Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 64

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 64

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daily. Its proprietor is nothing if not up to date; and the press-room from which it goes out cannot be equalled in Massachusetts, when the location and the size of the place are considered. It is printed from a modern Bab- cock press. It holds a high position among the dailies of the Bay State. In politics it is independent. Fearless to expose the weak- nesses of the various parties, always eager to praise all that is praiseworthy, constant in espousing the cause of all that is right for the benefit of the community it serves, it has at- tained a hold upon the people that is remark- able. It is a daily mirror of the life of busy Clinton, and no home is complete without the Item.

Its manager is Clarence C. Coulter, only son of William J. Coulter, the proprietor of the Clinton Courant (weekly), which is issued from the same office. Manager Coulter was born in Clinton, and has spent his entire life here. He is a graduate of the Clinton High School, and is prominently identified with the social and business life of the town. He was the first Captain of the local camp of the Sons of Veterans. He is a Mason, and be- longs to a large number of organizations and societies, holding important elective positions in many of them.

Wellington E. Parkhurst, the editor of the Item, was born in Framingham, Mass. He is a brother of the celebrated New York divine, the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst. For more than thirty-three years Mr. Parkhurst acted as editor of the Courant ; and his marked ability, tact, and knowledge of men and things stamp him as one of the leading editors of the Bay State. Probably no weekly paper has been so widely quoted as the Courant, and the same is now true of the Item as a daily. Mr. Parkhurst has faithfully served his townsmen and the citizens of the community where he has lived for many years. He was honored with four successive nominations and elections to the State legislature, where he showed the same characteristic force in dealing with the affairs of government that he has always mani- fested. in his editorial and reportorial work, serving as House chairman of the joint com- mittees on Education and Public Charities.

He has travelled extensively, and his acquaint- ance is one that extends beyond the border of the Bay State. In politics he is a Republican, and his interest in the schools of the town has been recognized by many successive elections to the School Committee. He has also held many other town offices. In 1897 Governor Wolcott appointed him a member of the Board of Trustees of the State Hospital for Con- sumptives, at Rutland.

OHN L. DAVENPORT, a representa- tive citizen of Mendon, was born in this town on September 30, 1839, son of Seth Tallman and Adaline A. (Barber) Davenport. He belongs to a family that has been identified with the growth and prosperity of Mendon more than a hundred and fifty years, a direct ancestor, Samuel Davenport, having settled here, says a care- ful historian, "between 1745 and 1750."

From a brief genealogical record we learn that Samuel Davenport was born in Dorches- ter, Mass., October 20, 1697, that he was a son of John Davenport and grandson of Thomas Davenport, immigrant, who became a member of the church in Dorchester in 1640. Samuel Davenport married Rebecca Hol- brook. She was born on February 9, 1699, and died on September 25, 1777. He died on June 29, 1773.

Seth Davenport, youngest son of Samuel and Rebecca, born November 2, 1739, in Mil- ton, Mass., came with his parents to Mendon, here grew to manhood, married, and reared a family. He became the owner of a very large tract of land, which embraced meadow, field, and timber land, and extended from Mendon Centre nearly two miles to the northward, and for more than a mile to the eastward. The house now occupied by Mrs. Adaline A. Davenport was built by him in 1793. He died on March 28, 1813. His wife's maiden name was Chloe Daniels.

Their son, Seth, Jr., grandfather of John L. Davenport, was born on June 13, 1775, and died on April 28, 1843. He succeeded to the parental estate, was a most enterprising farmer, and accounted as one of the wealthiest

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men in this part of the Commonwealth. He was among the first to engage in fruit-raising in this vicinity, and was the first to introduce here the Rhode Island greening apple, of which variety alone he sold on the place twelve hundred bushels at a dollar a bushel. They were carted to Boston by ox teams and marketed. He married November 19, 1797, Betsy Godfrey, who was born May 19, 1779, daughter of Colonel Benjamin and Bethiah (Gibbs) Godfrey, and who died October 29, 1854. To each of his four sons that grew to maturity and married he gave a large farm, and built for each a substantial house. A large part of the original property is still owned in the family. The wife (now de- ceased) of ex-Governor Claflin was a daugh- ter of Samuel D. Davenport, third son of Seth Davenport, Jr.

Seth Tallman Davenport, youngest son of Seth, Jr., was born on September 18, 1818, and died on April 28, 1858. He married in 1838 Adaline Adams Barber, daughter of John and Mary (Davenport) Barber. She was born on August 27, 1820, and is now living at the old homestead at the age of seventy-eight. Her father's death in middle life was caused by an accident. Her mother lived to the age of eighty-four. Seth T. Davenport was a man of great energy and ambition and a tireless worker. On coming into possession of the estate he made many improvements, removing several of the barns, and building new ones which were modern, spacious, thoroughly equipped, and constructed in a most substan- tial manner, of timber cut and hewn on the premises. Of his children, three sons are living --- John Louis, Austin Dwight, and Marshall Eugene.

Austin Dwight Davenport, born February 24, 1842, who lives at the old homestead and manages the farm, is at present a dealer in milch cows, and operator of a cider-mill, the product of which is refined and shipped to California. For many years he was engaged in dealing in horses, bringing them by car- loads from Canada, New York, and Vermont, and disposing of them here. He married for his first wife Delia W. Taft, who died on January 20, 1872, having been the mother of

three children : Adeline A., who resides with her father; Mary L. and Delia W., who died in infancy. To him and his second wife, formerly Sarah M. Pearson, of Bangor, Me., have been born four sons -- Austin Dwight, Jr., Ora P., Frederick Allen, and Benjamin Jourdan. Marshall Eugene Davenport also resides at the homestead. He is a pattern- maker by trade.

John Louis Davenport, after attending a private school at Framingham taught by the late Dr. James W. Brown, in 1855 and 1856 was a student at Leicester Academy. In 1857 he went to Iowa, where he engaged in business as a carpenter and contractor. At the end of a year he was summoned home by the illness of his father. After his father's death he managed the farm for four years. Then he entered the employ of the Draper Company in Hopedale, and for twenty-one years was in charge of the wood work of the concern. During that time he had the over- sight of rebuilding the dam, of putting in the huge new engines, and of arranging the shaft- ing in the main shops. He resigned his posi- tion in 1892, and has since devoted his atten- tion mainly to farming, though he has taken occasional contracts as builder. At the time the Mendon school-house was rebuilt, he was chairman of the committee having the matter in charge.

For five years Mr. Davenport has been local representative of the New England Homestead, and from time to time has contributed to that paper practical articles on agriculture, econ- omy in the construction of farm buildings, and kindred topics. Fraternally, he is a member of Montgomery Lodge, F. & A. M., of Mil- ford; of Mount Lebanon Chapter, R. A. M. ; and of Milford Commandery, K. T.

Mr. Davenport married for his first wife Charlotte A. Taft, for his second Charlotte A. Garfield, and for his third Mrs. Myra A. Moffit, a native of Hebron, Me., and descend- ant of old pioneer stock, being a daughter of Levi and Eliza (Bucknam) Maxim. By the first marriage there were three sons: Samuel D., who has been for twenty years in the boot and shoe business; George G., who died at eleven years of age; and John Louis Daven-

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port, Jr., who for eighteen years has been head salesman in the great millinery house of Gage Brothers & Co., Chicago. Samuel D. married Annie Johnson, and has three children - George Luther, Samuel Dwight, Jr., and Mary. John L., Jr., married Louisa Dryden, of Monmouth, Ill., and has one son, John Dryden Davenport. By his second marriage Mr. Davenport had three daughters, namely : Charlotte Taft, who is the wife of Theodore Smith, of Grafton; Estelle Elizabeth, who is a stenographer in Chicago; and Medora Au- gusta, who has travelled extensively, and has contributed interesting letters to the Milford Journal. She was recently married to B. L. Pinney, of Woodstock, Vt. To Mr. Davenport and his third wife have been born two sons - Marshall Ernest and George Godfrey.

ĮLIHU WARNER MOFFITT, a well- known and respected citizen of Stur- bridge, residing at Fiskdale, was born in Pomfret, Conn., October 8, 1821, son of Eaber and Lucy (Warner) Moffitt. His father followed the old-time occupation of an itinerant shoemaker. It was then the custom for country people, especially farmers, to send the hides of the stock killed on the farm to the local tanner, who turned them into leather. This was laid aside to await the arrival of the shoemaker, who in due time came with his kit of tools and made it up into shoes for the family, prolonging his stay for a number of days, or until the leather had all been used and all the members of the family provided with substantial footwear for a year or more to come. In this way Eaber Moffitt visited many towns in Connecticut and elsewhere, including Killingly, where he resided for a time, and Pomfret, where he farmed a while for Eben- ezer Thompson, and made a wide circle of ac- quaintances. He died at the age of sixty-nine years. Politically, he was a member of the old Whig party, and his religious opinions were liberal. His wife, Lucy, who lived to the advanced age of ninety-one years, was a worthy helpmeet to him. Such was her strength of constitution that within six months of her death she planted a half-acre of pota-

toes. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for fifty years. Mr. and Mrs. Eaber Moffitt had nine children, of whom the following is a brief record : Harriet, who was twice married, first to Otis Allen and second to Ezias Pray, and now resides with her hus- band at Gloucester, R.I .; Elihu W., whose name begins this sketch; William Alexander, who is a resident of Woodstock, Conn. ; Elea- nor Maria, who became the wife of Lyman Brown, both being now deceased; Susan Jane, who was twiee married, and is now deceased ; Lorenzo Richmond, who is engaged as a small farmer in his native town of Killingly ; Eaber, who was born in Slatersville, R. I., and now resides in Connecticut, where he follows farming; Leonard, who died about 1862; and Torrent, unmarried, who met his death by ac- cident at sea.

Elihu W. Moffitt entered the ranks of the vast army of industry at an age when most boys had scarcely begun their school studies. When but eight years old he found employ- ment in a cotton-mill at Blackstone, and in course of time he became an expert operative. He worked subsequently at his trade in various places, including Uxbridge, Mass., and Slatersville, R.I., to which latter place his family removed. During one winter he at- tended school. When about fourteen years of age he was given practical charge of one department of the mill in which he was then employed, a fact bearing testimony to the con- fidence of his employers in his skill and trust- worthiness. Coming to Fiskdale in 1844, he worked in a factory here for over twenty years, or until 1867. In the following year he pur- chased twelve acres of land in this town, which he divided into several lots. On two or three of these he raises vegetables and market produce, and the others he devotes to pastur- age. Though not a man of wide means, he possesses enough for the necessaries and many of the comforts of life. Formerly a Whig and now a Republican in politics, he has served the town in various official capacities, in all of which he has displayed a praiseworthy activity guided by sound sense. He was Town Surveyor for four years, later served some time as Superintendent of Streets, and he was three

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years on the Board of Selectmen. For eigh- teen years he was Secretary and Treasurer of the Cemetery Committee, during which time he was chiefly instrumental in accomplishing some important improvements. He has been gate-keeper for twenty-two years of the Worcester South Agricultural Society, a post requiring the exercise of patience, firmness, and sound judgment, and which he has but lately decided to resign. During his fifty-five years' residence in the town of Sturbridge he has seen many changes. But few of the friends and companions of his youth now re- main. New methods of work and living have taken the place of the old ones; but, through all and in spite of all, Mr. Moffitt has kept well abreast of the times, performing his part in a manly way, not to be excelled by the younger generation. His seventy-seven years sit lightly upon him, and both from his appear- ance and conversation he would readily be taken for a much younger man. Like his father, he inclines to liberality in his religious opinions.

Mr. Moffitt has been twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Lurenzo Lurilla Glazier, and who was a native of Mas- sachusetts, died on September 20, 1870. His second wife, Nancy Perry Glazier, a sister of his first wife, died April 29 of the present year, 1898. Both were Unitarians in religion, belonging to the church in Sturbridge. Mr. Moffitt has had no children by either marriage.

EORGE T. AITCHISON, inventor and builder of vehicles, long a resi- dent of Worcester, is eminently a self-made man. He began life with little or no school education, and by force of his native genius was on his way unaided to the head of his business in a community of some two hun- dred thousand inhabitants. He is almost the only representative of his family in this coun- try who has not lost the identity or permitted the family name to be confounded. The Aitchisons have been one of the oldest and leading families in certain parts of Scotland for untold generations, dating back before the

time when Scotland was an independent coun- try, its people divided into clans, each of which was governed by a chief. The ances- tral history reads like a romance by Sir Walter Scott, filled as it is with deeds of martial prowess, chivalry, and adventure.

Mr. Aitchison's parents were William H. and Harriet Thwaite Aitchison, the former a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and the latter of Leeds, England. They came to America about 1824, settling in Sing Sing, N. Y., where the father spent a long life as a mer- chant tailor of ability, being eighty-eight years old when he died. The mother attained the same age. They had five sons and four daughters. Alfred, the youngest-born, died at the age of twenty-two years. Seven of the family are now living (December 1, 1898).

George T., the fifth child, was born at Sing Sing, July 5, 1827. He attended the schools of the town until he was fourteen years of age, when he was sent to Peru, Ill., to become a civil engineer under Colonel Burnett, United States army, who surveyed the canal from Chicago to Peru along the Illinois River. Chicago was then a village with no railroads. Nearly nine hundred miles of the thirty days' journey to Peru was by stage, the farthest point west possible to reach by rail at that time being Harrisburg, Pa. In Illinois young Aitchison began to develop those traits of self- reliance and independence which have since been strong features in his character. He saw much of the world, and unconsciously absorbed and acquired a knowledge of affairs beyond the usual ken of a lad of his years. He learned an implicit obedience and faithfulness in performing the tasks allotted to him.

Returning East, he employed his time in various ways until he was eighteen, when he became apprenticed to a carriage and stage builder in Newark, N.J. The term of his indenture was three years, and he was to re- ceive twenty-five dollars a year with board. Abiding by the conditions of long hours and hard labor, he persevered, and in a few months was given piece work, which was usually ex- ecuted by men many years his elders. He de- voted himself assiduously to the work, exhibit- ing a sense of nicety and exactness united with

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rapidity of execution which caused his em- ployer often to remark that the boy earned more money than any man in the shop.

In 1848 he came to Worcester, and worked at his trade for one of the men who had for- merly been at Newark. The business was lo cated on School Street, on the very spot Mr. Aitchison now owns and where he conducts his present large establishment.

Five years later, having mastered the art of building vehicles, he had the courage and cap- ital to start for himself a similar business on Canal Street, Worcester. There he prospered from the start, being eminently successful in making light carriages, whose beauty of design and thoroughness in building served to offset the severe effects of competition.

About 1860 he was able to buy out the busi- ness of his former employer on School Street. This gave him the opportunity he had long sought. He immediately gave exercise to his progressive tendencies, and placed the business upon a broader basis, extending his trade and engaging in the manufacture of vehicles of the highest order of construction. Thoroughness of workmanship to the smallest detail is char- acteristic of the man, and to this day he will not permit a poorly made vehicle of any sort to. be sent from his shop. Steadily and safely the business increased many times in volume. His reputation became wider and wider. He built all styles of wagons, carts, carriages, buggies, sleighs, and busses. He designed and built the first top-sleigh ever constructed in this region. The original designs thereof were so graceful and attractive that they were copied at large throughout the country. All parts of vehicles are built complete upon Mr. Aitchison's premises, and leave his shops ready for instant use.

Mr. Aitchison was one of the original in- ventors and builders of street water carts in the United States. His first street sprinkler was conceived and built about 1860, and he has watered the streets of Worcester since that time. The Aitchison street sprinklers have been copied and adopted all over the country. Many improvements to them have been in- vented by Mr. Aitchison, which have resulted in his building large numbers of these carts

for use in other cities. In 1895 he perfected the most important invention that has ever been designed for application to horse-drawn sprinklers. This invention consists of a dis- tributer of the water, which, replacing the old half-circular arm that previously extended from the rear of the carts, has revolutionized the process. It is compact, light, simple, durable, and distributes the water directly downward and upward at right angles with the length of the cart. The distribution is even and full. It covers twenty-five to thirty feet in width, is easily controlled by the driver, and can be regulated in volume at will. It works instantaneously, and is deemed by experts the most practical street sprinkler built. He has The bottom

avoided all leakage in the carts.

of the tank is what is known as a sewer bot- tom, being circular, thereby making the tank stronger than flat bottom: it centres the weight of the tank and makes it stronger. The distributer, when moved to regulate volume of water, is automatic, and needs no ratchet or device to keep the regulator in the position desired. The force of the water does not move it, and frequent repairs are not neces- sary. Many of these street sprinklers have been recently built in Mr. Aitchison's own shops. They are constructed in the soundest possible manner. Mr. Aitchison's designs for these carts have been so carefully studied out that the completed vehicles weigh from three hundred to four hundred pounds less when full than any other cart constructed. Their capacity is from three hundred to one thousand gallons of water. Taken as a whole, for the very practical and general purpose of street sprinkling under all sorts of conditions, these Aitchison street sprinklers have proved to be the handsomest, best made, and most durable street sprinklers in existence.

Mr. Aitchison now owns and occupies five buildings on School Street, and in addition to his carriage-making he does an extensive re- pair and jobbing business. The largest of these structures, measuring fifty feet by one hundred and thirty, and four stories in height, made of brick and iron, was built in 1896. It is designed as a storehouse for property of all kinds, especially furniture and vehicles, and is

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proving a paying investment, being the only safe storage house in the northern section of the city.

Mr. Aitchison has invested his profits in real estate, and possesses valuable house lots near his commodious residence at Blooming- dale. Some of his brief spare hours have been devoted to horticulture. The Worcester Agri- cultural Society has counted him a valued member for many years, as has also the Worcester County Mechanics' Association. Mr. Aitchison bears little evidence of advanc- ing years. He is daily at his shops, managing the business, and is in the full strength of his mental powers. The secret of his success is found in his early faithfulness to duty, his foresight and enterprise, his honorable deal- ings, his close application to business, the thorough perfection of all his products, and in his careful and sound judgment in financial affairs.

ANIEL FLAGG, a respected resi- dent of Millbury in his time, son of Abel and Susanna (Harrington) Flagg, was born in Worcester, Feb- ruary 22, 1814. His birthplace was the farm settled many years before by his great-grand- father, Daniel Flagg. The father, Abel, who was born there on October 31, 1780, and lived there throughout his lifetime, was married in 1804 or 1805 to Susanna Harrington, whose brother was for many years the sexton of the Old South Church. Of this marriage nine children were born; namely, Lucretia, Sam- uel, Daniel, Susan, Ebenezer, Franklin, Henry, Eliza, and Nancy. Of these the only one now living is Henry Flagg. Lucretia, who became the wife of Benjamin Harrington, died in 1890, at the age of eighty-four. Samuel, who carried on a smithy in this city, died here at the age of seventy-seven. Ed- ward B. Flagg, one of the two sons left by him, is a well-known physician of Worcester. Susan married Deacon Dwinnell, of Millbury. Ebenezer worked at the shoemaker's trade in this city and in Grafton, and died near the old farm, leaving a wife and two children. Franklin Flagg died in Moline, Ill., leaving

a wife. Eliza and Nancy severally died when nearly seventeen years old.

Henry Flagg was reared on the farm, and received a common-school education. In early life he worked at shoemaking with his father. When about twenty years old he went to Grafton. Two years later, in 1848, he came to Worcester, where for the next four years he worked in the grocery and grain business for Draper & Clark, receiving small wages. Following that he came to Millbury, and remained here for four years. At the end of that time he returned to Worcester, and en- tered the employ of Mr. Culver. A year and a half later the firm of Ellis & Flagg was formed, which company bought out Mr. Cul- ver, and continued his market business. They first occupied cheap wooden buildings, for which but small rent was demanded. Within a few years they had bought a tract of land containing between ten and twelve thou- sand feet, paying a dollar a foot. Seven or eight years afterward they sold this property for two dollars and seventy-five cents a foot. Henry Flagg and his partner were in trade for twenty years, doing a large business, and being one of the two leading firms here. They bought cattle by the carload in Albany, and killed the average number of a hundred head per month. Since 1872 the former has lived in retirement. He was married in 1853, at the age of twenty-seven, to Maria Beach, of Burlington, Vt., a native of Willis- ton and a daughter of Sherman and Polly (Prout) Beach. Her father, who was a farmer, died in Vermont in the seventieth year of his age, leaving his widow and a large family of children. The mother, who sur- vived some years, died in New Bedford at an advanced age. Henry Flagg's only daughter, Ella, married George A. Kendrick, a livery man, and died in February, 1888, at the age of thirty-three years. She left two children : Ellen, now eighteen years old, who graduated from the high school in 1897; and Edith, who is sixteen. Their father is a Republican in politics, and attends the Union church.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 64

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