Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 58

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

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raise corn on the first because of the early frosts. He entered upon the farm previously referred to in 1760. On September 29, 1746, he married Lucy Spooner, of Hardwick, who was born here, October 29, 1729. He died on this farm, May 21, 1778, and she in 1821, at the venerable age of ninety-one years.

Daniel Ruggles, son of Edward and Lucy, succeeded his parents in the ownership of the homestead farm. Besides attending to his farm duties he built and conducted a hotel for seventeen years, and did a good business in real estate. He was a very active, ener- getic man, and acquired a handsome property. The high esteem in which he was held by his townsmen is shown by his long term of ser- vice in town offices, including four years as Selectman, eleven years as Assessor, and six years as Town Treasurer, besides several years as Justice of the Peace. He was one of the founders of Mount Zion Lodge of Masons at Barre and one of the organizers of the Uni- versalist church at Hardwick. In politics he was a Democrat. He died on February 26, 1838; and his wife, whose maiden name was Lucy Paige, died August 3, 1840. They had a family of four sons and three daughters, born as follows: Gardner, February 16, 1782; Anson, December 17, 1783; Franklin, March 21, 1786; Lucy, April 5, 1791; Crighton, June 10, 1793; Alma, July 22, 1795; and Luthera, January 4, 1798.

Anson Ruggles followed farming as an oc- cupation. He purchased the interest of the other heirs in the homestead farm, and was thereafter occupied in its cultivation. In 1827 he built the house in which his son lives. His wife's maiden name was the same as that of his mother, Lucy Paige, and his marriage with her took place June 14, 1812. In their wedding trip to Hartford, Conn., they rode on one horse. Their golden wedding was duly celebrated on June 14, 1862. In politics Anson Ruggles was a Democrat, in religion a Universalist. He was a member of Mount Zion Lodge, F. & A. M., in which his brother Gardner was Grand Master for nine years and the special agent for the terri- tory west of Worcester County. He died here, December 5, 1881, and his wife on July

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29, 1874. They were the parents of five sons and one daughter - Dwight, Mary, Moses, George, Daniel, and Frederick D. Dwight, born March 31, 1816, died July 18, 1894. He was a physician in New York City. Mary, born March 4, 1818, is the wife of William Mixter, and lives at 219 Beacon Street, Boston. Moses, born November 3, 1819, lives retired in Athol, Mass. George, born September 3, 1821, died January 5, 1861. He was a manufacturer, and at the time of his death he was Town Clerk of Hard- wick. Daniel, born August 9, 1823, is en- gaged in farming in Baraboo, Wis. .

Frederick D. Ruggles grew to manhood in Hardwick, receiving his education in the town schools and at the New Salem and Leicester Academies. After leaving school he became a clerk in the mercantile house of Pierce, Hallett & Co., of Boston, with whom he re- mained three and one-half years. In 1854 he sailed as clerk on board the steamboat "Africa," commanded by Captain Harrison ; and he served in that capacity for three voy- ages between Boston and Liverpool. He next visited the scene of the Crimean War, serving on board the British warship "Emeu." Re- turning from the Black Sea to London, he took passage on the ship "Asia," Captain A. L. Duncan, for New Orleans, where soon after his arrival he entered the employ of Lincoln & Co., shipping merchants, as clerk. In 1856 he returned to Hardwick, and has since been profitably engaged in the cultiva- tion of the old Ruggles farm. Besides gen- eral farming he makes a specialty of the cult- ure of grapes and other fruits. He is the oldest representative of the Ruggles family now living in Hardwick.

On June 14, 1859, Mr. Ruggles was mar- ried to Eliza Jane Rogers, of Barre, where her birth occurred March 25, 1835. She was a daughter of Deacon Joshua and Sarah (Reed) Rogers. She died December 13, 1891. All her seven children are living; namely, Fred- erick A., Anna R., George R., Mary M., Carrie C., Jennie L., and Samuel R. Fred- erick A., born March 19, 1861, unmarried, is engaged in farming on the old homestead. Anna R., born April 22, 1863, is the princi-

pal of the Providence Cooking School. George R., born November 9, 1864, unmar- ried, lives in Chicago, Ill. Mary M., born October 15, 1866, is the wife of N. Willis Amsden, of Newton Highlands, who is a salesman with the firm of Manning Brothers, wholesale boot and shoe dealers. Carrie C., born May 22, 1870, lives at home. Jennie L., born August 15, 1876, is a teacher in the State Deaf and Dumb Institute at Providence, R.I. Samuel R., born December 7, 1880, is attending the Polytechnic Institute. The mother died December 13, 1891. In politics the father is a Democrat and a member of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Massachu- setts. In religious belief he is a Uni- versalist.

Converse.

ENRY CONVERSE, a veteran of the Civil War, now serving his seventh year as Postmaster of Rutland, was born in Leicester, Mass., on April 14, 1836, son of Sibley and Esther (Parker) His paternal grandfather, Willard Converse, who died in Spencer at an advanced age, was for many years a hard-working and progressive farmer there. Sibley Converse, also a farmer, spent his life in Leicester, in the western part of which he owned land. He was a Universalist in religion and a Demo- crat in politics. At his death he was sixty- five years old. His wife, who was a native of Leicester, died at the age of seventy-two. Of their nine children, three died in infancy. The others are living; namely, Hiram S., Cynthia P., Henry, George C., Mary, and Dulcina.

Henry Converse was educated in the public schools of Leicester. At the age of twenty- one he engaged in butchering, and he has fol- lowed that business more or less ever since, He bought a place in Leicester, and lived there until 1882, when he came to Rutland. Since then he has conducted a first-class gen- eral merchandise store here, and has built up a flourishing trade. He can be depended on to furnish thoroughly reliable goods in any of the lines he carries and to give prompt de- livery of all orders, His teams cover a wide

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territory, and in the course of a year carry out a large amount of merchandise.

Mr. Converse enlisted in 1862 in Company E of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts Regi- ment, and was in the army until his discharge in 1865. He took part in the battles of New Market, Winchester, Cedar Creek, and Appo- mattox Court House. Although he had two horses shot under him, he was not wounded. While he never boasts of his army career, the list of battles in which he fought is sufficient guarantee that he was in the thick of it all. In 1866 he was united in marriage with Mary A. Hardy, a daughter of Levi Hardy. He has one adopted child, Mary Elizabeth Con- verse, who was born on September 15, 1889. Mrs. Converse is a member of the Congrega- tional church. Mr. Converse has been a member of the Board of Selectmen for one year, and is at present a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor. In politics he is a Republican. In the discharge of his duties as Postmaster he fully satisfies the towns- people, and at the same time demonstrates his own energy and ability. He aims to make the mail service as prompt and efficient as possible and to give every accommodation to the public.

HARLES H. FOLLANSBY, the pres- ident of the Barre Savings Bank, was born at Sanbornton Bridge (now Tilton), N. H., October 24, 1847, son of Cutting and Alice A. (Haines) Fol- lansby. The paternal grandfather, William Follansby, who was a prominent merchant and manufacturer, accomplished much in the way of building up that town. He was com- paratively young when he died. Persis, one of his three wives, was the grandmother of Charles H. Follansby. Cutting Follansby, son of William, was born in Tilton. Early in life he became a clerk in his father's store. In 1849 he went to California, where he worked in the mines for three years. Upon his return he resumed his former occupation. He came to Barre in 1874, and was thereafter associated in business with his son until his tleath, which occurred in September, 1875, at

the age of fifty-four years. He married Alice A. Haines, a native of Tilton, and left one son Charles H. The mother, surviving him, resides in Tilton.

Charles H. Follansby attended the public schools and the New Hampshire Conference Seminary. When his studies were completed he engaged in business with his father. After the latter's death he formed a partner- ship with George W. Cook, who was his busi- ness associate for a number of years. After- ward, selling out his interest to George R. Simonds, he retired from trade in order to de- vote his entire attention to his other interests. Besides his interest in the Barre Savings Bank, of which he is the president, he is a heavy stockholder and a director of the First National Bank, a director of the Barre Water Company, and the owner of considerable real estate. A Republican in politics, he has been for several years the chairman of both the Board of Selectmen and of the Overseers of the Poor. Also the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, the efficiency of the present fire company in a great measure is due to him. He is connected with the Worcester County West Agricultural Society, and has been its treasurer since 1882.

In 1868 Mr. Follansby married Mary R. Merservey, who died in 1889, leaving one daughter, Alice E. In June, 1890, he con- tracted a second marriage with Mrs. Minnie A. (Kendrick) Underwood, the widow of C. O. Underwood. He is a member of Mount Zion Lodge, F. & A. M., of Barre; of King Solomon Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Warren; of Athol Commandery, Knights Templar; and of Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Boston.

TEPHEN B. FISKE, a druggist and real estate owner of Upton, was born in Brookfield, October 30, 1849, son of Daniel and Ruth (Burlingame) Fiske. Stephen Knight Fiske, the grandfather, was a well-to-do farmer of Scituate, R.I., where he figured quite promi- nently in public affairs, serving upon the Board of Selectmen and in the legislature,

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The father, who was born in Scituate, March 27, 1817, when a young man turned his atten- tion to agriculture. In 1842 he settled upon a farm of two hundred acres in Brookfield, and there he tilled the soil industriously until 1877 or 1878, when he retired from active labor. The last twenty years of his life were spent in Worcester, and he died March 19, 1897. Ruth Burlingame Fiske, his wife, was a native of Killingly, Conn., and a daugh- ter of Abram Burlingame, of that town.

Stephen B. Fiske was educated in the pub- lic schools of Brookfield. He assisted his father upon the farm for some time before he reached the age of twenty. Afterward he served an apprenticeship of three years in the drug business at Woonsocket, R.I., and he was for one year a member of the firm of G. R. Hamant, of North Brookfield. For the next five years he kept an apothecary establishment in East Jaffrey, N.H. In 1879 he came to Upton, and succeeded to the drug business formerly carried on by James S. Le Sure, at the corner of North Main and Milford Streets. Having had no opposition, he has been unusu- ally successful. Some time since he trans- ferred his store to his new block, where he has a main salesroom, seventy-six by thirty feet, with office prescription department, and laboratory in the rear. The entire floor space devoted to the business amounts to three thousand feet. He carries a first-class stock, which includes chemicals, botanical and pro- prietary medicines, druggists' sundries, fancy and toilet articles, and a fine line of smokers' supplies. Special facilities are provided for the accurate compounding of physicians' pre- scriptions, and a full stock of officinal prep- arations is constantly on hand.

On March 3, 1873, Mr. Fiske was united in marriage with Alice N. Stebbins, of North Brookfield, daughter of a well-to-do resident of that town. Mrs. Fiske has had three sons - Charles Norman, Harry A., and Walter H. Fiske. The second son died April 10, 1897. Charles Norman, who was graduated from Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., pursued a two years' academic course at Harvard, and now is a student in the medical department of that university. Mr. Fiske is a Republican

in politics. His business ability, as well as his high standing in the community, has made him especially eligible to the public service, in which he has made for himself an honor- able record. After declining the town treas- urership in the third year of his residence here, on the ground that he had not been in the town a sufficient length of time, he was again brought forward as a candidate in 1884, and since then, with the exception of two years, he has administered the public finances with ability and wisdom. He served upon the recent School-house Committee, was for several years a member of the Library Com- mittee, is at the present time Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, has been recently ap- pointed Notary Public, and as a Justice of the Peace is especially serviceable to old soldiers in prosecuting their pension claims. Mr. Fiske is identified with several societies, and has done much toward promoting their in- terest. By the exercise of good judgment he has realized considerable profit from his busi- ness, and has made some good investments in real estate and local enterprises. His present residence, occupying a desirable site on Nel- son Hill, and which is known as Maple Ter- race, was erected by him in 1883.

HARLES E. SEAGRAVE, one of the well-to-do residents of Uxbridge, was born in this town, October I, 1825, son of John and Mary (Scott) Seagrave. The name, originally spelled See- graf, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and was borne by some of the German tribesmen, who made a descent upon the coast of Britain in the sixth century. In the reign of Edward I., Burton Seagrave married a daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and the crest and coat of arms of the family are still known in England. John Seagrave and his wife, Sarah, with their four children, sailed for New England in 1725. The father died on the voyage, and the widow and children settled in Uxbridge.

Captain Edward Seagrave, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, born in England in 1722, was reared in Uxbridge; and he lived there constantly after his arrival in the coun-

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CHARLES W. WELD.

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try. On April 19, 1775, responding to the alarm sent out from Boston, he marched to Concord as an officer in Captain Reed's com- pany of minute-men, and on September 25 of that year he was commissioned Captain of a company in the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, under Colonel Reed. He subse- quently commanded a company in the Third Worcester County Regiment, and on July 12, 1778, he was ordered to join a regiment for service in Rhode Island. On January 6, 1757, he married Louisa White. John Sea- grave, the grandfather, was born in Uxbridge, November 6, 1757, and served as a fifer and in the patriots' ranks during the Revolution- ary War. He was a large land-owner and a cattle dealer, and the farm he occupied is now a part of the village of Uxbridge. His death occurred February 3, 1842. He married Sarah Dorrington, of Boston. John Seagrave, son of John and Sarah Seagrave, was born De- cember 1, 1783, and was a lifelong resident of Uxbridge, following agriculture until his death, which occurred October 14, 1836. He married Mary Scott, daughter of Samuel B. and Celia (Ballou) Scott. Of his children three are living, namely: Samuel S. Sea- grave, who resides in Wellesley, Mass .; the Rev. James C. Seagrave, a Congregational minister of Hinsdale, Mass .; and Charles E., the subject of this sketch.

Charles E. Seagrave was left fatherless at the age of eleven years. His boyhood and youth were passed in attending the district school and assisting his mother, who contin- ued to carry on the farm after her husband's death. He also assisted other farmers, and before reaching his majority he worked for one year in a scythe factory in Millville. At one time he was in the furniture and hardware business in Uxbridge. Prosperously occupied in its cultivation, he has resided upon his present farm for the past forty years. He is the president of the savings-bank, the vice- president of the national bank, and a member of the Blackstone Valley Association. The welfare of the community has received con- stant attention from him. For twenty years he served upon the Board of Selectmen, most of the time as its chairman. He was under-

taker for the same length of time. The town also received his services as coroner and a member of the Board of Registrars. He has been Cattle Inspector since the establishment of that office, and he was a Representative to the legislature in 1880, serving upon the Committee on Towns. In politics he is a Republican.

On May 31, 1848, Mr. Seagrave married Abigail Carter, daughter of Cephas and Mar- garet (Murphy) Carter, of Lunenburg, Mass. Of this union there were six children, namely : Elwin Carter, born in 1849, who died in in- fancy ; Margaret M., born December 20, 1850, who is now the widow of Charles Barton, and resides with her father; Charles S., born in 1852, who married Abby F. Cadwell, and is now cashier of the North Bank in North Smithfield, R.I .; Mary Abby, born April 15, 1858, who married Arthur R. Taft, and died July 15, 1886; Augustus Carter, born July 20, 1868, who married Lillian Knowlton, of Providence, R. I., and is now engaged in the undertaking and livery business in Uxbridge; and Annie Seagrave, born in 1869, who did not reach maturity. The mother died Janu- ary 19, 1894. A second marriage, contracted January 7, 1897, united Mr. Seagrave with Mrs. Clara Viall, of Providence, R.I. He was made a Mason in 1859, and has occupied some of the important chairs in Solomon's Temple Lodge. An esteemed member of the Congregational church, he has served upon some of the society's committees.

HARLES WINTHROP WELD,

well-known business man of South-

bridge, Worcester County, Mass., was born in the adjoining town of Sturbridge, March 22, 1828, a son of Joshua and Cynthia (Drury) Weld. He comes of old Colonial stock of English origin planted on the shores of Massachusetts Bay more than two hundred and sixty years ago. The family was prominent at an early day in the settle- ment at Roxbury, where Thomas Weld, a na- tive of Tirling, Essex County, England, was ordained in July, 1632, as pastor of the First Church, the Rev, John Eliot soon being set-

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tled as preacher. Captain Joseph Weld, brother of the Rev. Thomas, was a wealthy merchant in Roxbury and owner of a large estate. He was a Representative to the General Court, 1636-41.

Joshua Weld, the father above named, a lineal descendant of Captain Joseph Weld, of Roxbury, was a son of Caleb and Phoebe (Clements) Weld. He was born in Charlton, Mass., in 1795, and died in 1840. His wife was a daughter of Ebenezer and Keziah (Adams) Drury. Three sons were born to Joshua and Cynthia D. Weld. Of this fam- ily, Charles Winthrop is now the only sur- vivor.

Charles W. Weld had the misfortune to be deprived of a father's care and influence when but twelve years old, and the following eight years he was "hired out " to farmers in Stur- bridge and Dorchester, where he had an occa- sional opportunity to attend school for a term. At the age of twenty he went to Sharon, N. H., to work in the saw-mill of Cummings & Fay; and in that mill he ran one of the first circular saws ever used in the manufacture of lumber. He was afterward employed in the saw-mill of William Wight in Sturbridge, whence he went to Holyoke, Mass., where he helped to get out one million, two hundred thousand feet of lumber for the construction of the present dam across the Connecticut River. In 1850 Mr. Weld returned from Holyoke, and settled permanently in South- bridge. He began work with James Gleason, who had a box shop on West Street, near the Big Pond dam; and he had charge of the fac- tory until his employer sold out to J. M. Clemence and Albert Mckinstry.

In 1854 he became junior partner of the firm of Gleason & Weld, which was formed for the purpose of operating a grist-mill and carrying on a general grain trade. This en- terprising firm leased a water privilege of the Hamilton Woollen Company for a term of ten years, and built an extensive grist-mill on the site now occupied by the woollen waste mill. In the years preceding and during the war the farmers about Southbridge raised wheat for family use; and the mill which had three run of stones on flour was a veritable farmers'

exchange. In 1857 the firm built new shops, and an extensive plant to be used in manufact- uring wooden pails was soon in operation. This plant was afterward moved to Brackett's mill, three miles up the river, where Charles Hyde's box factory is now located. The wood used in making pails was taken from land be- longing to the firm, which cut about eleven hundred acres of standing timber for that pur- pose. In 1865, their lease of the mill and privileges having expired, Gleason & Weld bought the privileges and property of Brown's mill in the village of West Dudley, four miles from Southbridge, and there erected new grist-mills, the largest in this section of the State, and established an extensive busi- ness. The Southbridge and East Thompson branch of the New England Railroad was then in process of construction, and the road and mills have really had a coexistence.

In 1878, after the death of Mr. Gleason, Mr. Weld bought the interest of his late part- ner, and he has since been sole owner of the plant. For over thirty years he has been the West Dudley agent of the New England Rail- way Corporation, and for a like term he has been the village Postmaster, although he con- tinues his residence in Southbridge. In 1892 he formed a partnership with Lewis C. Prindle, and opened a grain store on Crane Street. Four years later Mr. Prindle retired, and on the admission of John I. Beck the firm name was changed to Weld & Beck, the grain business being still continued at the old loca- tion. In 1879 Mr. Weld, with George M. Whitaker, then editor and owner of the Southbridge Journal, became interested in the telephone. They leased the right in Web- ster, Dudley, Oxford, Southbridge, and Stur- bridge, and in addition ran a line to Worces- ter. The first telephone instrument the firm installed was in the store of Julius S. Glea- son, and the second was in the residence of Dr. L. W. Curtis. Subsequently the busi- ness was sold to the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. Mr. Weld is the inventor and manufacturer of the Weld port- able fence, which has met with so much favor in the various parts of the country in which it has been introduced, He has erected thirty-

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four buildings in his day, and is still at work cutting off wood lots. At the present time his real estate holdings include seven hundred acres of land.

Mr. Weld is a Democrat by birth and from principle, having never swerved from the po- litical faith to which he was reared. He served eighteen consecutive years on the Board of Assessors, and was Highway Sur- veyor four years, during which time he built Marcy and Edwards Streets. He also built under contract River Street, and was one of the committee to build the town hall. He is a Justice of Peace, having been appointed by Governor Russell. Liberal in his religious belief, he attends the Universalist church; and, fraternally, he is a member of Dudley Grange, No. 161.

Mr. Weld was married March 25, 1851, to Lucinda H., daughter of Seneca and Sophronia (Watkins) Richardson, of Sturbridge. Their union has been blessed by three daughters, namely: Alice E .; Winifred; and Jessie, who died at the age of three years. Alice E., the eldest daughter, was educated at the Dudley Academy. She is now the wife of George M. Whitaker, of the Whitaker Pub- lishing Company, Boston, and the editor of the New England Farmer and the Grange Home. Mrs. Whitaker is a well-known writer on household and other topics. She edits a page in the Vew England Farmer and Grange Home. She now (1897) has charge of the New England Grocers' Food and Fair Ex- hibition in Mechanics' Hall; and in connec- tion with the Bay State Agricultural Society she has organized a system of sanitary cook- ing, in which she is very much interested. Winifred, now the wife of John I. Beck, of Southbridge, pursued her art studies with William Willard, of Sturbridge, a celebrated portrait painter, and likewise at Cowles Art School in Boston.

REDERICK H. BEMIS, one of Barre's representative farmers, was born in this town November 29, 1842, son of Silas and Seraph (Conant) Bemis. His paternal grandfather, also named Silas, moved with his

family from Spencer to Barre about the year 1810, settling upon the farm now occupied by his grandson, Edwin R. Bemis. Here Silas and his wife, Betsey, spent the rest of their lives.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 58

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