USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Biographical review; this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Franklin County, Massachusetts .. > Part 40
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Erastus F. Gunn received a good education, attending the district schools, and finishing his studies at a select school and an academy. He subsequently taught in the district schools of this county for several terms. At the age of twenty-eight years he was married, and immediately assumed charge of his father's farm, on which he resided until 1872, when he sold the property, and moved to his present home, which he purchased of Dr. Bradford.
In 1846 Mr. Gunn was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Bardwell, daughter of Moses Bardwell, a representative of an old family in this section. Mr. Bardwell formerly kept a hotel at Montague City, and later retired to a farm, where he spent the remainder of his life. His daughter, Mrs. Gunn, was one of three children. She became the mother of three, namely: Charles B., a conductor on the Rock Island Railroad, who married Addie C. Freeman, of Charleston, and had six children - Erle F., Ona May, Amy Lucy, Charles H., Allen, and Ernest George (deceased); Mary C., who married Charles O. Sawyer, formerly a school-teacher and now a commercial trav- eller, and has four children - William G., Leroy R., Vara H., and Alice Persis; and Alice P., wife of Frank O. Johnson, a grocer of Athol, Mass. In 1859 Mr. Gunn was called upon to mourn the loss of his faithful
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and loving wife, who was called to rest at the age of forty-one years.
Mr. Gunn was formerly a member of the famous Know Nothing party, and is now inde- pendent in politics. He has been promi- nently identified with the local government, having served as a Selectman and Overseer of the Poor several years, and also as Assessor and Collector for a considerable length of time. He was elected Representative for his district in 1862, and was for a period of six years Assistant Assessor of United States revenues. He has been a Trial Justice since 1880, and was for thirty years a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Gunn is a member of the Con- gregational Society, with which his wife also was connected, and takes an active interest in all matters relative to the affairs of the church and its Sabbath-school. Although he is fast approaching fourscore, he is still mentally and physically active, and continues to main- tain a lively interest in all public affairs, being, in fact, a worthy representative of the old school of country gentlemen. Mr. Gunn feels a pride in the fact that he was one of those who each furnished a colored recruit for the army in 1864, willingly paying one hun- dred and twenty-five dollars, although not subject to draft at that time.
R ICHARD O'HARA, a leading mer- chant of Greenfield, dealing in boots, shoes, stationery, and periodicals, was born in Ireland, May 1, 1845; son of Richard and Mary (McKenna) O'Hara.
His parents left the green sod of their native isle in 1847, fleeing from the famine of that terrible year to America, the paradise of the poor and the oppressed. Leaving little Richard with his grandfather McKenna, they started on their long voyage with an infant
son, named John, who died on the journey, and was buried beneath the ocean's waters. The shock was too great for the poor mother, who, after they landed in Quebec, was pros- trated for several weeks; and on her recovery the father was stricken with disease. They were poor in pocket, having had but one shil- ling of their united savings left when they stepped on American soil; and their first year in this country was a sad struggle with pov- erty. In 1848 they located in Greenfield, where Mr. O'Hara secured employment with the John Russell Cutlery Company; and his wife worked at anything she could find to do. He remained an employee of the cutlery com- pany from 1852 until his death in 1871, being faithful and trustworthy in all of his duties. His wife preceded him to the better world, dying in 1858, and leaving seven children, of whom but three grew to adult life, namely : Stephen, who died in Greenfield, at the age of twenty-nine years; Mary; and Richard, the subject of this brief notice.
Richard O'Hara came to this country with his mother's sister, Miss McKenna, when he was seven years old, and joined his parents in Greenfield. He attended the common school until eleven years of age, when he entered the service of the John Russell Cutlery Company, for whom he worked about five years. In August, 1862, being then a beardless youth of seventeen, he enlisted in Company A, Fifty-second Massachusetts Volunteer Infan- try, and about a year later re-enlisted, becom- ing a member of Company C, Sixty-fifth New York Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war, being discharged as Cor- poral. He was seasick on the voyage to Baton Rouge, but after landing was never off duty, even if a little indisposed, being deter- mined to keep out of the hospital. He was not well for some time after his return home,
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and invested a part of his savings in paying for a year's tuition at school and for the inci- dental expenses accruing. He subsequently entered the baby carriage factory of B. B. Noyes, for whom he worked some years, re- signing the position of superintendent of the factory to open his present store in Bank Row. He has been very successful from the start. Beginning in a modest way, bis first remittance to one paper having been four dol- lars and a half per month, he has steadily increased his business, reaching sometimes as high as one hundred and eighty dollars in the same space of time. His shoe business has been well conducted, and also nets him hand- some profits. In 1867, just prior to his mar- riage. Mr. O'Hara bought land, and built a house in the south part of the town, his only move since that time being to his present home, which he erected in 1890. Here he has a valuable property, consisting of eight acres of choice land, and he also owns four tenement-houses at Turner's Falls.
In the spring of 1895, concluding that he had paid rent long enough, he purchased the block in which his store is located. Although not a man of wealth, Mr. O'Hara has a comfort- able property, and enjoys life in an unpreten- tious and sensible manner, one of his pleasures being a drive behind his speedy little brown mare. He is known as a man of stability, integrity, and honest purpose, and, though prospered in his undertakings, is as unassum- ing and unpretentious as in his early days, and may not infrequently be seen going the rounds with papers under his arm, as in the days of yore, taking the place of one of his carriers.
June 23, 1867, Mr. O'Hara was united in marriage with Ellen Bulman, a native of Ire- land, the daughter of Robert and Ellen Bul- man, the former of whom died in the old
country. His widow afterward immigrated to America, locating in Greenfield, where she died a quarter of a century ago, leaving four children, of whom Mrs. O'Hara and her brother James are the only survivors. Mr. and Mrs. O'Hara have an interesting family, which includes two sons and two daughters, namely: John, assistant superintendent of a life insurance company at Troy, N. Y .; Nellie E., a practical, comely, and cultured young lady, in the store with her father; James H., a mail carrier, in Greenfield; and Mary E., who was graduated from the high school in the class of 1895, and is highly accomplished, being a fine elocutionist and the possessor of great musical talent. Her elder sister is also proficient in music.
Politically, Mr. O'Hara is an independent voter. Socially, he is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his family are Roman Catholic in faith, and esteemed members of the church of that denomination.
ALTER E. CLAPP, a practical farmer in good circumstances, scion of good old New England stock, re- siding in the town of Gill, Franklin County, Mass., was born at his present homestead, February 22, 1867, son of Elisha and Mar- tha (Johnson) Clapp. Mr. Clapp is a de- scendant of the Clapp family that settled at an early day in Dorchester, where his great- grandfather, Lemuel Clapp, was born on April 9, 1735, and died December 29, 1819. An extended account of his ancestors may be found in the records of the Clapp family, pub- lished by David Clapp & Sons, of Boston, in 1876.
Richard Clapp, son of Lemuel and father of Elisha, was born in Dorchester, July 24,
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1780. He was a tanner, and conducted an extensive business for his day in Dorchester. He also attained to a prominent position in public affairs, and is recorded as having served as chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Overseer of the Poor, a member of the School Board and of the Highway Commission. Public-spirited and a consistent believer in progress, he inaugurated many reforms and departures from the old manner of town gov- ernment. He married Mary Blake, daughter of Jonathan and Sara (Pierce) Blake. She was born April 1, 1784, and became the mother of twelve children, four of whom are still living. Richard Clapp died on Decem- ber 26, 1861; and his wife died February 7, 1875.
Elisha Clapp was educated in the public schools of Dorchester, and commenced to learn the trade of an engraver; but, being by failing eyesight prevented from following this intention, he decided to adopt an agricultural life, for which purpose he moved to Gill in 1851, and purchased the farm of eighty acres now owned and occupied by his son. He very effectually adapted himself to agricult- ural pursuits, which he conducted with suc- cess. Among the many improvements made by him on his home farm was the erection of the present residence, which is one of the finest in the locality; and here he spent the remainder of his life. He died in Septem- ber, 1885, at the age of sixty-three years. Hc was a man of much strength of character, and in many respects an earnest promoter of the community's welfare. He was a Republi- can in politics.
Elisha Clapp married Martha, daughter of Daniel and Sally (Ward) Johnson. Her par- ents were well-known and highly respected farming people of Warwick; and their family consisted of six children, four of whom are
still living, namely: Carolinc, wife of Jona- than Blake, of Gill; Martha, Mrs. Clapp; Emelia, wife of Charles Conant; Sarah, who married Dwight Fuller; and James, who rc- sides at the old homestead in Warwick. Mrs. Martha J. Clapp died in April, 1885. She was blessed with but two children - Walter E. and one who died in infancy. Mr. Clapp's parents were members of the Congre- gational church at Gill, in which his father held an official position.
Walter E. Clapp received his education in the schools of Gill and the academy at Ber- nardston. After his father's death he took charge of the homestead property, which he has since very ably conducted, and is consid- ered by his fellow-townsmen to be one of the most progressive farmers in that section. He has about eighty acres devoted to general farming; and his pleasant home has the appearance of thrift and prosperity which be- tokens intelligent and careful management, and is characteristic of the successful New England farmer.
BENEZER F. WILEY, farmer, residing on Sunderland Meadows, a pensioned veteran of the Civil War, was born in the town of Sunderland, Mass., January 12, 1840, son of Ebenezer and Adeline E. (Ball) Wiley, the former also a native of Sun- derland. Mr. Wiley's paternal grandfather, who also bore the name Ebenezer, was born, it is thought, in Sudbury, Mass., but came to Sunderland when a young man; and here he spent his life as an agriculturist, dying when only fifty years of age. There is in the pos- session of the subject of this sketch a copy of his great-great-grandfather's will, bearing date of April 19, 1774, just a year previous to the battle of Lexington and the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
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CHARLES FELTON.
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Ebenezer Wiley, the second of the name, was reared to the vocation of a farmer, and assisted in the care of the home farm until the death of his father, when he became the owner of a portion of the old homestead, which is situated about a mile distant from the present residence of his son. He died at the age of eighty. His wife, Adeline Ball, was a daughter of Silas Ball, of either Am- herst or Leverett; and they reared five chil- dren. of whom two are still living -- Ebenezer F. and Dexter B. The mother died at the home of the former in her seventy-second year. She was a member of the Congrega- tional church at Amherst.
Ebenezer F. Wiley lived with his parents until twenty-one years old, laying the founda- tion of his education in the district school, and further advancing it at Suffield Academy. After he became of age, he had worked but a year as carpenter when, in 1862, he volun- teered as a Union soldier, enlisting as a pri- vate in Company F of the Thirty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment, being afterward pro- moted to the rank of Corporal. He was in some of the hardest-fought battles of the war, being at Petersburg, Cold Harbor, Spottsyl- vania, the seven days' battle of the Wilder- ness, and many other engagements. He received a wound during a skirmish. at Charleston, Va., from which he was laid up in the hospital, but was afterward transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. He was hon- orably discharged at Albany after a three years' service, during which he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant; and he now receives a pension of eight dollars per month from the government. Returning to Sunderland, he resumed his work as a carpenter, then went to farming, and later became the owner of his present place, a farm of forty acres of fertile land. He was married in 1867 to Mary Cut-
ler, daughter of Pickering Cutler, of Am- herst, who had removed to Ohio, where she was born. Her mother, Mrs. Pickering Cut- ler, who is now past eighty years of age, makes her home with Mrs. Wiley, who is the only one now living of the four children born to her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Wiley have three children: Minnie Gilmore, who married Mr. S. B. Guertin, of Springfield, Mass., and has one child - Mildred; Grace A., who mar- ried Edward E. Wilson, an instructor in the Massachusetts State Prison, and is the mother of one child - George E. ; and Harry N.
Mr. Wiley is a Republican in political affiliation. He has served his town as Asses- sor for four or five years, and has recently been elected to his fourth year of service as Selectman. He is a member of the E. M. Stanton Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Amherst, but has declined all offices therein. He and his family are attendants of the Congregational church at North Amherst.
HARLES FELTON, one of the older native residents of Shutesbury, Mass., further represented in this volume by the excellent portrait which appears on the opposite page, is widely known in these parts as a well-to-do farmer and lumberman. He was born in this town, March 20, 1815, son of Charles and Catherine Felton. Mr. Fel- ton's father was born in Deerfield, Mass., December 10, 1783, and was reared to agri- cultural pursuits. He moved to Shutesbury on February 15, 1815, little less than a year after his marriage, and settled upon a farm which he conducted successfully during the few remaining years of his brief life. He died April 28, 1820. His wife, whom he married May 10, 1814, was born in New Salem, Mass., August 26, 1784. They had
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two sons, namely: Charles, the subject of this sketch; and John William, who was born December 23, 1817, and died May 7, 1854. Mr. Felton's mother, after living for some time a widow, became the wife of Levi Has- kell. She died February 24, 1862, aged seventy-seven years. By her second marriage she had two children - Catherine C. and Franklin R .- both deceased.
Charles Felton grew to manhood in his native town, and received his education in the district schools. In 1838 he came to the farm which he now occupies, and, with the excep- tion of a few years passed in Cooleyville, has resided here since. In young manhood he erected a saw-mill, which he operated for a number of years; and he is still the proprietor of a similar establishment. He has engaged successfully in lumbering, and during his long career has been an energetic and indus- trious man. His farm, which consists of two hundred acres, is in a good state of cultiva- tion, and is a valuable piece of property.
On April 24, 1838, Mr. Felton was united in marriage to Esther T. Wheeler. She was born in New Salem, September 17, 1813, daughter of Nathan and Esther (Fish) Wheeler, the former of whom was born in New Salem, February 19, 1790; and his wife was born in New Hampshire, August 5, 1787. Nathan Wheeler was a carpenter by trade, and also followed farming, being an industrious and useful citizen. He died August 10, 1873, aged eighty-three years. His wife was the mother of six children, as follows: Esther T., who was born as above stated; Charles, born October 28, 1815; Sylvia, born May 18, 1819; Eunice, born December 8, 1824; Chloe D., born May 18, 1827; and Nancy C., born April 30, 1830. Of these, three are now liv- ing: Mrs. Felton; Chloe, now Mrs. Cham- berlain, who resides in West Orange; and
Nancy, now Mrs. Lincoln, whose home is in Philadelphia. Mrs. Wheeler died September 18, 1867, aged eighty years.
Mr. and Mrs. Felton have five children liv- ing, namely: Dwight S., who was born December 21, 1839, and now resides in Shutesbury; Albert F., born December 17, 1842, and now a merchant and manufacturer of Orange, Mass .; Edwin O., born December :20, 1846, and now residing in Northampton, Mass .; Ora H., born August 12, 1849, a car- penter of Orange; and Carrie A., born Sep- tember 27, 1857, now the wife of Walter A. Bryant, a resident of Petersham. Mr. Felton has never aspired to political honors, but was prevailed upon to serve one year as a member of the Board of Selectmen.
RED L. BURNHAM, real estate agent and a dealer in lumber and builders' finish, has been a resident of Green- field for twenty-seven years, and during that time has been an important factor of its man- ufacturing and mercantile interests. He is a native of Buxton, Me., and was born August 29, 1843. His parents were Samuel and Priscilla (Blunt) Burnham, the former a na- tive of the town of Cape Elizabeth, Me., near Portland, born September 16, 1804, the latter of Kennebunkport, Me., born just a week later than her husband. The Burnhams are of English ancestry, descended from three brothers who emigrated from the mother coun- try at an early period, one of them settling in Mainc. He was the direct ancestor of Fred L. Burnham. The grandfather of the latter, Joel Burnham, was born in Portland in 1765, and was a boy when the British destroyed his native city. He was a well-known citizen of Cape Elizabeth, where he worked as a ship carpenter for many years, and died in 1848.
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Samuel Burnham, the father of Fred L., was a Maine lumberman, and carried on his business in the towns of Buxton and Fairfield, sometimes rafting his logs down the river, and sometimes making them into lumber be- fore disposing of them. He was a man of much ability and worth, but died while yet in the prime of a useful manhood, his death occurring in 1853. In 1829 he was united in marriage to Priscilla Blunt, and they became the parents of six children, namely : Caroline, who died at the tender age of two and one- half years; Melinda H., wife of J. L. Carll, of Greenfield; Emily M., wife of Benjamin S. Mowry, of Greenfield; James B., who died in Montague City in 1885, aged fifty-one years, leaving a widow and four sons ; George, who died January 14. 1862, leaving an orphan son, his wife having passed to the silent land before he did; and Fred L., the subject of this sketch. The orphan son of George Burn- ham was adopted by his aunt, Mrs. Melinda H. Carll, and given the name of Walter E. Carl1. He was graduated from Harvard Col- lege, and is now Professor of Anatomy at the State College of Oregon in Portland, being a man of unusual brilliancy and mental attainments.
Fred L. Burnham was ten years of age when he was deprived of a father's care and guidance; and two years later he went to live with his sister, working for his board. He attended the district school six months a year, and subsequently pursued his studies at the grammar school for a term. At the age of nineteen years he enlisted in defence of his nation's honor, joining Company D, Twenty- sixth Maine Infantry, and at the end of his term of enlistment was honorably discharged as Third Sergeant of his company, having been acting First Sergeant. Mr. Burnham had previously been engaged in the manufact-
ure of piano cases at Orange, and after his return from the seat of war he began working at the carpenter's trade, in which he met with good success, and has since made it his prin- cipal occupation, although he was for a while interested in cutlery manufacture, being one of the directors of the company, and for four and one-half years the efficient superintendent. In 1868 Mr. Burnham located in Greenfield, and for more than a score of years has been one of the foremost contractors and builders of the place. He has a pleasant home on Crescent Street, the commodious and conven- iently arranged house being one of his own planning and building.
On January 7, 1864, Mr. Burnham was united in marriage to Miss Catharine Tracy, of Malone, N. Y., a daughter of Martin Tracy, and their union has been blessed by the birth of six children, of whom we chronicle the fol- lowing: George G., a carpenter, residing in this town, is married, and has two sons and one daughter; Lizzie M., the wife of Myron J. Farr, of Greenfield, has two daughters; Minnie, the wife of Cullen E. Hamilton, has one daughter; Frederic W., a carpenter, is married, and lives in Greenfield; Jennie H. lives with her parents; and Walter E. is a boy of twelve years.
In his political affiliations Mr. Burnham is a strong Prohibitionist from the Republican ranks. He has been an Odd Fellow for nearly thirty years, and has passed the chairs of the lodge and the encampment; and he is prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic circles, his name being first on the roll of the charter members of the Edwin E. Day Post, which was organized in 1870. Mr. Burnham served as the first Commander of the post, holding the office three and one-half years. He is now Inspector on the Department Com- mander's staff, and was one of the twenty-four
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delegates to the National Encampment, held at Louisville, Ky., in the summer of 1895.
ETH B. CRAFTS, a very prosper- ous farmer of Whately, an exten- sive landholder, was born in this town on August 28, 1841. He is a son of Noah Crafts, who was born in the same town on September 28, 1800, and whose father, Seth Crafts, also a native of Whately, was a son of Thomas Crafts, a native of Hatfield, who moved from that town to Whately, and settled for life upon the farm now owned and operated by his great-grandson. The farm at the death of Thomas passed into the posses- sion of his son Seth, whose entire life was spent there. A brother of Seth Crafts kept the first hotel in the town. Noah Crafts, who was one of the survivors of a family of eleven children, six of whom were victims of malig- nant spotted fever, was reared to agricultural pursuits; and at the death of his father he succeeded, in company with a brother, to the old homestead. They continued to carry on the farm together with the usual prosperous results until the death of the brother in 1861 left Noah Crafts in full possession of the property. He resided here until his decease, which occurred in 1878. His wife, whose name before marriage was Nancy Wells, was a daughter of Calvin Wells, an early settler in the village of Whately, and was one of a family of five children. Mr. and Mrs. Noah Crafts were members of the Congrega- tional church. They were the parents of three children, of whom Seth B. is the only one now living. His mother, who resided with him subsequent to his father's decease, was called to rest in the month of October, 1891, at the age of eighty-four years.
Seth B. Crafts received both a common-
school and an academic education, and resided with his parents until reaching the age of twenty-one years. After the death of his uncle he purchased a part of the home farm, and conducted farming upon his own account until 1874, when he purchased a valuable piece of property in the town of Conway, known as the D. A. Foote farm; and this he carried on very successfully for some years, devoting his personal attention to the dairy- ing interests. He had placed his property in Whately in charge of a competent farmer, to be operated on shares; and this arrangement continued until a disastrous conflagration destroyed his farm buildings in Conway on March 8, 1890, since which time he has re- sided at the old homestead in Whately. He keeps a herd of blooded Jersey cows, and con- ducts farming with the most satisfactory results. His property here, including the Graves farm, consists of one hundred and sixty acres of finely improved land ; and this, together with the Conway farm of three hun- dred, which is devoted to the cultivation of tobacco and also to dairying interests, requires his entire attention.
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