USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 7 > Part 6
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WILLIAM DAVIS BRACKETT
W ILLIAM DAVIS BRACKETT was born at Londonderry, New Hampshire, June 9, 1840. His ancestor, Anthony Brackett, a Scotchman, came to this country in or about 1635 and settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His fa- ther, Cobb Brackett, first followed the sea, then became a tiller of the soil and also a country merchant. He was a man noted for his activity in every enterprise which he undertook. He was a native of Eastham, Massachusetts, where he married Almeria Brown, danghter of Theodore Brown.
The parents soon removed to Swampscott, where he began his business career, leaving school at the age of twelve, and taking a place in the general store kept by his father. Even as a little boy he had been fascinated by the business; and he was kept from the mischief which Satan is said to find for idle hands, by running er- rands and doing little tasks about the store. One of his exploits was to make a thousand paper bags every half day when no school was in session.
He became a regular clerk, and at the age of twenty he suc- ceeded to his father's business, and became its proprietor. Al- though he was for nine months absent in the years 1862 and 1863, while serving as Corporal in Company E of the Forty-fifth Massa- chusetts Voluntary Infantry, he made a success of his business venture and after the war, at the end of five years, he sold it and went to Boston, where he became a member of the firm of Gold- thwait, Brackett & Company, engaging in the wholesale and retail boot and shoe trade. In 1868 on the death of Mr. J. L. Goldthwait, the firm of Cressy & Brackett was formed for the purpose of manu- facturing and selling at wholesale boots and shoes. Two years later Mr. T. E. Cressy retired and the firm became Mann & Brackett; then again in 1880 Mr. Brackett purchased Mr. Mann's interest and the firm name became W. D. Brackett and Company, under which designation it still continues, with Mr. Brackett's son, Forrest G. Brackett, and W. H. Emerson as partners. It has been eminently successful, maintaining several large factories, to the general oversight of which Mr. Brackett has given especial attention.
He was also President of the Batchelder and Lincoln Company for five years until 1908, when that company was absorbed by the Hamilton Brown Shoe Company of Boston, when he became Vice- President and Treasurer. He was also from the year 1900 Presi- dent of the Stoneham National Bank. He held no public office except that of town clerk of Swampscott from 1865 until 1869. Although each year has made him more and more convinced of the
William H. Brackett.
WILLIAM DAVIS BRACKETT
correctness of Republican principles, he has never been induced to take any public part in politics, though he is an enthusiastic mem- ber of the Home Market Club. In early life he joined the Free Masons and is a member of Hugh De Payne Commandery, Knights Templar. He also belongs to several business men's clubs, includ- ing the Boot and Shoe Club.
Mr. Brackett is a keen lover of Nature and for forty-five years his vacations have been spent in fishing trips. He is also pas- sionately fond of looking after his garden and orchard.
On January 1, 1865, he married Sarah A. Lee, daughter of James and Charlotte Lee. Two children have been born of this marriage: Forrest Grant, in business with his father; and Blanch E., now Mrs. S. D. Hildreth.
Mr. Brackett is a thorough believer in hard work for boys and in careful saving. His own successful career well exemplifies how energy, faithfulness, economy, and the following of an ideal never fail to bring desired results. The influence of his father was very strong with him and he got more from his home training and from intercourse with his fellowmen than from the lessons he learned in what many would call a meager book education. But evidently book education may fail of being real education and, on the other hand, a wide outlook on life and the every-day experiences, if taken in the right way, may give all the qualities of character and of gentlemanly breeding. Mr. Brackett, comparing his own habits of discipline, of careful saving, of seizing opportunities, and mak- ing the best of them, with the behavior of boys of a later day, is obliged to conclude that a "lack of interest in their work, a tend- ency to prefer mere temporal pleasure, to ignore their chances of saving for future advancement, and a happy-go-lucky carelessness have been characteristic of altogether too many of the younger generation. He finds them willing to shirk, when it would have been to their advantage to put in extra work; he sees that they are inclined to be spendthrifts both of their time and of their money ; that they lack a genuine ambition to make the most of themselves."
Mr. Brackett's youthful zeal for business, his early recognition of what he wanted to be his lifework, his determined course after he had once decided, and his energy in making his work a success form an admirable object-lesson to those young men who drift along without an idea of what they are in this world for, who make no effort to find their bent, but are content to have what they call a good time.
The lifework and achievements of Mr. Brackett are an inspira- tion to the youth of to-day. He is the best type of a self-made man.
HEZEKIAH ANTHONY BRAYTON
T O take charge of a mill that is in financial straits and make it one of the best paying properties in Massachusetts, shows financial ability of no mean order. Such was the success- ful experience of Hezekiah A. Brayton of Fall River, when he be- came Trustee of the Sagamore Manufacturing Company. Not only did he retrieve the fortunes of this corporation, but he developed an efficiency in it that was new in textile manufacturing.
Hezekiah A. Brayton was born at Fall River, June 24, 1832. In his family line was Francis Brayton, who came from England to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and became a freeman in 1655. He served as a member of the General Court of Commissioners and afterwards for many years in the Rhode Island Assembly.
His paternal grandparents were John Brayton (1762-1829) and Sarah Bowers. His father was Israel Brayton (1792-1866), a man of integrity and character. His mother was Kezia Anthony, a woman of rare gentleness and refinement.
Hezekiah A. Brayton passed his boyhood days at the Brayton homestead at Somerset, Massachusetts, in whose schools he received his elementary education. His academic course was taken at East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
His career after leaving school was somewhat varied. For a single year he taught school at Seekonk, Massachusetts, which was followed by employment for a short time as a railroad ticket agent. Then he went to Texas and worked as a surveyor. Returning to the North, he was employed in the carding and mechanical engineer- ing departments of the Pacific Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
He went to Chicago in 1857 with his brother and engaged in the grain commission business on the Board of Trade, a line of business he continued later to follow on the New York Produce Exchange, all of which gave him a good preparation for his future life.
His greatest and most successful work was begun after he had returned to Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1872. He was elected
HEZEKIAH ANTHONY BRAYTON
Vice-President and Cashier of the First National Bank. Six years later when the Sagamore Mills Corporation failed, he was ap- pointed one of its Trustees.
When the business was reorganized as the Sagamore Manufac- turing Company, Mr. Brayton became Treasurer and Director and he continued to hold these offices until his death, March 24, 1908. The rehabilitation of these mills under his guidance was little short of a marvel. When he became Treasurer he built No. 2 (stone) Mill, and later, when No. 1 brick Mill was completely de- stroyed by fire he rebuilt that. From being a defunct corporation, he raised its efficiency until it paid dividends that seemed phe- nomenal. This was done by no trick of finance but on honest merit. He gave his business his undivided attention and his judgment was unusually accurate. By keen observation he improved machin- ery and enlarged the production.
He was not only in the Sagamore Company, but was also Presi- dent and Director of the Durfee Mills. He became a Trustee of the B. M. C. Durfee High School which was given to the city by his sister, Mrs. Mary B. Young. He believed in any new enter- prise that would benefit his city and backed it with his means, as his subscription to a block of stock of the last cotton corporation formed before his death, would indicate. He was certainly one of the most successful mill men in Fall River.
Mr. Brayton married Caroline Elizabeth, the daughter of William Lawton and Mary (Sherman) Slade of Somerset, Massa- chusetts, March 25, 1868. His domestic life was exceedingly happy. The hospitality of his home was known far and wide. He loved his friends and favored them in every way.
They had ten children of whom eight survive their father: Caroline Slade; Abbie Slade, who married Randall N. Durfee of Fall River; William L. S. is Treasurer of the Sagamore Manufac- turing Company, having succeeded his father; Israel, member of the law firm of Jennings and Brayton; Arthur Perry, Margaret Lee, Dorothy Katharine. Mary Durfee and Stanley died in early life.
Mr. Brayton's work was constructive. He did not tear down unless it was to rebuild better. Fall River, where much of his best work was done, will never cease to be grateful to him for the splen- did institutions that he left behind him as monuments of his life work.
EDWIN PERKINS BROWN
E DWIN PERKINS BROWN was born June 25, 1868, in St. Albans, Vermont. He is the son of George Washington Brown and Addie E. Perkins.
The ancestry of the Browns is of the sturdy New England type which brings things to pass and makes nativity in the Green Moun- tain State a title of honor.
Edwin P. Brown's grandfather on his father's side was Isaac Washington Brown of Northfield, Vermont, whose wife was Sylvia Elvira Partridge. He is a direct descendant of Jonathan Brown who married Patience Kneeland in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1779. Jonathan Brown was in the War of the Revolution and was captured and carried off by the Indians in their raid upon Royal- ston, Vermont, in 1782.
Edwin Perkins Brown, although Vermont born, was practically Boston reared, his parents taking up residence in Boston when he was about three years of age. He gratefully remembers his mother, as his earliest teacher and guide-the mentor in his young life in things moral and spiritual. His early reading favored his- tory and Thackeray.
He received his school training in Boston, making the grades in the Rice primary and Rice grammar schools in the usual time, and finishing the English High in 1887 when he was nineteen years old. A good healthy, active boy, he was fond of outdoor sports and was a prime favorite with his mates on the playground.
High School finished, he entered the employ of the shoe manu- facturing firm of Bouve Crawford Company as office boy. For sev- eral years previous to this the elder Brown had been interested in the development and sale of various machines necessary to the shoe manufacturing industry and under parental advice or influence Edwin P. Brown began at the bottom rung of the shoe manufac- turing business. He stayed faithfully by the shoe business for two years, or during his minority. At this time an opportunity to enter the office of a railroad company led him to give up his po- sition with the shoe manufactory and enter the service of the At- lantic and Pacific R. R. as a clerk. For the next three years until 1892 he was in the railroad business, first for the Atlantic and Pa- cific at Albuquerque, New Mexico, then for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé R. R. at El Paso, Texas. The offer of a more lucrative
EDWIN PERKINS BROWN
position and a wider field of activity led him to accept service as General Agent for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company with head- quarters at El Paso, Texas. Here for the next six years until 1898 he conducted successfully the affairs of this company intrusted to him. In 1898 the American Zinc, Lead and Smelting Company of Joplin, Missouri, offered him such terms that he closed his connec- tion with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and entered the em- ploy of the former company. He did business acceptably and suc- cessfully for the Smelting Company for the next two years. He had now been absent from New England about ten years, and in the meantime the United Shoe Machinery Company had been formed and the Shoe Machinery Company in which the father had become Director, Treasurer and General Manager had been merged in the United Shoe Machinery Company.
The manifold burdens of the great company and his growing financial operations and obligations in other directions led to the negotiations which in 1899 brought the first decade of Edwin P. Brown's business career in the West to a close and inducted him into a still more promising career in the employ of the United Shoe Machinery Company. He was appointed Assistant Manager, in which capacity he so approved himself that March, 1911, he became Director and General Manager of the United Shoe Machinery Com- pany. In addition to this responsible position he is a Director of the International Trust Company, and Director and Vice-President of the American Zinc, Lead and Smelting Company.
Mr. Brown is associated with many clubs. He is a member of the N. E. Shoe & Leather Association, the Union League, New York, the Algonquin Club, the Eastern Yacht Club, the Exchange Club, the Brookline Country Club, the Beacon Society, and the Commer- cial Club.
He is fond of fishing, hunting, golf, and travel.
In politics, Mr. Brown is a Republican; in church relations an Episcopalian.
September 26, 1894, he was married to Emma J., daughter of Charles R. and Annie Todd. They have two children: George Russell and Florence Emma, both in school.
Mr. Brown believes that among the influences potent for his success in life, the home influences of his childhood have been greatest, his early companionships next, and contact with virile men in the stress of business life third in importance, and by no means a negligible force.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BROWN
M R. BROWN is Vice President of the United Shoe Machin- ery Company of Boston. The story of his successful business life has been duplicated many times during the last half-century of American progress and may be taken as a fair sample of what a young man of good parentage, of clean habits and good address, of determined honesty of purpose, industry and ten- acity of intent may accomplish in this country of great opportunity.
He was born in Northfield, Vermont, August 30, 1841. His father, Isaac Washington Brown, was a hotel-keeper in Northfield for several years and satisfactorily filled many offices of trust and honor in both county and town. His mother was Sylvia Elvira, daughter of David and Sophia Moore Partridge.
The earliest known ancestor on his father's side was Jonathan Brown, who married Patience Kneeland in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1779. Jonathan Brown was captured by the Indians at the sacking of Royalton, Vermont, in 1782 and taken to Montreal. Their son, Joel Brown, married Dorcas Nichols, and they became the parents of Isaac Washington Brown, Mr. Brown's father.
The young George received his education in the public schools of his native town, supplemented by attendance at the Orange County Grammar School at Randolph Centre, Vermont, and the Newbury Seminary, Newbury, Vermont.
Mr. Brown entered the employ of the Vermont Central Railroad Company in 1858 as timekeeper, and in 1865 became a member of the firm of Hyde and Brown at St. Albans, Vermont, dealers in groceries and provisions. Two years later he made a further change and became a partner in the firm of McGowan and Brown, dealers in hardware, in St. Albans. On February 24, 1869, he left St. Albans for Sacramento, California, having been appointed Auditor of the Motive Power Department of the Central Pacific Railroad. He returned from California to Boston, and in October, 1871, entered the employ of the Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company as
gron Brown.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BROWN
a salesman. He soon became Superintendent of Agents, con- tinuing in this position until July, 1876, when he was made General Manager for the New England States.
In the next few years Mr. Brown became interested in the development of several machines used in the shoe-manufacturing industry, and in 1892 he resigned his position with the Wheeler and Wilson Company to become Manager of the Consolidated Hand Method Lasting Machine Company, of which he had been made a Director in 1889 and Treasurer in 1891. This concern was one of those finally merged in the United Shoe Machinery Company. Mr. Brown was one of the principal organizers of the new company, and on March 1st, 1899, he was elected Treasurer and General Manager and has since been most active in its management.
In his business success Mr. Brown did not forget his old Vermont home; and, appreciating the benefits which the inhabitants of his native town of Northfield might derive from a snug investment in their behalf, he presented the town in 1906 with a very handsome public library as a memorial to his family.
Mr. Brown has also been very much interested in the work of the National Civic Federation, and is a member of the Executive Com- mittee for the Welfare Department. His interest in the movement has been shown in a practical form, exemplifying various ideas advo- cated by this Federation in the offices of the United Shoe Machinery Company in Boston and at their factories in Beverly, Mass.
Besides his active connection with the United Shoe Machinery Company and affiliated concerns, Mr. Brown is a Director of the First National Bank of Boston. He was for many years a member of the old Central Club of Boston and is now a member of the Algon- quin Club, the Brookline Country Club, the Sons of Vermont Asso- ciation, the Episcopalian Club of Massachusetts, the New England Shoe and Leather Association, the Boston Boot and Shoe Club, the Massachusetts Automobile Club, the Boston Merchants Association, and the Chamber of Commerce, and a life member of the Museum of Fine Arts and Bostonian Societies; also of the Boston Press Club.
In 1863 Mr. Brown married Addie E. Perkins, who died in June, 1900. To them was born one son, Edwin P. Brown, who is now Assistant General Manager of the United Shoe Machinery Company, and Miss Florence E. Brown, who died in 1899.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BROWN
Mr. Brown is a firm believer in young men, many of whom have found in him an ever-ready sympathizer and wise counselor. Mr. Brown's remarks, made in the course of an address before a notable gathering of those interested in the great shoe industry of Brockton, Massachusetts, show the breadth of his observation and should be recorded as a code that might well be adopted by present as well as future generations.
" As we journey through life, we all formulate from our experience principles which would be our sure guide if we were to make the journey the second time. While 'experience is a great teacher,' we can all profit much by the observation of others.
"In the course of a somewhat varied life, I have observed that cheerfulness and kindness are the oil that lubricates the great machine of business. Do not be cast down or complain of the lack of early advantages. Most successful men create their own opportunities; so do not believe in luck or wait for something to turn up. Remember: hard work and hard knocks make the man, and bring to the top all the good there is in him. Be prompt in commencing your day's work. Do not watch the clock for its ending. Finish when you are through, and not before. Do not converse on your own affairs in working hours; and, whatever you do, remember that you are watched and will be imitated by your subordinates in working hours and out; in the general conduct of your lives, not only in a business way but socially and morally as well. Be absolutely honest with yourselves and your associates, dignified and courteous to all. Be obedient, and do what you are told to do willingly, whether it seems to be what you are hired for or not; and, above all things, be loyal, and not grudgingly so either, but with a free heart, giving the best there is in you to your firm, your family and friends. Then, with a contented mind and good health, you will get out of life all there is to be had on this side of the Great Divide."
Henry Billings Brown.
HENRY BILLINGS BROWN
H ENRY BILLINGS BROWN, Associate Justice of the Su- preme Court, was born in South Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 2, 1836. He died September 4, 1913. His father, Billings Brown (born September 17, 1794) was the son of Elias and Sabra (Billings) Brown, and a manufacturer, self educated, a man efficient in business, fond of reading, and of high intelligence. He was a member of the legislature and was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens.
His mother, Mary A. (Tyler) Brown, was the daughter of Jonathan B. and Mary (Stewart) Tyler. Hers was a strong personality and she had great influence upon both the intellectual and moral development of her son. She was a woman of clear and vigorous intellect and early piety.
Henry Brown fitted for college at Monson Academy and was graduated from Yale College in 1856. The subsequent year was spent in Europe, studying languages and travelling extensively. His law studies were first prosecuted at Yale, but finished at the Law School of Harvard University, where he received his degree of LL.B. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Michigan in 1887. He commenced the practice of his profession in Detroit, Michigan, in 1860. The following year he was appointed deputy United States Marshal, and subsequently assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Mich- igan. He held that office until 1868, when he was appointed by Governor Crapo judge of the State Circuit Court of Wayne County, to fill a vacancy.
In 1875 he was appointed by President Grant, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. He had al- ready won distinction as an Admiralty lawyer, and had become a recognized authority in this department of jurisprudence. He compiled Brown's "Admiralty Reports," for Western Lake and River Districts, and wrote many articles upon legal topics.
Upon the death of Mr. Justice Miller of the United States Su- preme Court, October 14, 1890, President Harrison appointed
HENRY BILLINGS BROWN
Judge Brown to the vacancy. His commission is dated Decem- ber 29, 1890. Justice Brown honored the State of his birth, the profession he followed and the high position he occupied. He was distinguished for keen judicial wisdom and for the probity of his official and private life.
Judge Brown was a member of the Chevy Chase and Cosmos Clubs of Washington and of the University Club of New York. His principal relaxation was found in traveling. His convictions in regard to the means upon which young men should depend for success in life, can best be stated by his own words :- "I am a strong believer in heredity. I believe there are certain children who are bound to make their way in the world. Their success is usually dependent upon circumstances of birth, moral training, and education, and is sometimes independent of all other circum- stances, except inherited ability and ambition. I regard inherited wealth, or the expectancy of it, as one of the most serious obstacles to success. though there are a few brilliant examples of those who have managed to surmount it with fair inherited talents, industry, and ambition. Success in one's chosen field is most probable and al- most certain, provided bad habits are eschewed."
The life and work of Justice Brown is a brilliant illustration of the vast possibilities for achievement which are open to the young men of our land. In the record of his life we see how by means of close application and earnest and well directed effort, reinforced by a strong moral character, the village youth may make his way to a place in the most important judicial tribunal of the world. Justice Brown was a man of ripe attainments and of un- usually varied legal and judicial experience. His judicial opin- ions exhibit breadth of judgment, freedom from prejudice, legal learning, and a judicial application of the principles of public ethics.
Judge Brown was married July 13, 1864, to Caroline Pitts, who died July 11, 1901. They had no children. He was married June 25, 1904, to Josephine E. Tyler, widow of Lieutenant F. H. Tyler of the United States Navy.
Samuel
SAMUEL CARR
S AMUEL CARR was born in Charlestown, now part of Bos- ton, November 18, 1848. His father's house stood on Bunker Hill, emblem of freedom won through conflict by lofty char- acter. Mr. Carr is of pure New England stock, his ancestors on his father's side and on his mother's having settled in New England in early colonial days. His father, Samuel Carr, born in Newburyport, was a man of remarkable energy, business ca- pacity, and sterling Christian character. His mother, Louisa Hall (Trowbridge) Carr, was a high-minded woman of marked refine- ment and elevation of feeling. Their influence upon their children was deep and decisive. The Bible was then the great ethical text- book; it was the guide and companion of family life. Accordingly the children of Mr. and Mrs. Carr became familiar with the greatest treasure in the English tongue, or in any other tongue, the English Bible. The artistic feeling of the subject of this sketch was thus quickened and fed, as in so many other instances, by the incom- parable speech of the Bible.
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