Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 25

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 25

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Jason B. Hill attended the district school of his time, profiting, as far as he was able, by the instruction therein imparted. He also gained during boyhood a knowledge of prac- tical farming that has been of much value to him in more recent years. Upon reaching his majority he went to Boston, where he entered the employ of his brother-in-law, C. P. Adams, as salesman in the produce commis- sion business. Mr. Adams was one of the well-known merchants of Boston, and for a quarter of a century Mr. Hill was his most trusted assistant. At the end of that time the latter returned to North Brookfield and took charge of Mr. Adams's large real estate inter- ests here. Besides this he has carried on gen- eral farming on his own account on his fine farm of one hundred and forty acres, which is situated near North Brookfield village.

Mr. Hill was married in 1850, June 13, to

Frances A. Corbett, a daughter of David Cor- bett, of Roxbury, Mass. One son has been born of this union, namely : Edward K. Hill, who is a member of the American Wheelock Engine Company, and resides in Worcester, Mass. He is a skilful and thorough mechani- cal engineer. The company has establish- ments in New York, Chicago, and Worcester ; and the noted ship-builders, the Cramps, have an interest in the concern. Mrs. Hill died on June 1, 1895, leaving a void in the lives of her family and friends that can never be filled. Possessed of unusual ability as a musician, she was well known among singers in Boston dur- ing her residence there. She was a promi- nent member of the North Brookfield Grange, and was closely associated with the social and benevolent work of the First Congregational Church. Since her death Mr. Hill has placed a beautiful window in the church as a memo- rial to her.

Much interested in educational matters, Mr. Hill has served for three years on the School Board of the town. In politics he is a Republican. An active member of the Grange, he has been for some years past its treasurer. He attends the First Congrega- tional Church, and contributes liberally to the support of its varied activities.

J OSHUA W. MORSE, an esteemed resident of Northbridge, was born in Whitingham, Vt., February 4, 1820. He is a son of David and Mary (Whit- ney) Morse and a grandson of Simeon and Azubah (Wheeler) Morse. Simeon Morse, who was a farmer of Sutton, served as a sol- dier in the war of the Revolution, stationed in New York State, and at a later date became a strong supporter of General Jackson. Both he and his wife are buried in the family bury- ing-ground at Sutton.

David Morse, who was born in Sutton, re- moved to Vermont when a young man, and there married, and subsequently lived for a time. When his son, Joshua, was six years old, he returned to the old homestead in Sut- ton. He resided there until April, 1865, when he bought a farm in Northbridge vil-

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lage, where he passed the remainder of his life. Taking an active interest in local poli- tics, he was an old-time Whig and an ardent follower of General Jackson. Of his family of ten children, four are living. The latter are: Mrs. Mary Whiting, of Northbridge; Edward Morse, a well-known farmer of this town; Moses Morse, of Spencer; and Joshua W., the subject of this biography. George, who was a grocer in Central Falls, R. I., died in 1893.

Joshua W. Morse received his education in the schools of Sutton. After leaving school he worked on his father's farm until he was twenty years of age. Having learned the shoemaker's trade, he came to Northbridge Centre, and here engaged in cutting leather. For twenty-five years he had charge of the cutting department. About twenty-five years ago he left the manufacturing business, and has since been engaged in farming, devoting his attention chiefly to raising small fruits. A strong anti-slavery man, he occupied a seat in the State legislature in 1861. He has been Selectman of the town for a number of years. A member of the Congregational church for the past forty years, he has served as Deacon for nine years ; and he was the clerk of the society for many years.

Mr. Morse has been three times married. The respective maiden names of his first and second wives were Deborah C. Brown and Mary S. Day. The latter was a Northbridge lady. The third marriage was contracted with Lydia A. Searles, who is a native of Sutton. A daughter by the first marriage died at the age of one year. A daughter by the second marriage married Frank A. Holbrook, and died in Providence, R.I., in 1897, leaving a daughter aged five years.

HERBERT DE FOSSE, the Sealer of Weights and Measures for the city of Worcester, was born in Nicolet, County of Nicolet, P.Q., on Sep- tember 24, 1871. A son of Hubert and Agnes (Cloutier) de Fosse, he is a descendant of the old French family, the Savoys, which furnished officers to the army of Napoleon I.,

and has been widely known as a military race. His paternal great-grandmother was the famous nurse, Marguerite de Laby; and his maternal great-great-grandfather was the Count de Castelet, who belonged to the family of the De Salamons. The maternal grand- father was a noted mill contractor and an in- ventor of mill machinery. Hubert de Fosse, who was an architect in Nicolet, came to Worcester when his son Herbert was a very young child, and was employed by Norcross Brothers on fine wood work.

Having begun his schooling in this city, C. Herbert de Fosse at the age of fourteen re- turned to Nicolet, and attended college there for a time. Afterward he learned the carpen- ter's trade, working at it for three years. He then entered the employ of the Richardson Manufacturing Company as general mechanic, and remained with them until his appointment to his present position of Sealer of Weights and Measures. Mr. de Fosse was one of the organizers of the Worcester branch of the Young Men's French Catholic Association and its secretary for several years, also of the Conference Notre Dame of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, of which he was also the secretary for a long period.

He is also the vice-president of l'Union Canadien, the secretary of St. Joseph's Liter- ary Association, a director of the Ward Three Naturalization Club, and he is one of the members of the Executive Committee of the Young Men's Republican Club of Worcester, which he helped to organize. For many years he was the chairman of the Board of Auditors for the St. Ann's Total Abstinence Association, and he is one of the county's strong total abstinence workers. He has been the president of the Drum Corps Musical As- sociation, and his reputation as a drum-major is known throughout the State. The Franco- American Club numbers him among its most valued members, and has paid him the compli- ment of electing him its presiding officer. At the present time he is also Chief Ranger of Court Louis Joseph Papinneau, No. 71, F. of A., which is said to be the largest court in Worcester and the richest in the United States; and he is quartermaster of one of the

C. HERBERT DE FOSSE.

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American companies of Pontifical Zouaves, and the honorary secretary of the Guard of Honor.

In politics a Republican, Mr. de Fosse is the present secretary of the Republican City Committee. During the campaign of 1896 he stumped for McKinley, speaking both in French and English in some of the Western States, and acquiring quite a reputation as a public speaker. Some years since, when a candidate for the legislature in a Democratic district, he came within four votes of defeat- ing his opponent. He is a vice-president of the Fremont Club of Massachusetts, generally known as the French Republican Club. For some time he has been a Notary Public and Justice of the Peace. Several breezy and in- teresting articles from his pen have appeared in the public press, and he is the author of a number of clever plays. No man of the French population in America is considered a better authority on historical and statistical facts concerning them. He is in frequent de- mand as a lecturer on various topics, both in French and in English. His frequent selection as a presiding officer is due to the recognition of his unusual knowledge of parliamentary rules. Devoted to his family, he has at his own expense educated two sisters and a brother. At the present time one of these is a pupil of Hinman's Business College. Mr. de Fosse attends the Church of Notre Dame.

B ENJAMIN F. BROOKS, Postmaster of Barre and a Civil War veteran, was born in Petersham, Mass., April 4, 1844, son of John F. and Isabella R. (Brown) Brooks. He traces his descent to one of three brothers who arrived from Eng- land in 1631. His grandfather, Austin Brooks, whose birth occurred in Petersham, December 9, 1788, spent the active period of his life prosperously engaged in agriculture, and died in his native town in 1869. Austin Brooks married Martha Bent, who, born No- vember 13, 1794, died in 1866. John F. Brooks, son of Austin, was born in Petersham, September 26, 1814. In his younger days he was a palm-leaf finisher. Later he was

engaged in the hotel business, and was the proprietor of the old Massasoit House in Barre from 1865 until his death, which oc- curred October 13, 1889. Originally a Whig, he joined the Republican party, by which he was elected to some of the town offices. His wife, Isabella, who was born in Royalston, Mass., May 3, 1818, reared two sons : Benja- min F., the subject of this sketch; and Ed- ward H., born January 31, 1847, who died March 29, 1892. In religion she is a Congre- gationalist, and she resides in Barre.

Benjamin F. Brooks was reared and edu- cated in Templeton, Mass. In 1862 he en- listed in Company D, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Serving in the Civil War, he participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Jackson, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna River, and Cold Harbor, and in the sieges of Vicksburg, Knoxville, and Petersburg. Having been honorably discharged from the army in 1865, he entered the service of the Adams Express Company as messenger and agent at Danbury, Conn., remaining in their employ until 1873. The succeeding two years were spent in Barre. In 1875 he engaged in the meat and provision business in Boston, where he remained until August, 1876. Then he returned to Barre, and became associated with his father in the management of the Massasoit House. In

1890 he sold his interest in the house, and, receiving the appointment of Postmaster, con- ducted the business of that office efficiently for the ensuing four years and one month. In May, 1898, he was reappointed Postmaster, and he has served in that capacity since June I. In politics he is a Republican, and he is now serving his fourth term as a member of the Board of Assessors.

On May 16, 1868, Mr. Brooks was joined in marriage at Madison, Conn., with Libbie A. Russell, who was born in Portland, Conn., August 28, 1845, daughter of John C. Russell. By this union there is one daughter, Beth I. Brooks, born in Barre, May 8, 1886. Mrs. Brooks died March 15, 1897. She was a member of the Congregational church. Mr. Brooks is a member of Mount Zion Lodge, F. & A. M., and has advanced in the order as

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far as the commandery. He was one of the organizers of Samuel F. Woods Post, No. 179, G. A. R., of which he was Commander for the first six years of its existence, and has been the Commander again since his election at the last annual meeting.

REEMAN R. DOANE, a well-known and respected resident of North Brook- field, son of Roland F. Doane, was born in this town, January 27, 1837. His pa- ternal grandfather, Captain Joseph Doane, who was born on Cape Cod, spent his early life in seafaring, and subsequently removed with his family to North Brookfield, where his re- maining years were passed.

Roland F. Doane, born in one of the towns on the Cape Cod peninsula, accompanied his parents to North Brookfield when a small boy. Besides carrying on mixed farming, he oper- ated a saw-mill for many years, successfully manufacturing lumber. His death occurred in 1891. He married Amanda Shedd, a na- tive of Vermont. Of their children the sur- vivors are: Freeman R., the subject of this biography; Hubbard S., a resident of Brook- field; Edwin, a resident of Worcester, Mass. ; Lydia A., the wife of Daniel Gilbert, of this town; Ellen R., the wife of Ethan Allen Har- wood, of whom a sketch may be found else- where in this work; and Jonas M., of Brock- ton, Mass.

Freeman R. Doane received a practical common-school education, and on the home farm was thoroughly trained in the art of agri- culture as practised at that day. After com ing of age he entered the employ of E. & A. H. Batcheller & Co., boot and shoe manu- facturers, with whom he remained for thirty- five consecutive years, having charge of the shipping department for a large part of the time. In 1894 he severed his connection with that firm, and has since devoted his time to his private interests. Mustered into the service of the Union in 1862, he served in the Civil War for one year as a private in Company F, Forty-second Massachusetts Volunteer Infan- try, being for a part of the time on duty in New Orleans, and participating in General

Banks's expedition. He is now an active member of the Ezra Batcheller Post, No. 51, G. A. R., which he served as Quartermaster for two years; and he also belongs to the North Brookfield Lodge of the I. O. O. F. In politics he is a consistent Republican. For three years he was Selectman, at the same time serving as the clerk of the board. At present he is a director of the North Brook- field Railway Company, which controls the branch of the Boston & Albany Railway ex- tending from North Brookfield to East Brook- field.

On November 24, 1859, Mr. Doane first married Miss Anna M. Harwood, a daughter of George and Angeline (Allen) Harwood, and who bore him four children - George R., Elmer F., Albion H., and Irene R. Elmer and Irene are deceased. The mother passed away November 23, 1868. The present Mrs. Doane was formerly Mrs. Elizabeth Rosson, widow of the late Joseph K. Rosson.

OHN E. KIMBALL, a retired educator residing in Oxford, a son of William and Mary (Robinson) Seaman Kimball, was born in Webster, July 18, 1833. He is a descendant in the seventh generation of Richard Kimball, his immigrant ancestor, from whom the line of descent comes through Samuel and Ebenezer, second, to his grand- father, Samuel Kimball. The latter enlisted for service in the Revolution, June 6, 1777, at Woodstock, Conn., in Captain William Man- ning's Company, Second Connecticut Regi- ment, commanded by the redoubtable Israel Putnam, and was honorably discharged January 9, 1778. On July 1, 1780, he re-enlisted in the Fourth Connecticut Regiment, Colonel John Durkee, of Norwich, commanding, from which he was honorably discharged on Decem- ber 10 of the same year. He shared the hard- ships of the winter at Valley Forge, and was with the main army on the Hudson at the time of Benedict Arnold's treachery.

William Kimball, who was the eighth child of Samuel Kimball, served as a Corporal in the War of 1812. He was a skilful mechanic, and for ten years held the position of superin-

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tendent of Slater's mill at South Oxford. All of his children have displayed ability in their several walks of life. George R., who was born July 1, 1828, enlisted in the Sixteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, for service in the Civil War; and, having been wounded twice at the battle of Antietam, was trans- ferred to the Veterans' Reserve Corps, from which he was discharged in July, 1865. Thomas D., born December 20, 1838, who studied for one year at Yale College, and com- pleted the medical course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, entered the Union army as Captain of Company G, Fifty-first Regiment, Massachusetts Volun- teers, was subsequently transferred to the Second Heavy Artillery, and after the close of the Rebellion settled in St. Louis, Mo.

John E. Kimball went from the public schools to Dudley Academy, and later at- tended Leicester Academy, where he was a schoolmate of the Hon. Richard Olney, the Secretary of State in President Cleveland's last administration. In his Sophomore year at Yale he took the second prize for English composition, and in the following term he was awarded the third prize for proficiency in the same subject and the first for declamation. During his Junior and Senior years he was the editor of the Yale literary magazine, Statement of Facts, and he was orator for Linonia. Among his classmates were the Hon. William T. Harris, the present Commis- sioner of Education; Dr. William Garrison Brinton, the well-known author; Josiah Will- ard Gibbs, the mathematician; Arthur Mat- thewson, M. D., the noted oculist; the Rev. Dr. Noble, of Chicago; and Addison Van Name, the libarian at Yale University. After leaving Yale he was the principal of the Oxford High School for a year. Then he went South, and just prior to the breaking out of the Rebellion was teaching a private school near Louisville, Ky. Having caused much excitement here, when, loyal to the Union, he cast the only vote for Lincoln and Hamlin, he went to Chicago, where a few days after his arrival he was ap- pointed principal of the Ogden School. A year later in St. Louis he became first

principal of the Washington School, and for the succeeding eighteen years was prom- inently identified with public education in that city. After returning to the East in 1880, he was local superintendent of public schools in Hartford, Conn., for a year. Then he was elected to the position of superinten- dent in Newton, Mass., which he efficiently filled until he resigned in 1884. He has since resided in Oxford. Having acquired an inter- est in the Oxford National Bank, he was for some years a director of that institution.

Mr. Kimball is not married. He has been quite active in the public affairs of Oxford since his return. The present chairman of the Board of Selectmen, he also served in that capacity in 1886, 1888, and 1897. For twelve consecutive years he has been elected Modera- tor at the annual town meeting. He was for- merly the chairman of the School Board and of the Board of Trustees of the Free Public Li- brary. He also acts as a Justice of the Peace, with authority to issue warrants and accept bail. For three years he was a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, and he served upon the committee having charge of the State Agricultural College at Amherst. In 1871 he visited Europe, and was made an associate member of the Philo- sophical Society of Great Britain. His Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 1871. He has been a Deacon of the First Congregational Church since 1888, and is now chairman of the Board of Trustees.

UGH J. ALLEN, who for many years was a leading farmer and a highly esteemed citizen of Worces- ter, residing at Maple Shade Farm on Salisbury Street, was born in New Brain- tree, September 12, 1827. His father, Israel Allen, who was a farmer in good circum- stances, died here in 1875, the year following that of his entrance on the farm and the seven- tieth of his age. His mother, Jerusha Thomp- son Allen, who died here in September, 1886, at the age of eighty, bore her husband nine children, of whom eight grew to maturity. Of the latter, six are living, three sons and

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three daughters. One of the daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Whipple, resides in Hartford, Conn. ; and the other two, Mrs. Sarah E. Rice and Harriet A. Allen, reside in Hudson Street, this city. The sons are: William T. Allen, of Elliot Street; John L., who is in business in Main Street; and Jesse M., who resides in Holden.

With the exception of three years, during which he was employed in a shoe factory, Hugh F. Allen was a lifelong farmer. After spending two and a half years in New Brain- tree, engaged in farming, he and his wife came to Worcester on May 16, 1863, settling on the farm of eighty-two acres which has since been the family home. In 1873 he erected a dwelling-house on the site of the present house. This was burned in 1895, after which the house now standing was built. Occupying a site on a rise of land, the new building commands a pleasing and somewhat extended view. As a farmer Mr. Allen was progressive and successful. Thoroughly inter- ested in his work, he enjoyed it, and had excel- lent health until he met with a series of acci- dents. At three different times he broke his ribs, and on another occasion he broke his shoulder. Later by falling from a wagon, the axle-tree of which had broken, he was injured in a manner that proved fatal. The sudden- ness of his death was a sad shock to his family and neighbors.

Mr. Allen's marriage was contracted on No- vember 18, 1851, with Marion O. Ross, a daughter of William and Lucy B. (Otis) Ross, who were respectively natives of Waltham and Leominster. Mr. Ross, who was a mason by trade, died in 1889, and his wife in December, 1876. Mrs. Allen was their only child. Born in Leominster, she grew up in Worces- ter. She is the mother of two children - Lizzie M. and William I., both at home. The latter, who manages the farm, married Nellie M. Tucker, and has a son six years old. Mr. Allen, Sr., was a member of the Grange, P. of H., No. 22, had been its Master, and at the time of his death was serving it in another official capacity. In politics he was a stanch and active Republican, but never an aspirant to political honors. Both he and his wife

were members of the Union Congregational Church.

HINEHAS BALL, eldest son of Ma- nasseh Sawyer and Clarissa (An- drews) Ball, was born in Boylston, Mass., January 18, 1824. He came of Puritan stock, being descended on the ma- ternal side from Simon and Anne Bradstreet. His father was the youngest son of Elijah Ball, a soldier of the Revolution who was in General Putnam's retreat on Long Island, and attained in 1779 the rank of First Lieutenant. Elijah Ball had been a well-to-do farmer, but, when in his old age his acres passed to Manasseh, they were fallow and heavily mortgaged. Only by unremitting toil could they gain a livelihood. Manasseh Ball tilled his acres by day and hunted wild game or burned charcoal by night, and the son assisted to the utmost of his strength. But, in spite of the heavy labor required in farming, Mr. Ball found the life of the farmer attractive, and kept throughout his life a lively interest in agriculture. It was this interest, no doubt, that actuated in a measure his strenuous plea for sewage farming as the best method of sew- age disposal.

Mr. Ball began life with a frail body, and his youth was a continued struggle with ill health. The seasons of close application in study and teaching were followed by severe illnesses that ate up his scanty earnings. Up to his sixteenth year he attended the brief terms of the district school, but in the winter of 1840 he spent some weeks in Woonsocket, R. I., with an uncle, Gardner Smith, who taught him the principles of surveying. About this time he came into possession of an old compass once the property of his great- great-grandfather, Robert Andrews, an early settler of Boylston. Thus equipped, Mr. Ball practised surveying, as opportunities afforded, about the farms in his neighborhood, in West Boylston and Worcester. But up to the time of his employment by the Worcester & Nashua Railroad in 1847 he had seen no sur- veying done by men of experience.

In the fall of 1841 he went for a term of six

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weeks to Josiah Bride's English Boarding School in Berlin, and again the next fall he had a like term, which closed his schooling. The bill for these two terms is extant, and shows the expenses were met by the payment of one hundred and fourteen bushels of oak coal, ten bushels of potatoes, two barrels of apples, and forty pounds of dried apple.

In the winter of 1841-42 Mr. Ball taught school in Southboro, the following winter in Lancaster, and the next in Marlboro. In the fall of 1846 he began the study of draughting in Worcester, but was soon pros- trated with typhoid fever and unable to do anything until the following March, when he again went to Worcester. Work came slowly. In June he was employed to survey the old Worcester aqueduct, and thus enabled to free himself from debt he felt himself fairly started in business. Though in November of that year he records earning but twenty-five cents during the entire month, still from this time he had a fair amount of business and was able to maintain himself, though for years it required the strictest economy. A debt of the smallest was always to him a thing abhorred, and when he died he had ab- solutely no personal debt of any kind. His early struggles made him meet others in like difficulty with ready sympathy. Indeed, it was never easy for him to say "No" to any one who asked his aid.

Mr. Ball did not settle easily upon his life work. He had no decided bent. He liked surveying and he liked farming. Theology at- tracted him, and at one time he thought seri- ously of studying for the ministry. Then, too, he had a turn for mechanics. But en- gineering once settled upon he kept to it as a business; nor did he ever change his resi- dence, though strongly urged to do so by friends who went West. He was conserva- tive in many ways and certainly ill calcu- lated to endure any stress of competition.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 25

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