar he had lost in the mill venture, but to pay back dollar for dollar with interest every penny invested by his family in the enterprise.
Not long before his death General William F. Draper honored him as a brother inventor at a dinner given in Hopedale, and he was an intimate friend of the late Governor Eben S. Draper, who secured through purchase a number of the labor-saving devices of the Worcester manufacturer for the use of the Draper Company.
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