USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Plymouth County, Massachusetts > Part 4
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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
other members of the firm reside in Nova Scotia. The machinery they use is of their own construction. One machine, the only one in the world, commences, binds, and com- pletes the manufacture of a cannon cracker.
On July 15, 1889, Mr. Archibald married Helen MacDonald, a native of Nova Scotia. He has two children - Margaret Helen, born July 22, 1890; and Mary Bowers Archibald, born June 10, 1893. Mr. Archibald and wife are members of the Congregational church.
ORTUS B. HANCOCK, a prominent resident of Brockton, engaged in the insurance and real estate busi- ness, was born in Coventry, Vt., February 19, 1836, a son of James and Rebecca (Miller) Hancock. His branch of the Hancock family has been domesticated in this country since Colonial times. It was founded by Anthony Hancock, who came from England, and settled in Dorchester, Mass., in 1638, with William Sumner. At a later date he removed to Wrentham, Norfolk County, and in that town his second wife bore him a son, Anthony, Jr., in 1686. The latter was married in 1707 to Elizabeth Goddard, of Sherburne, Mass., and had a family of nine children. Of these, the youngest, Benjamin, who was born in Wrentham, June 15, 1728, married Patience Clark, June 19, 1751, and reared seven chil- dren.
Benjamin's second child, Asa, the grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Wrentham, August 30, 1753, and settled on a farm in Surrey, N. H., about the year 1778- 79. Asa Hancock married Abigail Shepard- son, of Cumberland, R.I., who bore him nine children, of whom James was the sixth. James Hancock was born in Surrey, N. H., May 25, 1788, and like the majority of the
dwellers in that vicinity was a farmer. He was married August 24, 1811, to Rebecca Miller, of Westminster, Mass., who shared with him the labor and care which were the lot of the hardy farmer in those days. In 1818 James and his wife moved from West- moreland, N.H., to Coventry, Vt., taking nine days to make the journey on an ox-sled, much of the way through a wild and unbroken country. Both are now deceased. Of their ten children Horace and Portus B. are living. The others were: James S., Levi, Isaac M., Moses W., Benjamin, Rebecca, Otis, and Steven B.
Portus B. Hancock was educated in the com- mon schools of Coventry. In 1857, the year of his majority, he went to North Bridgewater, now Brockton, to work for his brother Moses, who was the first man to engage in the express business in that place, and remained with him until 1861. Returning then to Coventry, he was, from that time until 1877, engaged in buying eggs, cattle, and butter from the farmers, and sending to town and city dealers. In the spring of 1878 he started in the produce business in Brockton, and in 1884 he turned his attention to the fire insurance business. From insuring real estate to buying and sell- ing it was but a step, and in 1889 his real es- tate business had reached large proportions. His first extensive deal was in connection with Cary Hill, now Beacon Hill. All the streets in that locality were built by Mr. Hancock, and he has sold over three hundred house lots there. Some time ago, in Whitman, he pur- chased Read Corner, with ten houses, some of which he has sold on the instalment plan.
Mr. Hancock was married in 1860 to Sarah W. Hayward, daughter of Sumner A. Hay- ward. Mr. Hayward, who was one of the first insurance men of Brockton, managed a suc- cessful business for thirty years. Mr. Han-
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cock has one child, Sumner H., who was born in Coventry, Vt., in 1876. He graduated at the Brockton High School, and is now a mem- ber of the Cameron Wheel Company, the well- known bicycle firm of this city. In politics Mr. Portus B. Hancock is a Democrat. He has been in office five years as Milk Inspector. A charter member of Damocles Lodge, No. 16, Knights of Pythias, he was one of the seventy- seven who came together in 1886 to form a lodge, and has held the office of Trustee. He is also a member of Pequot Tribe, No. 35, I. O. R. M. : of Campello Lodge, No. 227, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows; of the Es- senic Order, the Mayflower Colony of Pilgrim Fathers: and the New England Order of Pro- tection. He attends religious worship at the Unity (Unitarian) Church.
ILLERY C. DEAN, the active partner of the firm of A. C. Thompson & Co., proprietors of a planing and mould- ing mill in Brockton, was born January 31, 1863. in Seekonk, Mass., son of David W. and Emily F. (Cushing) Dean. He comes of old New England stock by both father and mother. The Deans belonged in Raynham, Mass., where David W. was born and spent the early part of his life. He was by occupa- tion a farmer, of a quiet, retiring disposition, and his last days were passed on a farm in Seekonk, where he died of exposure at the early age of thirty-one. His wife, also born in Seekonk, is of the third generation of Cush- ings in that town. She is a typical New Eng- land woman, thrifty, independent, and quietly determined. After her husband's death she kept her family of four children together, al- though at times it was a hard struggle, and would never accept help from outside sources. Her children are all married now, and she is
living in Brockton, an active woman of fifty- five. Mr. Dean says that he owes his success to his mother's early training.
Ellery C. Dean was six years of age when his father died. For the succeeding three years he lived with his grandmother in Rayn- ham, attending school in that town. His ed- ucational advantages were limited, as, being the oldest boy in the family, he was obliged to go to work when quite young. However, the amount of schooling he received was so well supplemented by personal study that he was able to meet his associates on an equal foot- ing. In 1871 he went to North Bridgewater, where, after a little more schooling, at the age of fourteen he entered the employ of the West- ern Union Telegraph Company as messenger boy. He spent three years in this employ- ment, and then engaged in wood working on his own account in a small way, making window screens, doors, etc., by means of small foot-power machinery. He was six months in this business when he attracted the attention of A. C. Thompson, who hired him. In five years he had mastered all the details of the business, at the same time performing other services that were not required of him. In 1892 he became Mr. Thompson's partner, under the firm name of A. C. Thompson & Co., and he now attends to the buying, sell- ing, and the settlement of bills. This firm has the largest trade of the kind in Plymouth County. They now employ three times as many hands as they did before Mr. Dean be- came connected with the concern, using three carloads of lumber a week, where before hardly one car was required. They spend no money in advertising, having all the orders they can fill, and having no actual competitors outside of Boston, while they buy directly from the producer, thus saving the commission that would otherwise go to middlemen. Mr.
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Dean's training in the telegraph business has been invaluable to him, as it inculcated habits of promptness and accuracy. This training, with his mother's teaching, his inherited pru- dence, and his natural ability, give him un- usual strength as a business man.
Mr. Dean was married November 25, 1885, to Lucy W., daughter of Charles Beals, of Sharon, Mass., and has two children, a boy of ten, and a girl of seven years. He gives no time to politics, preferring to devote his ener- gies to his business. He is a member of Massasoit Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has held all the chairs in the Pequot Tribe of Red Men. In religious matters he is liberal, though he fully appre- ciates the good accomplished by church so- cieties.
EUBEN P. CUSHING, a prosperous business man of the town of Marion, was born in New Bedford, Mass., July 1, 1846. He grew up under his par- ents' care, receiving his education in the pub- lic schools of his native town, and serving an apprenticeship at the cooper's trade.
On attaining his majority Mr. Cushing went to Boston, hoping to establish himself in some business there. Locating soon afterward in Charlestown, now included within the limits of Boston, he carried on a profitable provision business until 1887. He then came to Marion, bought a tract of land, and has since been successfully engaged in the culture of fruit, vegetables, and cranberries. He began on a moderate scale, but has now two cran- berry bogs in Marion, besides two other lots of land. One of his bogs, covering three and a half acres, is admirably adapted to the raising of cranberries. With characteristic enterprise he also runs a butcher's wagon, with which he has acquired a good patronage since 1889.
Mr. Cushing was married December 9, 1868, to Miss Lois A. Nickerson, a daughter of John W. and Julia A. Nickerson, of Har- wich, Mass. Their only child is a daugh- ter named Grace. During his comparatively brief residence in this town, he has won general respect as a citizen, neighbor, and friend, as well as an assured position among business men. In politics he votes for the best men and measures, being bound by no party ties.
OSHUA R. BARTLETT, of Brockton, is widely known as a preacher of the Methodist church, a zealous worker for the cause of Prohibition, and an able and pro- lific writer. He was born in Templeton, Worcester County, November 17, 1839, son of William and Maria M. (Partridge) Bartlett, both also natives of the Bay State. William Bartlett, who was born in Canton, August 23, 1812, obtained his education in the common schools of that town. He was employed as a butcher for two years in West Bridgewater by Amasa Howard, and in 1849 he and Daniel Nash, forming the firm Nash & Bartlett, estab- lished a butchering and market business in Brockton, then North Bridgewater. Their market, which was on the corner of High and Main Streets, was the second started in the place. In 1856 William Bartlett engaged in the ice business, having been its founder in Brockton, and conducted a prosperous trade until 1864, when he sold out to Walter F. Cleaveland, and removed to Templeton, Mass. Having settled on a large farm there, he was extensively engaged in raising general produce ยท for some time. The death of his first wife, Maria, in October, 1875, caused him to dis- pose of the farm, and he went to live with his son, the subject of this sketch. In Feb- ruary, 1878, he contracted a second marriage
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with a lady from Raymond, N.H., and he spent the rest of his life in that town. Bart- lett Street in Brockton is so named in his honor, as he was the first to buy a house lot in that vicinity. He was one of the earliest Free Soilers. and one of the very few in North Bridgewater; and he was an ardent anti- slavery man. He died June 6, 1893. His first wife, Maria M. Partridge, was a member of an old family of English origin, and her father, Deacon Ezekiel Partridge, was a well- known and highly respected resident of Tem- pleton, Mass. Both she and her husband were members of the Congregational church. Their children were: Abby M., who died at the age of thirteen; a boy who died in infancy; Charles A., born in North Bridgewater, Janu- ary 9, 1852, who now resides in Clinton, Mass., and is Deputy Sheriff of Worcester County; George Morey, born in North Bridge- water, June 16, 1854, a printer and publisher of law books in St. Louis; and Joshua R., the subject of this sketch.
Joshua R. Bartlett attended the common schools in boyhood and Hunt's Academy at North Bridgewater. After leaving school he tried various occupations before deciding on that he judged himself best fitted to follow. For some time he assisted his father in the ice business. Then he kept books, and he was employed in the chair shops in Temple- ton. In 1861 he again joined his father, and worked with him for two or three years. He was next engaged in selling sewing machines. On August 15, 1864, he enlisted in what was afterward Company K, Fourth Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, and went to Washington. His company was assigned to the defence of the Capitol, and was stationed at Fort Barnard until discharged at the close of the war in June, 1865. Mr. Bartlett was then employed for two years as book-keeper in a chair manu-
factory in Templeton. In the ensuing two years he managed an agency for the sale of sewing machines at Albany, N. Y. His next venture was the management of a chair business of his own at Fitzwilliam, N.H. : but he was not satisfied with the results, and en- gaged in farming for a year. In May, 1874, he entered the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He was pastor at Antrim, N.H., two years, and one year each at Am- herst, Raymond, and Epping. He was then transferred from New Hampshire to the juris- diction of the Vermont Conference, and labored at Williamstown for two years, and at Barre for three years. In the mean time he was editing the Vermont Christian Messenger, published at Montpelier. This was a congen- ial occupation and one for which he was well fitted. In March, 1884, he purchased the paper, and he published it at Northfield, Vt., until September, 1886.
Early in his career Mr. Bartlett embraced the cause of Prohibition. Since then he has worked for it as a member of the Prohibition State Committees of New Hampshire, Ver- mont, and Massachusetts. He was Secretary of the New Hampshire and Vermont bodies, and is now a member of the Prohibition City Committee of Brockton. The good work he accomplished for the cause of temperance attracted the attention of prominent Good Templars, and in the winter of 1885 he was employed by the Grand Lodge of the State of Vermont in organizing and visiting lodges. In July, 1886, determined to give his whole soul to the work, he purchased The Standard- Bearer, a Prohibition paper published at Con- cord, N.H., which he afterward named The Protest, and continued its publication until January 1, 1890. On that date he merged the paper with the Worcester Daily and Weekly Times, which he published at Worcester for
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two years in behalf of the Prohibition party. In February, 1892, he came to Brockton, and for two years he was connected with the edi- torial and reportorial departments of the Daily Despatch of this city. In January, 1893, he was made Brockton correspondent for the Bos- ton Herald, and he is still in discharge of his duties in that capacity. He has been con- nected with the Brockton Daily Times since it was started in February, 1895. He now furnishes it with a daily column, on topics of the times, for its editorial page, and represents it in all City Hall business.
On December 14, 1862, Mr. Bartlett was married to Martha A., daughter of Marcus Southworth, of North Bridgewater He has three children living, namely: Mary E., the wife of Isaac S. Orrill, residing in Worcester ; Maria H., the wife of Arthur C. Dyke, of Bridgewater; and Edwin S., who is studying law in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. While working in the field of litera- ture, Mr. Bartlett has retained his connection with the Methodist Episcopal church, being at present a local elder. He is also a comrade of the Grand Army, belonging to Fletcher Webster Post, No. 13, of Brockton.
OBERT COOK, an active member of the large dry-goods house of B. E. Jones & Co., of Brockton, Mass., was born in East Lothian, Scotland, October 14, 1857, son of Alexander and Jane (Hunter) Cook, estimable farming people. His great- grandfather, William Cook, an Englishman, who removed to Scotland, and remained there for the rest of his life, also followed the occu- pation of farmer. Robert Cook, after re- ceiving a fair education, which was finished at Dollar Academy, acted as pupil teacher. He left homc at the age of fourteen to learn
the dry-goods business. After serving an apprenticeship of four years with Thomas Menzies & Co., King Street, Stirling, Scot- land, where he became familiar with the vari - ous departments, including dressmaking and the cashier's work, he remained for one year more as clerk. Then he entered the employ of James Spence & Co., dry-goods merchants of Dundee, and was clerk for this firm some four years. After that he was engaged as buyer of shawls, furs, lace curtains, etc., by Frazier Sons & Co., Buchanan Street, Glas- gow. While acting in this capacity he re- ceived a flattering offer from Shepard, Nor- well & Co., of Boston, Mass., to take charge of their silk and velvet department, they agreeing to pay all his travelling expenses. He accepted, and was three years in the em- ploy of that firm. Resigning his position in 1884, he took charge of the large retail dry- goods store of B. E. Jones, of Brockton. Four years later he became Mr. Jones's part- ner, the firm name being changed to B. E. Jones & Co. When Mr. Cook became coll- nected with this house there were but four clerks employed. Now there are forty, the business having had a phenomenal increase in twelve years. He is a man of unusual execu- tive ability, shrewdness, and foresight, and his wide experience has given him a diversi- fied knowledge of the dry-goods trade.
Mr. Cook was married in 1881 to Lizzie Rapp, daughter of William Rapp, of Brock- ton. She died in 1891, leaving threc chil- dren - William Rapp, Lillian Winnifred, and Lizzie Rapp Cook. He contracted a second marriage with Miss Helene Constance Krauze, a lady of English birth. By his second union he has one child, Robert Alexander Cook. Mr. Cook is a member of Paul Revere Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; and Electric Lodge, No. 69, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is
DANIEL WEBSTER.
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an active worker in religious matters, to which he has given his time freely, both in Scotland and in this country. While in Dun- dee he was assistant superintendent of Free St. Paul's Sunday-school, and was musical director of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. In Glasgow he was superintendent of Free St. Peter's Sunday-school; and in Brockton he was superintendent of the First Congregational Sunday-school for about six years, and served for some time as Treasurer of the parish. He is also actively connected with the Young Men's Christian Association here, and was for some time President of the association. At the present time he is an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church.
ANIEL WEBSTER, "the Defender of the Constitution," although a na- tive of the Granite State, was dur- ing the greater part of his career as an advo- cate, orator, and statesman, a citizen of Mas- sachusetts, and for a number of years a resident of Plymouth County. His ownership of a large landed estate at Green Harbor, his intelligent and progressive methods of agri- culture, his lavish outlay for the improvement of his broad acres, his pride in his choice and well-fed stock, his hearty enjoyment of his rural surroundings, fairly entitled him to the distinction of being, far and away, the First Farmer of Marshfield, South Parish.
A brief presentment of him as such, set in a biographical outline, will be singularly in place in these pages. His authorized life in two volumes, by Mr. George T. Curtis; the judicial monograph by Mr. Lodge, in the " American Statesmen Series"; and the private life by Mr. Lanman - sources of infor- mation, to which the present writer gratefully acknowledges indebtedness - may be men-
tioned, together with the works, six volumes, edited by Edward Everett, as books to be com- mended to present and future generations as quickeners of American patriotism.
Daniel Webster was born January 18, 1782, in Salisbury, N. H. He was the second son of Ebenezer and Abigail (Eastman) Webster, and was in truth of good family, coming of honest, intelligent, liberty-loving stock. His father, who was Captain of a company in the Revolu- tion, was a native of Kingston, N. H., and was a son of Ebenezer and Susanna (Bachelder) Webster. Concerning this ancestress, Mr. Webster once wrote: "I believe we are all indebted to my father's mother for a large portion of the little sense and character which belong to us. She was a woman of uncommon strength of understanding." Her son Ebenezer, of Salisbury, removed in 1783 to that part of the town which is now Frank- lin. A farmer in moderate circumstances, he held the rank of Colonel in the State militia, and served as a "side justice," or Judge, in the Court of Common Pleas.
Learning to read at his mother's knee, the Bible his first remembered book, walking the long way to and from the district school, attending Phillips Exeter Academy, and later studying under the tuition of the Rev. Sam- uel Wood, of Boscawen, N. H .- thus passed the boyhood of Daniel Webster till, at fifteen, he entered Dartmouth, where in due course he was graduated. Studying law in Salisbury and in Boston, earning money in the mean time by teaching, to help his brother Ezekiel to get a college education, he was admitted to the bar in 1805, and began to practise law at Boscawen. Two years later he removed to Portsmouth, N.II., where he rapidly rose to prominence in his profession and in politics, in which he early took an active interest. He was first elected to Congress in the autumn of
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1812, and took his seat in the House in the following May, his second term ending March 4, 1817. He had changed his residence to Boston in 1816, and there he devoted himself to his lucrative law practice until December, 1823, when he again became a member of Congress. He held his place by successive re-elections till he was chosen Senator in 1827. From that time on, with but few and short intervals of retirement, he served his country either in the Senate or in the Depart- ment of State, being, as one has said, "the first lawyer and the first statesman" in the land.
First, perhaps, among Mr. Webster's mem- orable addresses should be named his "Reply to Hayne " in the Senate Chamber, January 26, 27, 1830, which has been pronounced "next to the Constitution the most correct and com- plete exposition of the true powers and func- tions of the Federal government " - a speech "replete with eloquence and power, clear in statement, grand in language, irresistible in argument." One of the grandest mementos in Faneuil Hall, Boston, is the painting by Healy, which reproduces the scene of that matchless eloquence. The lamented concilia- tory - or so intended - address, which fell with fatal effect from his lips on the 7th of March, 1850, the reunited country may well afford to forget. There is no questioning the fact, and it cannot be too strongly emphasized, that "Mr. Webster was thoroughly national," with "no taint of sectionalism or narrow local prejudice about him." As a diplomatist he rendered eminent service, entitling him to honorable fame and lasting gratitude. Not to speak of his great forensic efforts and nu- merous forceful occasional speeches, his Bi- centennial Discourse at Plymouth, the two Bunker Hill addresses, and the Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, are recognized triumphs
of American oratory. To quote again from the pen of Mr. Lodge, "So long as the union of these States endures, or holds a place in his- tory, will the name of Daniel Webster be hon- ored and remembered, and his stately elo- quence find an echo in the hearts of his coun- trymen."
Mr. Webster married in 1808 Miss Grace Fletcher, who became the mother of five chil- dren. Three of these lived to maturity, namely: Colonel Fletcher, who was killed at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862; Julia, Mrs. Samuel A. Appleton, who died in April, 1848; and Major Edward, who died in Mexico in January, 1848. Mrs. Appleton left four children - the eldest, a daughter, Caroline, who married in 1871, for her second husband, Jerome Napoleon Bona- parte, of Baltimore. Mrs. Grace Fletcher Webster died in January, 1828; and in De- cember, 1829, Mr. Webster married Miss Caroline LeRoy, of New York.
In September, 1824, Mr. Webster first saw the place in Marshfield, where he subsequently made his home. In the elm-shaded, Colonial dwelling at Green Harbor, owned and occu- pied by Captain John Thomas, he and his wife passed several happy days ; and here, for some years following, the Webster family were sum- mer guests. Attracted by the picturesque beauty of the spot, the broad sea view and refreshing breezes, and quite as much possibly by the historic associations of the old Pilgrim haunt, Mr. Webster purchased the estate, embracing one hundred and sixty acres, in the fall of 1831, receiving the deed in April, 1832. Captain Thomas, with his wife, re- tained his residence there till his death, in 1837. The homestead he had inherited from his father, Nathaniel Ray Thomas, the noted loyalist -the original, it is said, of Trum- bull's poem "McFingal"- who died in Nova
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Scotia. The greater part of his Marshfield property was confiscated, John being the only one of his sons who remained a citizen of the United States. Nathaniel Ray Thomas was a lineal descendant of William Thomas, Esq., who came to Plymouth Colony about 1630. and settled at Green Harbor in 1645. His grave is the oldest in the ancient Wins- low Burial Ground. (See " Marshfield Mem- orials," by Miss Thomas.) An ancestor of Nathaniel Ray Thomas on his mother's side was another early colonist known to fame- Simon Ray, of Block Island, who has left a numerous and distinguished posterity.
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