USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 32
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In 1884, at the request of the Post-office Department, Mr. Winsor prepared a street scheme for the Boston postal district. This book, containing many new and novel ideas and simplifying to a great extent the distribu- tion of mail matter, is to-day the official authority.
In 1888 Mr. Winsor was appointed super- intendent of the new Back Bay postal sta- tion. Such was his success in organizing this office and improving the service that, when the business men and citizens of Chelsea requested of General Corse, then Postmaster of Boston, to reorganize the post-office of that city, he se- lected Mr. Winsor as the man best fitted to carry out the needed improvements. In Janu- ary, IS91, in recognition of his valuable and efficient service, he was presented by the citi- zens of Chelsea with a valuable gold watch and chain.
For the past twenty-two years he has been an important factor in shaping the policy of his associates in the various enterprises for the improvement of the organization, especially measures looking to equalization of salaries and better hours of labor. In this, as in the organization of new offices, he has rendered a most important public service and gained for himself a wide reputation in postal circles.
Mr. Winsor has been honored with many offices of responsibility and trust. At a con- vention held in Baltimore in November, 1895,
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he was made the executive head of the Na- tional Association of Station Superintendents, which office he still holds. He is also president of the Superintendents Association of the Boston Postal District and secretary and treas- urer of the Postmasters' Association of New England.
From a study of an economic aspect of prob- lems relating to the advancement of his fellow- workers Mr. Winsor became convinced that co-operation was a stronger and truer principle than competition, and that the most efficient means to that end was in organization and mutual effort. In the working out of the problems his attention was directed to all phases of co-operative work; and, becoming convinced of the value of co-operative insur- ance, he joined in 1894 the order of Fraternal Helpers and was elected general grand treas- urer. He has since given liberally of his time and thought and the fruit of his experi- ence to advance the interests of the order.
Upon joining the Knights of Honor in 1877, he was elected to the office of Reporter, which he held for nine years. Mr. Winsor was enrolled a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen in 1883, of the Knights and Ladies of Honor in 1885, and later of the Royal Society of Good Fellows. He has re- cently (June, 1900) been elected president of a newly formed association, the Boston Busi- ness Club, to be conducted substantially on the lines of the famous Knickerbocker Club of New York. He is also president of the local consulate (Boston and vicinity) of the League of American Wheelmen and bicycle editor of the Chelsea Pioneer. As a member of the Chelsea Board of Trade and of the Review Club he is closely identified with the civic and social interests of his adopted city. He possesses in an unusual degree the confidence of the societies over which he presides, and is highly esteemed by his associates for the qual- ities which make up a straightforward and manly character.
Mr. Winsor was married in 1876 to Miss Ella L. Webber, of Roxbury, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Lewis) Webber. He has two children : Ella Leona, born January 1, 18;8, who graduated at the Chelsea High School and
the State Normal School at Salem, and is now teaching in Chelsea; and Warren Otis, born December 16, 1879, who was graduated at the Chelsea High School and is now in the employ of F. H. Prince & Co., bankers on State Street, Boston.
APTAIN WILLIAM HARLEY, a widely-known and respected citizen of Everett, Middlesex County, Mass., was born in Collington, in the west- ern part of England, April 14, 1836, son of Thomas and Harriet (Pierce) Harley. At the age of eleven years, having been left fatherless, he shipped on board a vessel as cabin boy, and was engaged for some time in the coasting trade, subsequently becoming a deep-water sailor. In the fall of 1850 he came to Amer- ica, and soon after, at the age of fifteen, shipped as an able seaman from Boston. IIe followed the sea from that time until he was twenty-one years old, when he married and settled down as a longshoreman, engaging in that occupation until the breaking out of the Civil War. He then shipped on board a vessel in the United States government trans- port service, and while in this service accom- panied General Butler on his Port Royal expe- dition and at the capture of New Orleans. He was an able seaman on board the United States transport "Governor" when it was wrecked on Frying Pan Shoals, south of Hat- teras, in 1861. Subsequently, returning to Boston, he reshipped on the transport "Mis- sissippi," on which boat he remained until the close of the war. He then returned again to Boston, and resumed the occupation of long- shoreman, at which he worked until entering the Australian business as stevedore. After- ward as stevedore he was for nine years in the employ of the Warren Line of European steam- ships. He is now in the African trade as stevedore, and also has care of the discharge of Manila hemp and Mexican sidal grass for Henry W. Peabody & Co., Boston. He first took up his abode in Everett in the spring of 1865, and has since resided in that city, his home being in an attractive and commodious dwelling on Harley Avenue. During his sea-
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William Harley
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ting experience he was three times cast away, once in the Baltic Sea and twice on the Atlan- tic.
Captain Harley was married May 24, 1857, to Margaret Ann Connors, of Salem, Mass., who died in January, 1892. He married for his second wife, in 1893, Elvira Patience Hill, a daughter of Stephen and Rebecca (Heath) !lill, of Canada, Province of Quebec. Cap- tain and Mrs. Harley have no children of their own; but their niece, Elizabeth Bullard, who was graduated at the Lynn High School in 1889, has since made her home with them, and is regarded and treated in all respects as a daughter.
On April 14, 1886, Captain Harley's friends to the number of several hundred, by their pres- ence in the Harley mansion and with their hearty expressions of confidence and respect for this genial gentleman, made that day - the fiftieth anniversary of his birth - brilliant and joyous, and one long to be remembered.
HARLES HENRY FAUNCE, of Chelsea, was born in Oxford, Me., May 4, 1851, son of Aaron Davis and Emily (Linnell) Faunce. He . comes of a long line of New England ancestry, being a descendant of John Faunce, who joined the l'lymouth Colony in August, 1623, making the voyage in the "Ann," the third of the
forefather ships. It was his son Thomas, known as Elder Faunce, who pointed out to a later generation the rock on which the Pil- grims landed, since so reverently visited by thousands, and called Plymouth Rock. The son .of John, from whom the subject of this sketch is descended, was Joseph, born in 1653, who married Judith Rickard, and settled in Plympton. Their son Thomas, third in line of descent, born in 1698, married Hannah Damon. James, born in 1744, son of Thomas, had a farm in that part of the town of Plymp- ton that was set off as Halifax. He served in the Continental army in 1777 as a private in Captain Nathaniel Goodwin's company, Colo- nel Theophilus Cotton's regiment, in a secret expedition against Newport, R. I .; and in 1779, in Captain Simeon Fisk's company,
Colonel Freeman's regiment, in service two days on an alarm at Falmouth. He married Johanna Fuller.
Their son William was born in the town of Halifax, and at the age of twenty-one went to Oxford, Me., where he took up land. He was twice married, taking for his second wife Han- nah Davis, of Poland, Me. Their son, Aaron D., father of Charles H. Faunce, was born in Oxford, Me., June 4, 1821. His wife Emily was a daughter of Luther Linnell, a native of Standish, Mass., and a grand-daughter of Sam- uel Linnell, who was born in Orleans on the Cape. Luther Linnell married Desire Lom- bard, of Truro. He served in the Continental army in the Revolution, enlisting from Truro in Captain Isaac Higgins's company. Samuel Linnell was a private in Captain Job Crocker's company, and served in Rhode Island and at various places in Massachusetts.
Charles H. Faunce was educated in the pub- lic schools of Oxford, Me., and at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, Tilton, N. H., which he attended with the view of entering the ministry; but, his health failing during the preparatory course, he was obliged to abandon that intention. He became self- supporting at an early age, his first regular employment being in the woollen manufactur- ing industry, in which he was occupied for eleven years. At the age of twenty-two. about a year after leaving the seminary, he opened an undertaking establishment at Somersworth, N. H., which he conducted subsequently for some ten years. In May, 1887, he removed to Chelsea, buying out George Studley, on Broad- way, and establishing his present business, which may now, rather, be termed a profession, demanding, as it does, the exercise in large measure of mental and moral force and the most refined and delicate application of scientific knowledge. Mr. Faunce is well fitted for the duties of his calling, being a graduate of both Clark's and the Egyptian school of embalm- ing; and his services are marked by prompt- ness, efficiency, a natural tact, delicacy, and tender consideration that render them peculiarly acceptable. He is connected with many of the secret and fraternal societies of Chelsea. As a Mason, he is a member of Star of Bethlehem
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Lodge, Shekinah Chapter and Napthah Coun- cil, and an officer of Palestine Commandery, K. T. He is a Past Grand of Winnisimmett Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Past Noble Grand of Rebecca Lodge, I. O. O. F., belonging also to the Independent Order of Red Men, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of American Mechanics, the Knights of Malta, and the Massachusetts Undertakers' Association.
Mr. Faunce was married, September 1, 1885, to Miss Kate Frederike Farrar, a native of Woonsocket, R. I., and a daughter of William Farrar, who for many years was principal of the high school at Somersworth, N. H. Mr. and Mrs. Faunce have one son - Frederick William, born February 23, 1887, who is at- tending the public school in Chelsea.
EORGE NEWHALL, boot and shoe dealer, Town Treasurer for twenty- seven years (1874 to 1900) of Mel- rose, his native place, formerly known as North Malden, was born on February 22, 1825, and died at his home on Myrtle Street, March 20, 1900. He was the only son of George and Phoebe (Howard) Newhall, and on both sides of the house was of Colonial stock of English origin, his mother's family, it is said, being early settlers at Salem, his father's at Lynn, its founders, two brothers, Thomas and An- thony Newhall, arriving there probably about 1630. Early representatives of the Newhall family are believed to have been pioneers in Lynnfield, as it is known that the family homestead in that town, formerly a part of Lynn, was inherited in turn by Samuel and James Newhall, great-grandfather and grand- father respectively of the subject of this sketch. George Newhall, Sr., who was a native of Lynnfield and a shoemaker by trade, died when his son George was three years old, his wife, who was a daughter of James How- ard, having died two years previously. They were the parents of two children, a daughter who died in infancy, and George, the subject of this sketch.
Left to the care of his maternal grand- parents, George Newhall resided with them until he was nearly seven years old, when he
went to live with an uncle, Samuel Howard, a farmer. Here he worked upon the farm summers, rendering such assistance as he was able, and attending the district school during the winter season. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to James Howard, Jr., another uncle, to learn the shoemaker's trade; and, purchasing his time three years later, he for the succeeding four years worked at his trade in Melrose on his own account. When twenty- one years old he engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes exclusively for the wholesale trade, which he continued to supply with ex- cellent footwear for many years. Establishing in 1860 a retail boot and shoe store, he re- tained from its opening the liberal and un- abated patronage of the citizens of Melrose, his place of business being one of the most prominent mercantile landmarks of that pros- perous and attractive place, which has recently acquired the dignity of a city.
At the time of his majority Mr. Newhall favored Democratic principles; but he voted for the Free Soil Presidential candidate in 1848, and became a Republican at the forma- tion of that party. From 1860 to 1864 he was Collector of Taxes. From 1874 to the inaugura- tion of the city government, when he declined re-election, he was Town Treasurer. He like- wise served on several important committees, being at the time of his death a member of the Cemetery Board. His activity in public affairs was marked by an earnest desire to pro- tect and improve the general welfare of the community. He was a director of both the National and the Melrose Savings Banks. From early manhood he was a zealous advocate of temperance as relating to the use of stimu- lants, and a firm believer in local option. In 1857 he joined the Baptist church, and for thirty-five years was a Deacon.
In 1847 he was united in marriage with Miss Julia A. Beck, of Melrose. She died in 1854, leaving two children : George Arthur, who died at the age of thirty-five years; and Julia, who is the wife of A. W. Briggs, of Dorchester, Mass. He married in 1856 Miss Delia S. Lamkin, of Vermont, who died Sep- tember 25, 1891. The three children born of his second marriage are: Addie B., wife of
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C. S. Dennis, of Melrose; Charles E. and J. Walter Newhall, who continue in the husi- ness in which they were associated with their father.
ORHAM ROGERS, commission mer- chant of Boston, son of Shubael Gorham and Susan G. (Snow) Kogers, was born in Roxbury (now a part of Boston), December 23, 1835. He is a lineal descendant in the eighth generation of the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, who was settled as minister of the church at Ipswich, Massachu- setts Bay Colony, in 1638, and of the ninth generation from the Rev. Nathaniel's father, the Rev. John Rogers, of Dedham, England, the line being : the Rev. John,' of Dedham, the Rev. Nathaniel,2 the Rev. John, 3 the Rev. John, 4 the Rev. John,5 Daniel,6 Shubael Gor- ham,7 Shubael Gorham, 8 Jr., Gorham. 9
The researches in England of two skilful American genealogists, the late Colonel Ches- ter and Mr. Henry F. Waters, have thrown much light on the hitherto obscure history of the Rogers family in the Old World and the New. Witness the following from the Vewe England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xli. : -
"It has long been a tradition in New Eng- land that the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, of Ips- wich, Mass., son of the Rev. John Rogers, of Dedham, County Essex, England, was a de- scendant of John Rogers, the martyr. This tradition was disproved by the late Colonel Joseph L. Chester, himself a descendant of the Ipswich minister. . . .
"Mr. Waters now shows that the Rev. John Rogers, of Dedham, was the son of John Rogers, a Chelmsford (England) shoemaker, and that this shoemaker and the Rev. Richard Rogers were probably brothers, the sons of another John Rogers, when John Rogers, the martyr, was living elsewhere." (The martyr was burned at Smithfield, February 4, 1555.)
The will of John Rogers, of Chelmsford, England, was proved in 1601. An earlier John Rogers, a joiner, it has been learned, was living at Moulsham in the parish of Chelmsford, England, during the middle of
the sixteenth century. His will, 1575, is copied in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 1., 1896. This earlier John Rogers, joiner, Mr. Henry F. Waters, after careful research and study, be- lieves to have been the father of John of Chelmsford, shoemaker, and of the Rev. Rich- ard Rogers, of Wethersfield, England, and grandfather of the Rev. John Rogers, of Ded- ham, who was father of the Rev. Nathaniel, of Ipswich, Mass.
The Rev. John Rogers, of Dedham, the fa- mous preacher, spoken of by some as "the most noted Puritan in England," was cducated at Cambridge University. He was the author of several published works, one being entitled "The Doctrine of Faith," another "A Trea- tise of Love." He died in 1636, having been married three times.
The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, son of the Rev. John and his second wife, Elizabeth Gold, was born in 1598 at Haverhill, County Suffolk, England. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which he entered at four- teen years of age. He had charge of a congre- gation at Boeking in Essex, and afterward for five years was settled at Assington. Being a Nonconformist, he resigned his place to avoid the censure of the ecclesiastical court, and came with his family to New England in 1636. He was settled at Ipswich, Mass., February 20, 1638, and died there July 3, 1655. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Robert Crane, of Coggeshall, Essex, England.
His eldest son, the Rev. John Rogers, sec- ond, was born at Coggeshall, Essex, England, in 1630. He was graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1649, and studied physic and divinity. Declining the presidency of Harvard College, to which he was chosen in 1676, he was again elected and was installed in 1683. He died very suddenly on the day succeeding the Com- mencement of 1684. His wife, Madam Eliza- beth Rogers, who died at Ipswich, June 13, 1723, aged eighty-two years, was the only daughter of Major-general Daniel and Patience (Dudley) Denison, of Ipswich, Mass., her mother being a daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley and sister of Governor Joseph Dudley. The Rev. John Rogers, third, son of the
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Rev. Dr. John and Elizabeth, born at Ipswich in 1666, was graduated at Harvard College in 1684. He was settled as minister at Ipswich, ordained as a colleague with Mr. Hubbard in 1692, and died December 28, 1745. He mar- ried in 1691 Martha Whittingham, daughter of William Whittingham, a descendant of the Rev. William Whittingham, who, leaving Eng- land in the time of Queen Mary, became pastor of the Geneva church and was afterward dean of Durham. The Rev. John Rogers, first son of the Rev. John and Martha, born in 1692 (Har- vard College, 1711), was settled as minister of the church at Kittery, now Eliot, Me., and died there in 1773. His wife, Susannah, youngest daughter of Major John Whipple, of Ipswich, died in October, 1779.
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Daniel Rogers, their eighth child, born at Kittery, October 25, 1734, upon attaining his majority, engaged in business in Gloucester, Mass., pursuing it with such sagacity and en- terprise that he became one of the leading mer- chants of the town, and accumulated wealth, being the owner of many vessels engaged in foreign commerce and the fisheries. His first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel John Gor- ham, of Barnstable, died in March, 1769; and he married in March, 1770, Rachel Ellery, daughter of Nathaniel Ellery and grand- daughter of Colonel John Stevens, of Glouces- ter. She died November 26, 1833. He died January 3, 1800.
Shubael Gorham Rogers was born
at Gloucester, April 17, 1783, and died March 24, 1850. He married in 1805 Mary, daugh- ter of Eliphalet and Hannah (Somes) Davis, of Gloucester. She died November 3, 1862. Their son, Shubael Gorham Rogers, Jr., was born at Gloucester, April 23, 1806. A lad of fourteen, he went to Boston, where he lived until his death, November 13, 1876. He married September 4, 1834, Susan G. Snow, of Roxbury, daughter of Nathaniel and Sophia (Harding) Snow, the former of Truro, Mass., the latter of Brunswick, Me. Mrs. Susan G. Rogers died September 27, 1877.
The ancestral line we are unable to trace, but it is probable that Nathaniel Snow was a descendant of Nicholas, the progenitor of the Snow family of Cape Cod. Nicholas Snow,
who came over in the "Ann" in 1623. settled at Eastham, Cape Cod, in 1645. He married Constance Hopkins, who came in the "May- flower " in 1620, being a daughter of Stephen Hopkins, the Pilgrim.
Gorham Rogers, son of the younger Shubael Gorham Rogers and his wife, Susan, obtained his elementary education in the Roxbury public schools, leaving the grammar school to attend the Chauncy Hall School, Boston, where be completed his course of study and was grad- uated. He then entered the employ of his uncle, Nathaniel Snow, as clerk, and remained with him till 1860, when he succeeded him in business as dealer in burlaps, bagging, and other Dundee goods.
Mr. Rogers has been a trustee of Forest Hills Cemetery, treasurer of the Roxbury Latin School and of Fellowes Athenaeum, a trustee of the Eliot Savings Bank, and a direc- tor of the Shoe and Leather National Bank.
He married June 25, 1868. Elizabeth Forbes Lothrop, daughter of Loring Lothrop. Esq., and Amanda Sophia (Forbes) Lothrop. of Boston. She died January 30, 1893. There are three children now living - Helen, Sa- lome, and Gorham, Jr. A daughter, Eliza- beth, born May 30, 1870, died August 17. 1898, aged twenty-eight years.
Mr. Rogers and his family are attendants ci the First Church of Roxbury, the Rev. James De Normandie, D. D., minister.
AVID REED, superintendent of the Brighton post-office, was born in Boston, November 22, 1843, son of Henry and Eliza (King, Reed. His father was a native of Lexington, Mass .. as was also his grandfather, Nathaniel Reed. Henry Reed, who was a cooper by trade. fol- lowed that business on his own account for a number of years; and the greater part of his life was spent in Boston. Ilis death occurred some twenty-five years ago.
David Reed was educated. principally in the public schools of Cambridge, Mass. At the age of about eighteen years he secured a posi- tion with Henry B. Goodenough, of Brighton, in whose employ he remained until January 2,
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Car OTIS FOSS.
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1502, when he enlisted as a private in Com- puny K, Ninety-ninth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, for service in the Civil Whir. This regiment was organized ostensibly for the coast guards, but was attached to the middle division of the Fifth Corps. Mr. Reed ยก anticipated in the capture of Norfolk, the 1 attles of Newberne, Roanoke Island, Suffolk, Whitehouse Landing, and several minor en- Lements. He was honorably discharged, and mustered out at Newberne, N. C., January 12, 105. For several years after the war he was with Tufts Brothers, Boston, manufacturers of Sas meters, and for fifteen years was employed us a drug clerk by George W. Warren in Brighton. On April 1, 1887, he was ap- pointed superintendent of the Brighton post- office by the Postmaster of Boston, and has since retained that responsible position by force of merit. He is a Past Commander of Francis Washburn Post, No. 92, G. A. R., in which he has held other important offices; a member of the American Legion of Honor; and belongs to the Home Circle. He is one of the most popular residents of the Brighton District.
In 1880, September 15, Mr. Reed married Miss Emma Chism, daughter of Samuel Chism, of Newton, Mass. Mrs. Reed is a member of the Congregational church, and is a l.uly highly esteemed in social circles.
APTAIN OTIS FOSS, who has served four terms as Representative to the Massachusetts Legislature from Martha's Vineyard, was born in Goldsborough, Hancock County, Me., on Oc- lober 4, 1838, his parents being Silas and Lois (Kelly) Foss. His earliest ancestor in Amer- ica settled at Saco, Me. It is said that he purchased the land about Cape Elizabeth, but never resided there, and in course of time other parties succeeded to the ownership by a peace- tul occupation of twenty years. A John Foss was an inhabitant of Dover, N. H., in January, 1665. The grandfather of Captain Foss was born in Maine. He kept a general store in Hancock, where he died at the age of about forty-five.
Silas Foss, who was born in Hancock, Me., turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and, renting a farm in the town of Goldsbor- ough, resided there until his death, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife, Lois, who was a native of Goldsborough, died at the age of seventy-eight, having reared ten children.
Otis Foss, with whom this sketch is more directly concerned, began a seafaring life at the age of twelve years, and, applying himself to acquire a thorough knowledge of his calling, became a captain by the time he was eighteen. In 1861 he enlisted in the United States navy, and was assigned to duty on the gunboat "Fearnaught," which formed a part of the blockade squadron in the Gulf of Mexico under Farragut. In December, 1862, he was sent to the naval hospital at Chelsea, Mass., and in the same month and year on account of ill health was honorably discharged from the ser- vice. Soon afterward, locating at Vineyard Haven, he engaged in the merchant marine service, and was commander of different ves- sels till 1869. He then engaged in mercantile business at Vineyard Haven. In 1871 he re- moved to Cottage City, where he has sinec resided during the summers and carried on business, but during the winters has followed the sea in the merchant marine service, visit- ing various ports in South America, Africa, and the West India Islands.
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