Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 105

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company
Number of Pages: 1238

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts > Part 105

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Public-spirited and patriotic, he took pride in the growth of the nation and in that of the city of Worcester. With shrewd foresight he purchased land on Mason Street, between Clare- mont and Kilby Streets, at an early date, and there resided for the rest of his life. That section of the city grew surprisingly, and beautiful modern residences sprung up around him. In 1888 he built a four-story block of brick and brownstone, in which are two stores and six tenements. He was married in 1839

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to Fannie W., daughter of John and Polly Brewer, of Spencer, Mass. His children were : Lysander B. and Frank M. The latter died in Worcester in 1896, aged forty-five years. Lysander B. Nichols, who was for twenty-two years a pattern-maker for the Worcester Malleable Iron Company, and is now employed in the Crompton-Knowles Loom Works, married Mary A. Bennett, of Boylston, and has one son, George M. Nichols, who is attending school. Mr. Nichols, Sr., died at his home in Worcester on December 30, 1893.

LONZO B. DAVIDSON, of Leices- ter, a well-known lumber manufact- urer and dealer, and the proprietor of the Junction Foundry in Worces- ter, the oldest plant of the kind in Worcester County, was born January 18, 1849, in the neighboring town of Charlton, son of Jona- than K. Davidson. He is of Scotch ancestry, being a lineal descendant of Benjamin David- son, Sr., who located in Sutton, Mass., in 1720, and whose son, Benjamin Davidson, Jr., was a soldier in the Revolution. The latter afterward removed to Leicester, and his body now lies buried in the Greenville Cemetery. Jonathan K. Davidson, who was born and reared in Worcester County, for nearly two- score years of his life was engaged in tilling the soil in the town of Charlton, where his death occurred in 1883. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary L. Merriam, was born in Auburn, this county. They became the parents of eleven children ; namely, Herbert K., Henry F., Alonzo B., Mary J., Sarah F., Eugene A., Theodore E., Willis W., Arthur M., Sherman W., and Ellsworth F. Sherman W. and Ellsworth F. are deceased.

Alonzo B. Davidson assisted his father on the farm to the best of his ability until he was eleven years old. Then he went to Ox- ford, Mass., to the home of his great-uncle, Artemas Merriam, with whom he remained three years. After spending the ensuing season with Samuel Merriam, also of Oxford, he returned home for a short time, and subse- quently worked in the town of Sutton for a few months. In the spring of 1866 he came

to Leicester as an employee of Amos A. Gould, in whose box factory he worked for three seasons. During all of these years he received wages in the summer season; but during the winter he attended the district school, and worked for his board. In the fall of 1868 he entered the Leicester Academy. At the age of twenty years, in company with an older brother, H. K. Davidson, he estab- lished himself in the lumber business in Charlton. H. K. and A. B. Davidson carried on a thriving trade for seven years, manufact- uring and selling lumber in various parts of the State, but retaining their headquarters at Charlton. In 1873, in the firm's interests, Mr. A. B. Davidson opened a wood-yard in Worcester, which town he made his place of residence for four years. In 1877 he bought his present homestead in Leicester, a valu- able estate on Pleasant Street, where he has one of the finest and most commodious rural residences in this section of the county. In addition to his operations in lumber, Mr. Davidson has also been extensively engaged in agriculture, and owns and manages the Junction Foundry.

Mr. Davidson takes a great interest in local affairs as a wide-awake representative of the Republican party. During his residence in Leicester he has served as Overseer of the Poor, and for three of the five years he was a Selectman he was chairman of the board. He is now one of the trustees of the Leicester Savings Bank. On November 25, 1873, he was married to Miss Jennie L. Horne, who has had four children. Of these, George A., Grace L., and Herbert A., are living. Grace L. is the wife of Edwin N. Bartlett. Alonzo B. Davidson, Jr., died April 27, 1897, aged seven months and thirteen days, and was buried in the family lot in Pine Grove Ceme- tery, Leicester.

ILLIAM F. HOLMAN, of the firm Thurston & Holman, general mer- chants of Leicester, son of David C. and Lucy D. (Rice) Holman, was born in Millbury, Mass., June 11, 1827. Although he has passed the allotted threescore years and

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ALONZO B. DAVIDSON.

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ten of the psalmist, and has had a busy life, he is still in possession of a goodly reserve of both mental and physical strength. Accord- ing to family tradition he comes of Welsh extraction. His immigrant progenitor came to Massachusetts prior to the Revolutionary War, in which Colonel Jonathan Holman, of West Millbury, a distant relative of William F., was an officer. David Holman, his great- grandfather, fought in the French and Ind- ian War. David C. Holman, a son of Aaron, born in what is now West Millbury in the year 1805, spent his life chiefly occupied in farm- ing. Lucy D. Rice Holman, his wife, was a native of Boylston, Mass.

William F. Holman, the eldest of four chil- dren, ambitious beyond his years and anxious to contribute toward his own support, was per- mitted at the age of fourteen to hire out on a neighboring farm. He was employed in this way until his eighteenth year, when he began working as a cutter of upper leather at West Millbury, Mass., for A. Wood & Son, with which company he remained until he was twenty-five years of age. In 1853 he came to Leicester as cutter for H. W. Denny, a shoe manufacturer. He had worked here but a short time when he became a partner under the style of Holman & Denny. This partnership, however, was of brief duration; for, in conse- quence of the destruction of the plant by fire soon after, the firm became embarrassed and was dissolved. Mr. Holman next spent nearly seven years in Brookfield, Mass., as foreman of the manufacturing department in the shoe man- ufactory of Henry M. Twitchell. Returning to Leicester during the Civil War, he worked for a time for his father-in-law, Samuel Hurd, a manufacturer of hand cards. After having learned the business, he went into the manu- facture of hand cards on his own account, con- tinuing until early in the seventies, when he gave it up. He subsequently entered a part- nership with L. D. Thurston, of Leicester, forming the firm of Thurston & Holman, and successfully carried on a general mercantile business for several years. Since then he has lived practically retired.

On May 12, 1852, Mr. Holman married Harriet N. Fisher, a daughter of Denis and

Almira Fisher, of Millbury, Mass. She died on the sixteenth of the following October. Four years after a second marriage united Mr. Holman with Ellen D. Hurd, a daughter of Samuel Hurd, late of Leicester. This union has been blessed by the birth of a daughter, Hettie L., who is now the wife of Arthur R. Smith, of Leicester, Mass. In politics Mr. Holman is a Republican. The town had the benefit of his services in the capacity of Se- lectman for twelve years, during a portion of which he was the chairman of the board. He was also Assessor for a term of three years; and in the session of 1881 he represented this district in the lower house of the General Court, serving in the Committee on Printing. Since 1872 he has been a trustee of Leicester Academy. An esteemed member of the First Congregational Church, he had served for many years on its board of deacons when he resigned the office in 1893.

HARLES CARTER SPRING, who was connected with the railway ser- vice of New England for many years, was born March 24, 1824, in Uxbridge, Mass., the home of his ancestors for several generations and the town in which Ephraim Spring, the immigrant ancestor, settled in early Colonial times. Another pio- neer settler of the place was the founder of the Reed family of Massachusetts, who was a kins- man of Ephraim Spring.

Luther Spring, the father of Charles C., was born and lived and died in Uxbridge, where in the latter part of the last century and the first years of the present he was a noted tavern-keeper, and also proprietor of the stage line between that place and Providence, R. I. His wife, whose maiden name was Nancy W. Reed, was born in Uxbridge, Au- gust 3, 1794, and there spent her years of earthly life.

Charles Carter Spring when a boy attended the district schools of his native town and assisted his father in the tavern, and as soon as he was old enough to hold the lines often drove the stage-coach on its daily trips. On attaining manhood he went to New York City,

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where he conducted a hotel for a short time, but soon returned to Uxbridge to assist his father once more in the tavern. Coming to Worcester about 1846, he was engaged here in the retail boot and shoe trade for a time, after which he assumed the management of the old Exchange Hotel, one of the most noted taverns in Worcester, at which in Revolutionary days famous men, both Americans and foreigners, frequently stopped. After a few years, his executive ability having become known, he was offered, and accepted, the position of gen- eral agent in New England for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, he having his office in Boston, though retaining his residence in Worcester. After serving eighteen years as general passenger agent, he was forced to resign his position on account of failing health. He was a very capable, efficient, and popular official, always courteous and accommodating, and was highly respected by all with whom he came into contact. He subsequently became general passenger agent of the Boston & Maine Railway Company, which at that time was operating a comparatively short road, not having absorbed all the important railways of Northern New England, taking this office be- cause he supposed the duties would be less arduous than those of his previous position. At the same time he owned and managed restaurants in several of the large stations on the line of the Boston & Maine Railroad. His constitution proved unequal to the strain, and on December 20, 1875, he suddenly ex- pired at his home in this city, leaving a host of friends to mourn his loss.

Mr. Spring was married February 15, 1844, to Eleanor P., daughter of Samuel Prentice, of Uxbridge. The Prentice family has long been one of the leading ones of Worcester County, its members for several generations having been prominently identified with the town of Northbridge. The immigrant ancestor of the family, Valentine Prentice, came from Eng- land to Massachusetts in 1631, in the same vessel that carried John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. Mrs. Charles C. Spring passed away November 11, 1898, at her home in Worcester, and was buried at Northbridge, Mass., beside her husband. Of her four chil-

dren, three, Charles Adison, Ellen Augusta, and Edgar Francis, died in infancy. The only one living is Alice, who married in 1879 Warren H. Willard, of Worcester, and has two children - Charles Turner and Marion Olive.

RANK A. ATHERTON, of Worces- ter, a manufacturer of store fixtures and a veteran of the Civil War, was born in Harvard, Mass., February 15, 1849, son of Alfred and Abbie M. (Adams) Stacey Ather- ton. The father was born in the same town, February 27, 1822; and the grandfather, Ebon Atherton, who was born there about the year 1789, died in 1856. He married Lucy

Houghton, who bore him four sons and three daughters. The great-grandfather, David Atherton, carried on a farm in Harvard until he received a spinal injury that resulted in the total paralysis of his lower limbs. He subse- quently took up shoemaking. The immigrant ancestor, who came from England, was the owner of a grant of land said to have been ten miles in length, which is now the site of the village of Still River. Two farms that were parts of that grant are now owned by rep- resentatives of the family. The residence of the original owner was replaced by a new one in 1849.

Alfred Atherton followed the carpenter's trade for. many years, and was formerly en- gaged in the business now carried on by his son. His wife, Abbie M. Atherton, whom he married November 6, 1846, is a native of Har- vard and a daughter of Jonathan and Alice (Whitney) Adams. Her father died at the age of forty-seven years. She is the youngest and the only survivor of the ten children of her parents, and has no relatives nearer than sec- ond cousins. Thrown upon her own resources at the age of thirteen, she worked in a Lowell cotton factory until her twentieth year. Then she married George W. Stacey, who died before the birth of her first child. This child is now Mrs. Georgiana Merrifield, the wife of Francis Merrifield, of Worcester. By Alfred Atherton she had three children, all now mar- ried, namely: Frank A., the subject of this

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sketch; Edward H., who is now a teacher in the Boston Latin School; and Walter E. Ath- erton, a resident of this city. Now seventy- six years old, she resides in Worcester, and is still bright and active.

Frank A. Atherton was educated in the pub- lic schools. In June, 1864, he enlisted in Company E, Sixth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Civil War for one hundred days. In 1865 he pur- chased of his father the business he is now con- ducting. Under his able direction it has gradually expanded into its present large pro- portions. He manufactures refrigerators, counters, and other store fixtures, employing twelve men. About ten years ago, at 183, 185, and 187 Park Avenue, he erected a two- story wooden building one hundred and sixty- three feet long, which factory is equipped with improved machinery, which is driven by steam- power.

On November 5, 1873, Mr. Atherton was united in marriage with Inez Adams, of Worces- ter, a daughter of John Quincy Adams. He has five children, namely : Ralph Edward, a student at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute ; Bessie; Philip H .; Ruth E .; and Lora J. Politically, Mr. Atherton is a Republican. During his four years' service in the Common Council he was a member of the Committee on Sewers and Highways. At present he is an Overseer of the Poor. In the Masonic frater- nity he has attained the thirty-second degree. He owns a pleasant home at 5 Hall Street, which he bought in 1880.

LBERT GORDON HURD, M.D., a talented young physician of Braman- ville, Millbury, Mass., was born October II, 1870, in Warner, N.H., a son of Daniel Emerson Hurd. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Smith Hurd, was born in Lempster, N. H., in 1796, and died at the same place in 1876. He was a well-to-do farmer and an esteemed citizen. He married Mehitabel Emerson, who bore him seven children, four sons and three daughters, of whom but two are living, Daniel Emerson and George Walker. The latter oc-

cupies the home farm, his widowed mother, a remarkably active and bright woman of ninety-four years, residing with him. Two of their sons served in the Civil War: Yorick Gordon, having been a surgeon in the Forty- eighth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; and Daniel E., the Doctor's father, who was a private. Robert Lincoln died in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Daniel Emerson Hurd was born in Lemp- ster, N. H. October 25, 1843. When a young man he learned the blacksmith's trade, at which he worked twenty years after his return from the war. He enlisted as a private in the Ninth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, but on account of ill health was honorably discharged from the army. After giving up his trade he turned his attention to agricult- ural pursuits, and is now living on his well- appointed farm in Westminster, Worcester County. On July 20, 1864, he married Ruth Matilda Bruce, a daughter of Timothy and Mary (Field) Bruce, who had five sons in the Civil War. They have four children, as fol- lows: Arno Emerson, a farmer in Westmin- ster, Mass., who is married and has four chil- dren; Albert Gordon, the subject of this biography; Roy Smith, a teacher residing in Westminster; and Mary Bell, a student in the high school.

Albert Gordon Hurd received his element- ary education in Westminster and Topsfield, Mass. After preparing for college at Cush- ing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., he en- tered Colby University, from which he re- ceived his diploma in 1892, having the honor of being chosen as one of the orators at the Commencement exercises. Three years later the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater. He subse- quently took a course of medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, at which he was graduated in 1895. In August of that year he settled in Millbury, on the West Side, and in the comparatively short time that he has been here has established a suc- cessful practice.

On June 16, 1896, the Doctor married Nettie Abbie Killam, of Salem, Mass., a daughter of Samuel H. and Frances R.

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(Spofford) Killam. Mrs. Hurd is one of a large family of children, having four sisters and two brothers, besides a half-brother and half-sister. She was educated in the high school at Reading, Mass., and is a lady of cultured literary tastes. Dr. and Mrs. Hurd have one child, Gordon Killam, who was born April 30, 1897. Fraternally, Dr. Hurd is a member of the Phi Delta Theta Society, and, politically, he is a Republican. He is a member and clerk of the Bramanville Congre- gational Church.

EORGE H. BRIGHAM, a well-known and highly esteemed farmer, Col- lector of Taxes for the town of Bol- ton, was born in Marlboro, October 19, 1825, son of Otis and Lucy (Stratton) Brigham. He represents a family that has been settled in this vicinity since 1635. His grandfather, Jotham Brigham, who was born in Marlboro, was a tailor. Otis Brigham, also a native of Marlboro, was one of a family of seven chil- dren. He spent his life as a farmer, and died at the comparatively early age of thirty-five. His wife, Lucy, who was born in Sudbury, bore him six children, of whom four are living, namely : Mary A., now Mrs. George Gates; Elizabeth A., the wife of James S. Welsh; George H., the subject of this short biography ; and Harriet S.

George H. Brigham was but three years old when his mother died, and four years later death deprived him of his father also. Brought up on a farm in Lancaster, he attended the common schools and subsequently Groton Academy. At the age of seventeen he left Lancaster and went to Boston to learn the bricklayer's trade. After remaining in that city for six years he returned to his native town of Marlboro, where he obtained work in a shoe shop. He remained thus employed during the ten years beginning with 1849, at the end of which period he went to Hammonton, N. J., where he worked at farming for five years. Selling out his interests in New Jersey after a five years' stay there, he returned to Marlboro to become engineer in a shoe factory. Five years later, in 1868, he moved on to his present

farm, which is located on the road to Harvard, about a mile and a half from Bolton Centre, and comprises about one hundred and twelve acres. Besides carrying on general farming Mr. Brigham has a milk dairy, and raises farm products and large quantities of small fruit for the market.

In 1849 Mr. Brigham was united in mar- riage with Anna W. Lucas, of Boston, who was born in Northumberland, N.H. Four children have blessed their union; namely, Le Grand L., Fannie M., William M., and George L. Le Grand L., who is foreman in the great shoe manufactory of Francis Brigham & Co. at Hudson, married Addie Newton, and has one child, Grace N. Brigham. Fannie M. is the wife of George F. Newton, a commer- cial traveller, and has three children - Harold B., Emma. S., and Elsie M. William M. Brigham, who married Mary C. Kendal, re- sides on an adjoining farm, and has two chil- dren - Helen and William H. George L. Brigham is engaged in the shoe business in Hudson. He is an enthusiast in mineralogy, and has a large and valuable collection of min- erals, which has attracted the notice of and been visited by scientists from various parts of the country.

Mr. Brigham is a Republican in politics. He has served the town of Bolton as Overseer of the Poor for many years, and was for a time chairman of the board. For eight years suc- cessively he was Collector of Taxes, and he has served as Highway Surveyor for a number of terms. He is a member of the Farmers' Club, of which he was treasurer for several years. He attends the Universalist church.

1 RA LINDSAY, formerly of Worcester, who fought in the late Civil War, son of Robert and Vesta (Merrill) Lindsay, was born in Turner, Me., on July 26, 1825. He is descended from one of two brothers, David or Robert Lindsay, who came to this country from the Scotch Highlands and took up land in Maine. David and Robert were members of the famous Lindsay clan, whose plaid was striped with red, blue, and green. The ancestry of this clan is

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CALVIN D. PAIGE.

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traced back to Randolph Lindsay, who was living in A.D. 1018. The Lindsays were one of the great Scottish families, holders of earl- doms, related to Ivar, Jarl of the Uplands, and to Mary Queen of Scots. In this coun- try they have been well and favorably known. President Van Buren granted to one of Mr. Lindsay's cousins what is claimed to have been the largest tract of land ever given in Illinois to an individual. Robert Lindsay, father of Ira, died in 1876.

Ira Lindsay spent his boyhood and school days in Turner. With few advantages and little schooling, he had to make his own way in the world from an early age, but he was of a vigorous constitution and quick in many ways to earn money. Having served an ap- prenticeship, he became a mechanic. From Turner he went to Grafton, Mass., where he spent some time. Subsequently he came to Worcester, and here engaged in the business of mechanical draughtsman. He was a man of rugged strength, mentally and physically, and despite his meagre education, which he always regretted, he became a successful and prosperous man. In March, 1864, he en- listed in Company A, Twenty-fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. Afterward he was in the Peninsular Campaign under Gen- eral Butler and in all the subsequent engage- ments of the regiment up to the time of his death. He was killed in battle at Cold Harbor in June, 1864. Previous to that event he had become noted for his fearlessness, and the papers which were to have made him Sergeant had been already made out and signed. Mr. Lindsay was a born fighter, having, perhaps, inherited this aggressive tendency with his Scotch blood. While genial in disposition, he was of a strong Christian character. He was buried on the field of battle.

On June 11, 1857, Mr. Lindsay was mar- ried to Mary Catherine Estabrook, of Prince- ton, Mass. Mrs. Lindsay is of the seventh generation descended from Joseph Estabrook, who, born in England in 1640, was graduated at Harvard College in 1664. In 1667 he was ordained as the colleague of the Rev. Edward Bulkley, of Concord, Mass., and later suc- ceeded Mr. Bulkley as pastor. He died in

IZII. The children of Ira and Mary Lindsay are: Ellen French, who is an artist and teacher; Kate Elizabeth, now Mrs. C. D. Kendall, of Worcester; and Joseph Ira, who is now a practising physician of Worcester.

ALVIN DE WITT PAIGE, one of the leading business men of South- bridge and an ex-member of the legislature, was born in this town, May 20, 1848. His parents were Calvin A. and Mercy (Dresser) Paige, an account of whom will be found in the biography of Calvin Ammidown Paige. The sterling ability which has characterized his business career began to develop itself at an early age. He was educated in the public schools of his native town. When twenty years old he was appointed superintendent of the Dresser Man- ufacturing Company, which responsible posi- tion he creditably filled for four years. In 1872 he formed a partnership with Frederick Crosby, under the firm name of Paige & Crosby, for the purpose of engaging in a gen- eral merchandise business in the old Colum- bian Block. Next year they leased one of the spacious stores in the C. A. Dresser Build- ing, which was just then completed, and where ample facilities were offered for their expanding business. Mr. Paige continued a member of the firm until 1876, when he sold his interest in order to give his attention to other enterprises with which he had con- nected himself. In the same year he bought out Edwards & Co., and thereafter conducted this business alone until 1881, when his brother, Frank S. Paige, became associated with him under the style of C. D. Paige & Co. In 1881 he formed a partnership with C. V. Carpenter for the sale of dry goods and carpets, under the name of Carpenter & Co. Nine years after the two concerns were con- solidated, and incorporated as the Paige-Car- penter Company, with C. D. Paige as presi- dent. This firm, which is said to have the largest business of its kind in this part of the county, is established upon a sound basis.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 105

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company Number of Pages: 1238

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company
Number of Pages: 1238