USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 26
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daughter of Richard Adams, of Newbury, Mass., and subsequently to a daughter of Joshua W. Lincoln, of Charlestown. By his first marriage there are two children : Charles W., who is a telegraph operator ; and Edward R. Ayers, an engineer and the day officer at the jail.
ILLIAM. N. AMES, one of the prominent business men of Ames- bury, was born in this town, March I, 1858, son of William- H. and Dolly Colby (Bagley) Ames. The paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Ames, who was born in Parsonfield, Me., died when his son, William H., was about nine years old. He married Miss Stickney, sister of John I. Stickney.
William H. Ames, a native of St. Andrews, N. B., learned the carpenter's trade in Haver- hill, Mass., and was subsequently in the em- ployment of Robert Morrill for a number of years. In 1856 he moved to Amesbury, where he worked at carpentry and in the Merri- mac hat factory. He eventually started in the manufacture of boxes, and built up an extensive business, furnishing all the boxes for the Merrimac Hat Company and the Bailey Hat Company, of Newburyport, for some time. In 1872 the former company began to make their own boxes, and the other company finally closed up their business. The loss of two of his best customers having made a serious defi- cit in the accounts of William H., he started in the coal business in 1880, establishing a
yard at Bailey's Wharf, at the ferry. This venture of his, which became increasingly profitable, has now flourished for nearly twenty years. He was on the School Board for a number of years, and he was in the legislature in 1870. A member of Warren Lodge, F. & A. M., he is a charter member of Tim-
othy Chapter, R. A. M., and is a Knight Tem- plar of Newburyport Commandery. He also belongs to Powow River Lodge, I. O. O. F. He was at one tinie a Knight of Honor. His wife was a daughter of William H. Bagley, of Amesbury, who lived at "Hackett's," made famous by Whittier. Mr. Bagley was a char- ter member of Warren Lodge, of Amesbury. Mr. and Mrs. Ames had two children : Will- iam N., the subject of this sketch ; and Hor- ace T., born November 22, 1872. The latter, a graduate of the Amesbury High School, is in business with his brother.
William N. Ames was educated in his na- tive town, completing his studies in the Amesbury High School. He early became associated in business with his father, and was in control of the box business until within a few years. Since 1887 he has been a member of the firm of W. N. Ames & Co., managing the coal trade. The company carries about five thousand tons of coal per annum, which is shipped directly from New York to the yards at Amesbury Ferry; and it has a number of delivery teams. Mr. Ames is a charter mem- ber of the Amesbury Co-operative Bank, and has the first book issued by that institution. He has been a member of several political committees, and has served as delegate to a number of conventions. A Mason in good standing, he belongs to Warren Lodge, F. & A. M., Trinity Chapter and Amesbury Council. He is a charter member of Josiah Bartlett Lodge, O. U. A. M .; and he is con- nected with Wonnesquam Yacht Club.
EV. JOHN WESLEY ADAMS, a supernumerary of the New Hampshire Methodist Episcopal Annual Con- ference, is an esteemed resident of Methuen, Mass., his pleasant home being at the corner
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of High and Gage Streets. He was born May 23, 1832, in Townsend, Middlesex County, Mass., son of John and Mary (Taggart) Adams, Jr.
The branch of the Adams family to which he belongs is that founded by Henry, of Brain- tree, the roll of whose posterity includes among other distinguished names two Presi- dents of the United States and the stanch patriot, Samuel Adams.
Henry Adams came from England with his eight sons probably between 1630 and 1634, and settled at Braintree (now Quincy), where he died in 1646. Joseph, born in 1626, sev- enth son of Henry, resided in Braintree. He married Abigail Baxter, and was the father of Joseph, Jr., who by his second wife, Hannah Bass, had a son John, born in February, 1691-2. This John Adams, grandson of the first Joseph, was the father of President John Adams.
From Henry of Braintree the Rev. John W. Adams of Methuen thus traces his descent: Henry 1; Joseph 2; Jonathan, 3 born in 1671; Jonathan, 4 born in 1725, died in Lunenburg, June 17, 1813; Jonathan, 5 born at Lunenburg in 1759, died in December, 1843; John Adams, Sr.,6 born in Lunenburg, April 5, 1782, died in Townsend, Mass., December 20, 1845; John Adams, Jr.,7 born in Lunen- burg, October 5, 1807, died in Chelsea, Mass., November 9, 1889. Jonathan Adams 4 was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. At one time he owned one African slave.
John Adams, Sr., was a prosperous hus- bandman, and accumulated considerable prop- erty for his time. He married Mary Russell, who was born in Townsend, December 24, 1785, and died August 31, 1855. They had fifteen children, twelve of whom grew to adult life and married, namely: Thomas, born March 11, 1805; John, Jr .; Sophia, born
June 2, 1809, now deceased; William, born February 28, 1811, who was for many years a Captain in the State militia, and who died in Minnesota, December 2, 1895; Mary, born June 28, 1813, now the widow of Asa Tyler and living in Townsend; Lovisa, born June 15, 1815, now deceased; Eli, born July 7, 1817, who died in Townsend in 1897; Eri, a twin brother of Eli, residing in Townsend; Plooma, born June 19, 1819, who lives in Minneapolis, Minn. ; Fannie, born September 27, 1821, now deceased; James, born January 12, 1825, now deceased; and Stephen, born January 2, 1827, who resides in Lunenburg.
John Adams, Jr., learned the cooper's trade in his youth, but on removing to Boston was there a pressman in a newspaper office. Going thence to Temple, Me., he was at first foreman in a printer's establishment and afterward a merchant. In 1848 he opened a boarding-house in Lawrence, Mass., and at the same time bought ten acres of land on Clover Hill as an investment. Selling later at an advantage, he built a house on Newbury Street, where he lived until his removal to Chelsea, when he bought a fine residence, which he occupied until his death, of la grippe, as above mentioned. His wife nine days later succumbed to the same disease. Her maiden name was Mary Taggart. She was born January 28, 1808, in Goffstown, N. H., a daughter of John and Hannah (Hawes) Taggart. Her parents subsequently removed to Temple, Me., where she was married to John Adams, Jr., October 7, 1830. They reared but two of their five children, namely : .John Wesley, the direct subject of this sketch ; and Lucy Elvira, wife of Frank A. Hardy, station agent at Amherst, Mass.
John Wesley Adams in his boyhood at- tended first the Oliver Grammar School and then the high school in Lawrence, Mass., and
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at the age of eighteen years began life for himself as a clerk in a Lawrence bookstore. He was afterward employed in Lowell as an assistant in the office of the Daily News, later being engaged in the grocery business with his uncle, the Rev. John Taggart, a retired Methodist minister. In 1857 Mr. Adams, having determined to devote himself to the ministry of the gospel, assumed the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal church at Rye, N. H. He has since continued in the work with the exception of two years, 1889 and 1890, when he travelled extensively in foreign countries. He visited England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, from whence his mother's family, the Taggarts, came to New England, they having been Scotch-Irish Protestants; and he also went to Greece, Palestine, Egypt, France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland.
On the breaking out of the Civil War Mr. Adams was active in securing enlistments, ad- dressing many meetings for that purpose, and fanning the flames of patriotism wherever he went. December 5, 1863, he was commis- sioned chaplain of General Gilman Marston's original command, the Second New Hamp- shire Volunteer Infantry, otherwise known as "The Fighting Second," and immediately joined his regiment, which was then guarding the rebel prison camp at Point Lookout, Md. He served until December, 1865, and not only performed his sacred duties in the camp, but was under fire in every battle in which the regiment was engaged and frequently at the extreme front. As a mark of appreciation of his services in the army he has a testimonial written on parchment, with the signatures of the officers of his regiment, headed by that of the Colonel, J. N. Patterson, who was then Brevet Brigadier-general. This testimonial speaks not only of his faithful chaplaincy, but of his soldierly bearing, his valor in action,
his sympathy for the sick and wounded, his personal character, and the eminent respect and affection in which he was held by the officers and men. Since the war he has been in yearly demand on Memorial Days, giving lectures and making camp-fire speeches. In 1883 he was the poet of the Veterans' Re- union at Weirs, N. H. Aside from his regu- lar pastoral duties he devotes some time to literary work, and has written some poems of more than average merit, including one very humorous and taking one, entitled "The Nile Mosquito," which was read by a scholarly critic at a public dinner in London, and pub- lished subsequently in Zion's Herald of Bos- ton, Mass.
For four years Mr. Adams was Presiding Elder of the Concord District of New Hamp- shire Conference, and in 1876 he was a dele- gate to the General Conference. He was sec- retary of the Committee on Personal Statistics for his conference for thirty consecutive years, and for twenty-two years was a trustee of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female College, the last twenty years being also president of the board. He belongs to the Colonel Green Post, No. 100, G. A. R., and is now department chaplain of the New Hampshire Union of the Veterans' Union. He likewise belongs to the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and is a member of the Massachusetts Commandery, K. T., also of the local grange.
The Rev. John W. Adams has twice mar- ried. On February 20, 1854, he married in Lawrence, Mass., Rebecca Hardison. She died December 1, 1857, leaving two children, namely : John F., who was killed at the age of fifteen years by the cars; and Mary Estelle, now widow of the late R. I. Stevens and mother of four children. On August 24, 1858, Mr. Adams married Lydia M. Tref-
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ethen, of Rye, N. II. Two of the five chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams died in infancy. The three now living are: Lydia Viola, wife of Lewis H. Foss, of Rye, N.H .; Wilbur Fisk Adams, a merchant tailor in Denver, Col., who is married and has one daughter ; and Charles Wesley Adams, M. D., a physician in Franklin, N. H., and the pres- ent Mayor of the city, who is married and has two children - Ruth and Charles Wesley Adams, Jr. The Doctor's son, it will be noted, is the only male representative in his generation of his grandfather's family.
REDERICK W. KORB, an enterpris- ing and prosperous business man of Lawrence, was born March 5, 1845, in Saxony, Germany, which was also the birth- place of his father, Charles Korb. Charles Korb, who was born in 1819, was until 1862 engaged as a baker in Saxony. In that year he came to America, and located in Philadel- phia. His wife, whose maiden name was Adeline Spenler, remained in the Fatherland until 1866, when she, too, crossed the ocean, and joined him in Philadelphia, where he had established a good business as a baker. Their four children are: Frederick W., the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Augusta West; of Law- rence, and Emily Kretzchmar, twins; and Emil B., who also resides in Lawrence.
Frederick W. Korb served in the German army for fifteen months. At the battle of Königgrätz, July 3, 1866, he was twice wounded by bullets, one of which penetrated his left leg, and once by a bayonet thrust. In 1867 he came to America, going directly to Philadelphia, and there worked at the baker's trade with his father. In 1869 he started in business as a baker on Chestnut Street, Law- rence, where he continued for fifteen years.
In August, 1882, he bought three acres of land, on which was the house in which he now lives. In a short time he built a bakery on the corner of Ferry and Prospect Streets. He subsequently erected other houses, and has now a two-and-a-half-story dwelling, four cot- tages on Berkeley Street, besides tenement houses. He has in all eleven tenements, which bring him in a handsome annual in- come. Also he has considerable stock in a brewery which was established on the South Side in 1896.
In politics Mr. Korb votes independent of party restrictions. Fraternally, he is an Odd Fellow. Both he and his wife worship at the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Korb, whose maiden name was Frederika Petzold, has reared two children, namely : Alma, who mar- ried Edward Claus, of Lawrence, and died in 1893, leaving one daughter ; and Olga, who is the wife of Alfred Schlegel, of Lawrence, and has one son and two daughters.
OSEPH STOWELL, one of the oldest business men of Lawrence, was born in Grantham, Sullivan County, N. H., April 10, 1824, son of Amisa and Betsey (Spalding) Stowell. His grandfather, Eben- ezer Stowell, was in the American army dur- ing the entire Revolutionary struggle, and was honorably discharged at the close. Ebenezer was a well-to-do farmer of Grantham. His wife, who survived him many years, was over ninety at her death. Both were buried in the
Grantham cemetery. They reared five sons
and one daughter. Some of their children settled in Michigan and other Western States.
Amisa Stowell, who was born near his son's birthplace in Grantham, and was principally occupied in farming in that town, died in 1858. Ilis wife, who was born in 1794 in
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Plainfield, N.H., a town adjoining Grantham, and was left an orphan at an early age, died in 1854. They reared a family of six sons and four daughters, who all married. These were: Sylvester, the eldest, now about four- score, who is a farmer of Unity, N.H .; Whit- ney, who died in Acton, N.H., when about seventy-three, leaving a wife and two daugh- ters; Lucinda, who was the wife of Albert Harlow, and died at the age of forty; Joseph, the subject of this sketch; Martha, who died unmarried in 1851; Emeline, the wife of Henry Hughey, in Springfield, Vt. ; Caroline, who was the wife of Henry Adams, of Spring- field, Vt., and died in 1896, aged about sixty ; S. Austin, who has been working in his brother's place of business in this city forty years; DeWitt Clinton, who died about 1860, leaving two daughters; and George H., a hardware merchant in Claremont, N.H., who has a wife and one daughter.
Joseph Stowell remained on his father's farm until about eleven years old. From that time until he reached the age of twenty he was on the farm of Oliver Burr, the husband of his father's only sister. He then worked for two years in a bobbin shop at Acton, N.H. In March, 1846, he came to Lawrence, where, having acquired some experience in harness- making with his brother, he worked in a har- ness shop for a month. He then purchased the stock of his employer, whom he then em- ployed both as a workman and an instructor for himself in the trade. The shop was on the corner of Haverhill Street and Broadway. Five years later Mr. Stowell moved to Ames- bury Street, near Essex, where he also re- mained five years. Early in the fifties he effected his first purchase of real estate, pay- ing eleven hundred dollars for a lot thirty-five feet front by ninety-three feet deep. To this land he moved his building from Amesbury
Street. İn 1865 he added carriage-making to his harness work, and built a three-story frame structure, ninety-three by twenty-three feet, which he still occupies. Adjoining the building is his harness shop, 311 Common Street, which he purchased about 1875. His buildings now extend for seventy-five feet front on one side of the street and for fifty feet front on the other, where are the livery stables. One of these lots he purchased in 1870, the other in 1879. The stable on the north side, a frame structure erected by him- self, is eighty-seven by ninety-three feet. The other, a brick building, was on the land when he purchased it. He started in the liv- ery business in 1862 with a stable on Jack- son Street, near Essex Street, which is now owned and managed by Orville L. F. Stowell; and in 1867 he opened a large stable on Com- mon Street, of which he had control some twenty years, selling it in 1887. He has owned fully one hundred horses, including a good stock horse. In 1866 he purchased his pleasant home on Tower Hill, at 29 Forrest Street, corner of Crescent.
On October 15, 1849, Mr. Stowell was mar- ried to Miss Jane Nesmith, of Londonderry, N. H., who died without issue in 1852. In 1855, March 16, Marion, daughter of William and Hannah (Boyce) Dickey, of Londonderry, N.H., became his second wife. She has borne him three children: Frank E., who keeps a livery in this city, resides and carries on an undertaking business in Lowell, and has one son, Joseph, now eight years old; Hattie E., now the wife of Clarence Will- iams, a commercial traveller of New York City; and Orville L. F., who, as already mentioned, conducts a livery stable in this city, and is married, but has no children. Mr. Stowell, Sr., is an independent voter. Ile served on the Common Council in 1890,
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although he does not seek office. He has independent views on religious matters, but frequently attends church service. Robust and active, he is well-preserved, and appears much younger than he actually is. A good judge of horse-flesh, he loves a fine horse.
EANDER M. HASKINS, the proprie- tor of an isinglass factory in Rock- port, was born here, June 20, 1842, son of Moses and Betsey D. (Clark) Haskins. Ancestors of Mr. Haskins on both sides of the family took an active part in the early Colonial wars. His father came of old Virginia stock of English origin. The grandfather, Bennett Haskins, was the first of the family to settle in Rockport, locating here in ante-Revolution- ary times. One of the patriots who went up from Rockport to join the Continental forces mustering at Boston, he served eight months in the siege of Boston, under General Wash- ington, and fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. One of his sons, Joseph T. Haskins, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
Moses Haskins, the father of Leander M. Haskins, was born in Rockport, and passed much of his life there. He was a director of the Rockport National Bank and a director and one of the incorporators of the railroad be- tween Gloucester and Rockport. In politics he was a Democrat, and he was for a time a Selectman of Rockport and a member of the School Committee. He died in 1863. His wife, Betsey, belonged to the fifth generation descended from Daniel Thurston, a soldier in King Philip's War; to the fifth generation descended from Abel Platts, who died at the siege of Quebec; to the third descended from Moses Platts, who died of wounds received in the siege of Louisburg; and to the fourth de- scended from John Pool, the second settler
upon the Cape. Her death occurred in 1882. She was a member of the Congregational Church of Rockport. Of the children born to her and Moses Haskins, the following attained maturity : Moses W., who died in 1869; Martha W., the wife of John N. Choate, of Rockport ; Joseph T., of Portland, Me. ; and Leander M.
Having attended the public schools of Rock- port and Phillips Andover Academy, Leander M. Haskins graduated from Dartmouth in 1862. While attending school he taught for four winters and one spring term. The sala- ries so earned and the proceeds of one fishing season supplied the funds in part necessary for his collegiate course. After receiving his di- ploma he was for a portion of two seasons engaged under J. Herbert Shedd, a well- known expert in civil engineering. In 1863 he was appointed clerk in the commissary de- partment, and assigned to the Nineteenth Army Corps, under Captain William F. Young, of Winchester, Mass. In the service some six months, he was at Port Hudson and at Donelsonville, Miss. A fever contracted by him incapacitated him from further service for a while. Then from December, 1863, to October, 1868, he was employed as clerk in the Navy Department at Washington. On re- turning to New England he engaged in busi- ness with his brother, Moses W. Haskins, under the firm name of Haskins Brothers. They dealt in all kinds of fish products, and had their headquarters in Boston. The firm was in existence twenty years. Soon after its dissolution Leander M. Haskins disposed of all the branches of the business except the manufacture of isinglass. The works in which this industry is carried on are in Rockport. During the busy season fifty men are employed here. The main office is at 10 and II Long Wharf, Boston. Mr. Haskins is also connected
LEANDER M. HASKINS.
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with a number of financial institutions. He is a director of the Faneuil Hall National Bank of Boston, one of the strongest institutions in the East; and he was a director of the Rock- National Bank. He is also a director of the Rockport Street Railway.
In politics Mr. Haskins is an Independent, under which designation he was elected to the State legislature for 1898 and appointed to the Railroad Committee. In 1871 he was married to Gertrude Davis, a native of Spring- field, Vt. ; and he now has one child, Louise. Mrs. Haskins died at the Charlesgate Hotel in Boston on January 15, 1898. Mr. Haskins is a member of the Boston Art Club, of the Boston University Club, of the Boston Ath- letic Club, and of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. A Mason in good standing, he belongs to Ashler Lodge, F. & A. M., of Rockport, and Boston Commandery, K. T. He is also a member of Wingaersheek Lodge of Red Men, of Rockport. Both he and his daughter are members of the Old South Church in Boston, as was also Mrs. Haskins. Mr. Haskins has a handsome summer residence in Rockport, which stands on high land, com- manding a fine view of land and sea. His business is now so firmly established that he is able to take an extended vacation occasion- ally. In 1892 and 1894 he visited Europe, travelling through the British Isles and over a greater part of the continent. A man of pleasing personality, well-read, in touch with the times, and a good speaker, he is qualified to fill almost any position in public life.
OHN HUME, of Amesbury, Mass., an old-time neighbor and friend of the poet Whittier, of whom he has the ten- derest recollections, is a native of Scotland. He was born at Greenlaw, in Berwickshire,
March 20, 1822, and when he was one year old he was taken by his parents to Stitchel, where he lived until he was twelve.
His boyhood and youth were spent in the vicinity of places long famed in song and story. He served as a tailor's apprentice five years in Melrose, close by Abbotsford, and he distinctly remembers Sir Walter Scott, whom he often saw. Many times when a lad he climbed the stairs of the Abbey with the old sexton on a Sunday, to ring the bells. After finishing his apprenticeship he obtained a situation at Galashiels, where he remained five years; and from that place he went to Stow, whence every Saturday night he re- turned to his home. One evening he was met about a mile from his destination by several friends of his own age, who were eager to start for the United States. The idea pleased Mr. Hume, and a week from the following Monday he was en voyage, a younger brother taking his situation. That was in 1847. Amesbury was then a small straggling village, and the dam at Lawrence was just being laid out. In the mills then in operation at Amesbury the hours of labor were from five A. M. to seven P.M. in the summer time, and the wages averaged from sixty-seven to seventy-five cents, very few employees receiving as high as a dollar and a quarter. At the time of the "great potato disturbance," the famine in Ireland, Mr. Hume applied to the superintendent of a woollen-mill for a situation for a friend in the carding or spinning room, and the following passed between them : -
" Where are you from?" "From Scotland." "You know you are lying: you're from Ire- land. Now tell me how many people are starving over there." Hume's eyes flashed indignantly, and thrusting his hand in his pocket (he had a hundred gold sovereigns with him) he drew out a handful of gold, crying,
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"That don't look much like starvation, does it?" The superintendent turned around and remarkcd, "You'd better give the young man a position." Mr. Hume was employed about six weeks in a mill, but did not like the work. The superintendent of the mill was anxious to get new patterns; and Mr. Hume, who was a designer, had drafts of a number of designs, which he taught to the operatives.
In 1848 he opened a tailor shop in Ames- bury, where he managed a successful business for nearly thirty years. His back office, which he supplied with the leading periodi- cals of the day, was a centre for the discus- sion of literary and political questions. The poet Whittier usually spent an hour or two there cvery day in social chat. Mr. Hume early invested in the carriage business, and during the depression of 1871, when he re- alized little as a tailor, he engaged with his brother in the manufacture. In 1883, the year of the big fire, their plant was burned to the ground. It was rebuilt as soon as possible; but the following year Mr. Hume retired, hav- ing sold out to the firm then known as Hume & Walker, who are now managing the business under the name of the Hume Carriage Com- pany. Mr. Hume, however, still owns a woollen-mill in Ohio.
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