USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 44
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Charles Miles, Dr. Miles's father, went with his parents from Gardner to Stow, when four years old. In 1836 he settled upon a farm in Marlboro, Mass., where he resided for forty-two years. He died September 19, 1878. His wife, Sophia J., whom he married April 18, 1830, died August 28, 1894, aged eighty- six years. She was a daughter of Isaac Brown, second, and a grand-daughter of Isaac Brown, first. Her father enlisted in the Con- tinental army two months prior to his sixteenth birthday, and served two years in the Revolu- tionary War. Charles and Sophia J. Miles were active members of the Methodist church. They were the parents of seven children, but two of whom are living: Charles Edwin, the subject of this sketch; and Adelaide Elisabeth, who married George W. Clark. The others
died in infancy.
Charles Edwin Miles's early education was completed at Providence Conference Seminary in Rhode Island; and, after studying medicine for four years, the latter part of the time under the tutorship of Dr. Frank H. Kelley, of
Worcester, Mass. ; he attended the Worcester Medical College, at which he was graduated February 16, 1859. Locating at Roxbury in the following June, he inaugurated a practice which rapidly increased, and which he has ever since maintained, his labors having been both professionally and financially successful.
Dr. Miles has served as president of the Massachusetts Eclectic Medical Society, and has twice been elected to the presidential chair of the National Eclectic Medical Association. He is one of the original members of the Mas- sachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. and has been its chairman continuously since its organization. He is assistant editor ci the Massachusetts Medical Journal, and is the author of numerous valuable contributions to medical literature. Among his principal published papers are : "Glimpses at the Medical Art and Profession of the Present Day," the annual address before the Massachu- setts Medical Eclectic Society, June 6, 1883; "Reminiscences and Conclusions drawn from an Obstetric Practice of Twenty-two Years," read before the Boston Eclectic Gynæecological and Obstetrical Society; "Chlorosis," read be- fore the National Eclectic Medical Associa- tion, June, 1883 ; "Resume of Typhoid Fever," read before the Boston District Eclectic Med- ical Society, September 13, 1892; and "La Grippe and its Treatment," read before the Massachusetts Eclectic Medical Society, June, 1893.
He was made a Mason in Washington Lodge, and is a charter member of La Fayette Lodge. He belongs to the Sons of the Revo- lution. Politically, he is a Republican. He has served with ability upon the Boston School Board, and is a member of the Municipal League. He also takes an active interest in church work, maintaining an inherited alle- giance to the Methodist Episcopal denomina- tion, and has been president of the Methodist Social Union.
On May 3, 1866, Dr. Miles married Miss Eunice Pierce Dyer, daughter of Freeman M. and Polly Bradford (Jacobs) Dyer, of Boston. The only child of this union, Caroline Cook Miles, died at the age of three years and six months.
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OSWELL GLEASON, who intro- duced the art of silver-plating in America, was born in Putney, Vt., April 6, 1799, son of Reuben and Sally (Fuller) Gleason. Settling in Dor- chester, Mass., in 1818, he associated himself with a Mr. Wilcox in the tinware trade; and on the death of his partner in 1830 he became sole proprietor of the business. His attention was subsequently diverted to the manufacture of Britannia ware and brass lamp fixtures, which soon became one of the chief industries of Dorchester; and at one time he employed a force of one hundred and twenty-five men. In 1849 he still further increased his business by introducing to the American people the art of silver-plating, thereby placing upon the mar- ket a new article of commerce known as plated ware, which immediately sprang into favor among those of moderate means; and he was therefore the pioneer iif a business that now constitutes an important branch of the silver- ware trade. His two sons, on attaining their majority, were each admitted to partnership; and the business was continued until 1871, when, both sons having died, he closed up his affairs and retired. For many years he was one of the most prominent as well as popular residents of Dorchester, serving as Captain of the Dorchester Rifle Company. Politically, he was a Democrat. His death occurred Jan- uary 27, 1887.
In 1822 Mr. Gleason married Miss Re- becca T. Vose, daughter of Reuben and Polly (Willis) Vose, of Milton, Mass. She died June 22, 1891, aged eighty-six years. They were the parents of four children, of whom three - Mary Frances, Roswell, and Edward - lived to maturity. Roswell, who was born in 1826, died unmarried in July, 1866. Ed- ward, whose birth took place in 1829, married Augusta M. Depew, of Peekskill, N. Y., and at his death left a daughter, Edwardina Augusta Gleason. Mary Frances Gleason, who was born in 1825, married in 1848 one of the founders of Tonawanda, N. Y., William Van- dervoort, Sr. He was a son of Michel Vander- voort, and the descendant of an early Dutch settler who arrived in the colony of New Amsterdam about the year 1640, and took up a
large tract of land at Paulus Hook (now Jersey City). In 1825 William Vandervoort removed to Western New York, and with others founded the town of Tonawanda. Mr. and Mrs. Van- dervoort had four children : William; Rebecca ; Roswell Gleason, who died in infancy, in 18;8; and Mary F. Rebecca married for her first husband George H. Tripp, by whom she had three children - William V., Rebecca Vose. and George H., Jr. Mr. Tripp died in 1880: and later she married Erasmus D. Miller, who died in 1889. Mary F. married Charles A. Hall, and became the mother of four children - Mary F., Roswell G., Rachel, and Charles A. Hall, Jr., all living.
William Vandervoort, only living son of William, Sr., and Mary Frances (Gleason) Vandervoort, was born in Dorchester, March 11, 1850, and is still a resident of that dis- trict. He acquired his general education in the public schools of Dorchester and in the school of William H. Brooks, of Boston, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1872. In 1875 he married Miss Josephine Davenport, daughter of Charles and Joan F. (Hagar) Davenport, of Newton, Mass. Mr. Davenport was the first builder of railway cars in the State of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Vandervoort have one daughter - Florence Jo- sephine, born July 23, 1876. She received her education at the school of Mrs. Hayes and at Radcliffe College.
OLONEL JAMES FISK MANS- FIELD, a veteran of the Civil War. is numbered among the prosperous business men of Wakefield, where he is actively engaged in the coal and wood trade. He is a representative of one of the early families of prominence to settle in East- ern Massachusetts, being lineally descended. in the ninth generation, from Robert Mans- field and his wife Elizabeth, who in 1640 settled in Lynn, at the corner of Boston and Moulton Streets, as the thoroughfares now crossing the land on which they then located are known. Robert Mansfield died December 16, 1666.
Andrew Mansfield, second, son of Robert,
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was born in England, and emigrated to this country when a young man. He became an influential citizen of Lynn, serving as the first Town Clerk (1666-1672), and as a representa- tive to the General Court in Boston, where his death occurred, while he was attending the same, in 1683. He was three times married, his first wife being Bethiah; his second wife, Mrs. Mary Neal, daughter of Francis Lowes, of Salem; and his third wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Conant, daughter of Rev. William and Eliza- beth Walton, of Marblehead, and widow of Lot Conant, of Beverly. Deacon Daniel Mansfield, third, was born in Lynn, June 9, 1669, and died there June 11, 1728. His first wife was Hannah; and his second wife, Mrs. Margaret Burrell, of Lynn. Andrew Mans- field, fourth, born in Lynn, April 24, 1692, settled in Lynnfield, where his death occurred August 28, 1730. He married Sarah, daugh- ter of Joseph and Sarah {Farrington) Breed.
Deacon Daniel Mansfield, fifth, born in Lynn, November 24, 1717, died April 2, 1797. He was a member of the Lynn Com- mittee of Safety at the time of the Revolu- tion ; and he fought in the battle of Lexington. In 1738 he married for his first wife Lydia, daughter of Captain Elisha and Jane (Breed) Newhall, of Lynnfield; and after her death he married Mrs. Ruth Bancroft Newhall, daugh- ter of John and Ruth Bancroft, of Lynnfield, and widow of Joseph Newhall. William Mansfield, sixth, born in Lynnfield, May 30, 1749, died September 29, 1809. On May 31, 1770, he married Betty, daughter of Deacon Daniel and Lydia Townsend, of Lynnfield; and they became the parents of eleven chil- dren. William Mansfield, seventh, born May 4, 1773, in Lynnfield, died there February 21, 1859. He married first Eunice Johnson, daughter of James and Sarah (Hawkes) John- son ; and, after her death, he married for his second wife Mrs. Nancy Mansfield, of Salem, the widow of his cousin. By his two mar- riages he had a large family of children, fourteen in all.
James Johnson Mansfield, eighth, Colonel Mansfield's father, was born and brought up in Lynnfield, Mass. Settling in South Read- ing, now Wakefield, for many years he carried
on a thriving business as a dealer in wood and coal, continuing thus employed until his death, April 19, 1882. He married Martha Fisk, daughter of John Fisk, of New Hamp- shire. Seven children were born of their union, namely: James Fisk, the subject of this sketch; Matilda, wife of Hoyt B. Parker; Mary Elizabeth, who died in early childhood; Joseph, who enlisted in Company E, Six- teenth Massachusetts Volunter Infantry, to serve in the Civil War, and died at a New York hospital from typhoid fever September 14, 1862; Albert A., a dealer in coal and wood in Wakefield; Mary E., wife of Cyrus E. Marshall, of Brighton, Mass. ; and Austin L., who is engaged in business. Mrs. Martha B. Mansfield is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Hoyt B. Parker, in Wakefield. (A more complete ancestral history appears elsewhere in this work, in connection with the sketch of C. F. Mansfield. )
James Fisk Mansfield, ninth, was born in South Reading, now Wakefield, October 20, 1835, and was educated in its public schools, including the high school. At the age of ten years he began to work at the shoemaker's trade with his father, remaining thus em- ployed ten years. The following two years he was engaged in butchering, after which he worked another year at shoemaking. He then opened a grocery store in Wakefield near the upper depot, where he continued until after the breaking out of the Rebellion. On July 8, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company E (Captain John Wiley) Sixteenth Massachu- setts Volunteer Infantry, and during the years that followed won for himself, by brave and faithful services in camp and conflict, an honorable record and successive promotions. Under command of Powell T. Wyman the Six- teenth Regiment went first into Camp Cameron at Cambridge, going a month later to Balti- more, thence to Fortress Monroe, near where, at Camp Hamilton, it remained until the spring of 1862. In March of that year he witnessed the famous naval duel between the two iron- clads, the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac "; and subsequently, when doing guard duty near Norfolk, Va., at the navy yard, he saw the blowing up of the "Merrimac" in the har-
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bor. Going from there to Suffolk, Va., he was employed three weeks in guarding bridges in that vicinity, and was then ordered to l'ortsmouth, Va., to assist in taking transports up the James River. Subsequently, joining Hooker's Brigade, which was the Third Divi- sion of the Army of the Potomac, the regi- ment saw its first fight, taking part in the engagement at the front of Richmond, and losing sixty-five men. . During the remaining years of the war, having re-enlisted at the ex- piration of his first term of service in the same regiment and company, Colonel Mansfield ac- tively participated in all the principal bat- tles and skirmishes of the Peninsular cam- paign, among them being the following: Fair Oaks; Glendale; Chantilly; Chancellorsville; Malvern Hill; Kettle Run; Gettysburg, where he was wounded in the leg; Kelley's Ford; Locust Grove; the Wilderness; Spottsylvania ; Tolopotomy ; Cold Harbor; Petersburg; Straw- berry Plains; Poplar Springs Church; Boyd- ton Road; and was present at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court-house, April 9, 1865. Private Mansfield was made Sergeant on the organization of his company; was ap- pointed First Sergeant May 11, 1863; made First Lieutenant February 14, 1864; on July II, 1864, was transferred to the Eleventh Battalion, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; promoted to the rank of Captain on October 9, 1864; made Major June 16, 1865; and on July 11, 1865, commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment. On July 25, 1865, he was mustered out for service.
On returning to his home in Wakefield, Colonel Mansfield decided to embark in the shoe business, and, going to Lynn, had charge of a department in a shoe factory for a year. Then, in company with his father and brother, he engaged in business in Wakefield as a dealer in wood, coal, and lumber, becoming one of the firm of Mansfield & Sons. In 1874 the partnership was dissolved, and the Colonel was employed by Cutter Brothers for the next five years as a salesman. Subsequently he was again occupied in the coal and wood busi- ness in Wakefield.
Politically a stanch Republican, Colonel Mansfield takes an active interest in town
affairs. In 1866 and 1867 he served on the Board of Selectmen. During the latter year he was elected as a Representative to the State Legislature, in which he served two years, being one of the Military Committee both terms. In 1896 he was again elected as Selectman, an office which he has since held. He is a member, and now Commander, of the H. M. Warren Post, No. 12, G. A. R. He is liberal in his religious belief, and an active member of the Universalist church.
Colonel Mansfield married on June 6, 1858, Frances O., daughter of Oliver and Sarah (Smith) Walton, of Wakefield. Mr. Walton, a son of Oliver Walton, Sr., was born in South Reading in 1798, and here spent his entire life, dying in 1878. He was well known as a breeder of fine horses, in which he dealt extensively for many years. Colonel and Mrs. Mansfield are the parents of two children: Cora Frances, who was born Febru- ary 13, 1860, and died August 1, 1862; and Etta Frances, born July 22, 1868. Etta Frances Mansfield was educated in the gram- mar and high schools of Wakefield, and was married in 1890 to Frederick C. Bloodgood, who has charge of the electric light plant at Geneva, N. Y., where they reside. They have two children: Cyrus Mansfield, born in April, 1894; and Harold Franklin, born June 9, 1895.
EORGE FULLINGTON LORING, of Somerville, is at the head of the well-known and enterprising firm of Loring & Phipps, architects, who have de- signed many of the more beautiful and artistic residences and public buildings of Boston and its suburbs, and have filled large contracts in other parts of New England and in the Mid- dle Atlantic States. Born in Boston, Mass., March 26, 1851, son of George Loring, he is a descendant in the ninth generation of Thomas Loring, of Axminster, Devonshire, England. The line is : Thomas,' Thomas,2 David, 3 David, + Otis, 5 David,6 David, ? George, & George Fullington.9
Thomas' Loring, founder of the family in America, arrived in Boston, December 23,
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1634. After living for a short time in Dor- chester he removed to Hingham, Mass., where he was made a freeman March 3, 1635-6, and was a Deacon in the church for a number of years. He subsequently removed to Hull, where his death occurred, April 4, 1661. He married, in England, Jane Newton, who died at Hull, August 25, 1672.
Thomas2 Loring, born in England about 1629, died at Hull, Mass., in 1679. He mar- ried in Hingham, December 16, 1657, Han- nah, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Jacob. She died October 20, 1720.
David 3 Loring was born in Hingham, Sep- tember 15, 1671, and died there July 27, 1752. He lived for several years in Barnstable, where he married January 16, 1698-9, Mrs. Elizabeth Otis Allyne, widow of Thomas Allyne and a great aunt of James Otis, the patriot. She was born in Scituate, and died June 17, 1748, at Barnstable.
David + Loring was born in Barnstable in 1704. He married in 1729 Sarah, daughter of Joshua and Susanna (Nichols) Beal.
Otis5 Loring, a lifelong resident of Barn- stable, was born June 14, 1732, and died in 1799. In 1755 he married Sarah, daughter of George and Sarah (Thatcher) Lewis. She was born in Barnstable in 1737, and died in 1785.
David 6 Loring was born in Barnstable, May 1, 1756. He married in 1782 Mrs. Mary Crosby Gray, who was, without doubt, the widow of Elisha Gray, Jr., of Barnstable.
David7 Loring, the grandfather of George F., was born at Barnstable, Mass., April 13, 1792, and died in that town in 1875. In 1812 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Eleazer and Sarah Kelley and a descendant of Jeremiah Kelley, of Yarmouth, Mass. She was born in South Dennis, Mass., in 1793, and died at Barnstable in 1865.
George & Loring, son of David,7 is the only survivor of a family of six children. He was born in 1824 in Barnstable, and there received his early education. He afterward followed · fishing on the Cape for a number of seasons, and then ran the Barnstable packet to Boston. He was subsequently master of a fishing- schooner until the city of Boston established a quarantine station at Deer Island and at
Rainsford Island for all cases of contagious diseases, when he assumed charge of the sloop called "Betsey Ramsay." The two captains who preceded him had both died from coming in contact with persons infected with contagious diseases ; but he was prevailed upon to accept the position, and held it seven years. The city of Boston then put a steamer on the route, the "Henry Morrison," which he commanded seventeen years. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was employed by the United States government as captain of a vessel that was used in the fortification of Boston Harbor, and he has continued in the government service until the present day. On January 3, 1900, in the narrow channel of the harbor, the night being dark, his vessel collided with another ; and he and his engineer went to the bottom, the latter losing his life. Captain Loring was picked up, but he received injuries from which he is now but slowly recovering at his home in South Boston.
He married in Boston, in 1845, Harriet Abba Stoodley, a native of Portsmouth, N. H., where her birth occurred in 1825. They be- came the parents of five children, namely : Harriet, who was born in Boston in 1846, is the wife of Albert E. Bennett, of Springfield, Mass., and has one child, Chauncey E. ; Caro- line A., who was born at Barnstable in 1849, is the wife of Edward A. Lawley, of South Boston, and has one child, Arthur Crosby ; George F., the subject of this sketch; Ade- laide M., who was born in Boston in 1853, is the wife of W. L. Wade, of Woburn, and has three children - Eleanor, Hattie, and Roswell ; and Willie Roswell, who was born in Boston in 1861, and who married Hannah Gibbons, of Melrose, by whom he has two children --- Hazel and Robert.
George F. Loring was educated in Boston, and after leaving school was engaged for a while in mercantile business as a clerk, but did not find the occupation congenial to his tastes. Having in the meantime attended the Lowell Art School and other evening schools, he began in 1868 an apprenticeship in the city engineer department of Boston, with which he was connected the next fifteen years, working his way up in that time from an apprentice to
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GEORGE A. SHACKFORD.
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chief draughtsman. He spent his leisure time in preparing himself for the profession of archi- tecture, for which he had a decided talent and liking ; and in 1882 he entered the office of a private architect to perfect himself in his studies and to prove his ability in that direc- tion. In 1883 he opened an office in the Hem- enway Building, and embarked in the profes- sion on his own account, continuing alone until 1889, when he formed a partnership with San- ford Phipps, under their present firm name of Loring & Phipps. They have since carried on a successful business, with the office now lo- cated in Exchange Building, on State Street.
The popularity of this firm will be under- stood when the character and importance of the buildings it has designed is recognized. Among the more prominent of them may be mentioned the new Masonic Building of Bos- ton; two schoolhouses on Harvard Street, Brookline; the Everett High School building ; the elegant school building given to the town of Greenwich, Conn., by H. O. Havermeyer, of New York City; the high school building of Montclair, N. J. ; the high school buildings of Athol and Ware, Mass., and of Winsted, Conn .; and many other schoolhouses and churches, besides handsome residences in Brookline, Newton, and Wellesley. Many of the fine residences of Somerville, also the Somerville Public Library building, the Odd Fellows and Masonic buildings, and the Glines and Pope School buildings are made from plans drawn and executed by the firm of Loring & Phipps. Fraternally, Mr. Loring is a mem- ber of the John Abbott Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; St. Andrew's Chapter and the De Molay Commandery, K. T. He likewise be- longs to the A. O. U. W., to the L. A. W., to the Central Club, and the Board of Trade of Somerville.
On July 16, 1873, Mr. Loring married Sarah Frances Johnson, of Somerville, a daughter of John B. and Sarah A. (Poor) John- son. Her father was a son of Jotham Johnson and a lineal descendant of Captain Edward Johnson, who emigrated to this country from Kent, England, and died in Woburn, Mass., in 1699. Her grandfather, Jotham Johnson, was chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Charles-
town at the time of the nunnery riot. He married Susanna Tufts, of Charlestown, daugh- ter of Samuel Tufts. John B. Johnson married Sarah Ann Poor, daughter of Samuel and Lydia (Sprague) Poor, the former of whom was born in Woburn, and the latter in Malden. Mr. and Mrs. Loring are living on land that was originally included in the farm belonging to one of their ancestors. They have four children, namely: Ernest Johnson, who mar- ried Elsie S. Lake, of Somerville; Ralph Stoodley; Gladys; and Marjorie.
EORGE ALONZO SHACKFORD,
the president and a director of the
Samuel Pierce Organ Pipe Company, of Reading, is a man of superior business ca- pacity and an active citizen of the town. He was born June 7, 1854, in East Boston, a son of George and Rutha E. (Crosby) Shackford.
Several generations of Mr. Shackford's pa- ternal ancestors lived and died in New Hamp- shire. The History of Chester, N. H., men- tions Samuel Shackford, of Portsmouth, N. H .. son of William Shackford, of that town, as among the original grantees of Chester. Sam- uel's son John settled in Chester "on his father's additional lot, No. 92"; and John Shackford, Jr., grandson of Samuel, first, mar- ried Sarah, daughter of Lieutenant Ebenezer Dearborn, and lived on the homestead.
Samuel Shackford, second, son of John, Jr., and his wife Sarah, and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chester. N. H., November 19, 1767, and died there Jan- uary 12, 1842. He was a well-to-do farmer and miller, and was also interested in various lines of business, being a man of prominence in his day. He married Hannah, daughter of Captain Benjamin and Abigail (Prescott) Currier. She bore him nine children. A brief record of the family is as follows: Abi- gail, who was born October 6, 1806, and died February 5, 1885, was the wife of John Cur- rier; John, born June 17, 1808, died May 20, 1868; Jonathan, born March 14, 1810, died in August, 1895; Richard, born October 3, 1812, died in Winthrop, Mass., April 6, 1895, and was buried at Wells, Me .; Sarah, born
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March 27, IS14, married William Rice, and died June 14, ISSO; Rufus, born December 16, 1816, who for fifty-two years has been a prominent physician in Portland, Me. ; George, the father of George A., was born in Chester, N.H., August 6, 1818, and died in Boston, Mass., December 30, 1888; Samuel, born September 25, 1822, died in I851; and Luther, born January 29, 1825, died in Cali- fornia.
George Shackford removed to Boston when a young man, and, working at his trade as a bridge and wharf builder, continued there throughout his remaining years. He married Rutha E., daughter of Alonzo Crosby. She was born and educated in Boston, her birth oc- curring in 1829, but has lived in Reading since the death of her husband. Two children were born of their union, namely: George Alonzo, the subject of this sketch; and Hanna E., wife of W. G. Grady, of Reading.
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