Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901, Part 62

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger
Number of Pages: 924

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The subject of this sketch, after completing the course of the Salem public schools, entered Harvard University, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1862. He was fitted for his chosen profession at the Harvard Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1869. Locating immediately after in Roxbury, he has made this part of the city his permanent residence. Well-known in social circles and an active and influential member of the medical fra- ternity, he is connected with many of the more prominent organizations, among them being the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he has been recording secretary since 1875;

the Boston Society for Medical Improvement ; and the Roxbury Society for Medical Improve- ment. He is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Dr. Goss was married April 25, 1872. to Miss Maria L. Draper, daughter of Arnold Draper, of Salem, Mass. She died May 23, 1875, leaving one child, Francis D., who died at the age of five years. January 10, 1878, he married Mrs. Helen Louise Young, daughter of James W. and Helen M. (Pratt) Hobbs, of Bos- ton. Mrs. Goss is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and also of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution. Dr. and Mrs. Goss have one child, Miriam Helen.

OSCOE PIERCE, well-known in busi- ness circles of Chelsea, was born at East Machias, Me., on February 27, 1852, son of Frederick and Maria (Chase) Pierce. He is a descendant of Robert Pierce, a native of England, who received a grant of land in Dorchester in March, 1637.

The exact date of the arrival of Robert Pierce on these shores is not known with cer- tainty. It is thought that he came on the "Mary and John" in 1630. He married in Dorchester Ann Greenaway. He died in 1664. His wife died December 31, 1695, "aged about 104 years." On Oak Avenue, Neponset, still stands the old Pierce house, a part of which was built by him in 1640.

From Robert Pierce the line of descent is traced as follows: his son, Thomas B., born in 1635, who married Mary Procter (?) ; John, born October 26, 1668, who married on January 6, 1693, Abigail Thompson (he was a great gunner, and had a record of over thirty thousand brant) ; John, Jr., born April 5, 1707, who mar- ried Elizabeth Fessenden on November 10, 1741, and died in his native town of Dorchester ; John, third, born September 22, 1742, who married on June 9, 1772, Sarah Blake ; Jonas, born April 15, 1780, who married Margery West on May IS, 1815 ; Frederick, the father above named, who was born in East Machias, Me., October 16, 1818. Mr. Roscoe Pierce's mother was a daughter of Henry S. Chase and a grand- daughter of Ephraim Chase, born 1744, who

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participated in the first naval battle of the Revo- lution in Machias Bay. Ephraim Chase died in 1836.

Roscoe Pierce was educated in the public schools of East Machias, Me., and at Washing- ton Academy in that place. He came to Boston in 1871, and two years later settled in Chelsea, where for some time he was manager of the People's Clothing Store, owned by Isaac Fenno & Co. He continued thus engaged until 1895. in which year he was appointed treasurer of The Woodlawn Cemetery, with an office in Boston. This position he still holds. He was married in 1879 to Addie I. Bond, daughter of Alanson Bond and a native of Stoddard, N.H. Mr. Pierce is a member of Mystic Lodge, No. 51. I. O. O. F., of Chelsea, and also of Samaritan Encampment, No. 23, I. O. O. F., located here. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce attend the Universalist church.

OLONEL ALFRED NORMAN PROCTOR, of East Boston, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, was born in Marlboro, Mass., November 30, 1822, son of Nicholson Broughton and Lucy (Bond) Proctor. His grandparents were Captain Joseph and Anna Proctor. The grandfather, who was a master mariner, died December 8, 1818, aged seventy-two years ; and his wife died July 7 of the following year, aged fifty-nine. They had five children.

Nicholson B. Proctor, Colonel Proctor's father, was born in Marblehead, settling in Marlboro. He was engaged there for many years in car- riage building, and he also kept a general store. He was a citizen of integrity and high repute. His last years were spent with one of his sons in Boston, and his death occurred in this city some thirty-two years ago. He attended the Congregational church. Lucy Bond Proctor, his wife, was a daughter of Colonel William Bond, of Watertown, Mass., a soldier of the War of 1812. She died May 5, 1838. They had a family of twelve children, of whom Alfred N., the subject of this sketch, is the only one living.

Alfred N. Proctor was educated in the schools of Marlboro. At the age of seventeen he found employment as a clerk in a store in South Bos-

ton, where he remained until entering upon an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade with John P. Fessenden on Portland Street, Boston. After completing his term of service he con- ducted a repair shop for a year, at the expiration of which time he entered the employ of the gov- ernment as a machinist at the United States navy-yard in Charlestown, remaining there some two years. At the breaking out of the Mexican War he was mainly instrumental in recruiting a company, which entered the service under the command of Captain Walsh as Company I in the regiment enlisted in Boston ; but he was pre- vented by his father's serious illness from march- ing to the seat of war with his comrades. He, however, reached Camargo on the Rio Grande in June, 1847, but was shortly afterward stricken with fever; and from the army hospital he was sent to the Pensacola (Florida) navy-yard to recuperate. He was subsequently employed in the yard until August, 1848, when he returned North, and resumed his trade in the machine shops of Otis Tufts at East Boston. The gold fever of 1849 attracted him to the Pacific coast, which he reached on board of the ship "Edward Everett." Upon his return to East Boston, in 1851, he engaged in the photograph business, which he conducted for the succeeding twelve years. In 1862, leaving his studio in charge of Charles W. Dodge, a manager, he recruited a company in East Boston -the Second Com- pany of Fusileers, of which he was chosen Cap- tain, his twin brother, Albert E., being First Lieutenant -and went to the front in Novem- ber, 1862, landing at Galveston with a detach- ment of three companies.

In November, 1862, they were assigned to General Newton's army corps, being in the Forty-second Regiment, Massachusetts Volun- teer Militia. On January 1, 1863, they were attacked by infantry and artillery. They put up a good fight, but were obliged to surrender, and were made prisoners of war, Captain Proctor and other officers being confined as common convicts in separate cells in the State prison at Huntsville, Tex., for two months. He was then transferred to Camp Tyler, and paroled in Au- gust, 1864, after a detention of nineteen months. After the war he took command of his old com- pany, and in 1866 was elected Lieutenant

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Colonel of the Tenth, afterward the First, Regiment, serving in that capacity until the re- organization of the State militia, when he was mustered out of the service. Resuming his photograph business in East Boston, he con- ducted it successfully for many years, or until 1890, when he retired permanently from active affairs. He is now residing at 179 Webster Street, East Boston. Fifty-five years ago he joined the old Hook and Ladder Company, then located on Haymarket Square; and for many years he has been identified with the Veteran Firemen's Association. He is also a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany, the Fusileer Veterans, and the Old Guards. Politically, he is a Republican, and at one time served in the Boston City Council. He attends the Baptist Church.

In 1860 Colonel Proctor married Miss Hattie W. Boynton, daughter of Dr. J. C. Boyn- ton, of Richmond, Me. She died in Novem- ber, 1879, leaving one son, James Alfred, born in 1862. James Alfred Proctor married Fannie O. Richards, daughter of Dr. D. S. Richards, of Richmond. She died in August, 1897, leaving two daughters, Hattie and Leora. He married, second, February, 1900, Iola D. Morris, of Woodbury, N.J., and resides at Rich- mond now with his family.

SAAC FENNO, for many years an enter- prising and prosperous clothing merchant and manufacturer of Boston, a leader in his line of industry, known, too, as the inventor of the "Fenno Cloth-cutting Ma- chine," was a native and lifelong resident of Massachusetts. Born ' June 12, 1823, in Canton, Norfolk County, he died at his home in Roxbury, June 25, 1897.

He was the son of Isaac and Milla (Tucker) Fenno, and was of the seventh generation in direct descent from John Fenno, the immigrant progenitor of the family, the line being John, ' John,2 Isaac, 3 Isaac, + Elijah,5 Isaac,6 Isaac. 7 John ' Fenno was granted twenty acres of land in Unquity, now Milton, Mass., in 1660. He was a soldier from that town in King Philip's War. In 1694 he bought of the Clapp heirs

five hundred acres of land in Canton, then a part of Dorchester, for which he paid one hun- dred pounds. He died in 1708. The mention in his will of lands that he owned in Lancashire, England, is evidence that he was a former resi- dent of that county. It is thought, however, that he was of French origin.

John Fenno, Jr., appears to have been the only one of his four sons that settled in Can- ton, being there "as early, perhaps, as 1695." He married Rachel Newcomb, daughter of John Newcomb, of Braintree, and died in 1741, aged about seventy-five years.

Isaac 3 Fenno, born in Milton in 1699, died in Canton in 1771. He married first in 1728 Hannah Puffer, who died in July, 1731. Their son Isaac,4 born in 1731, married in 1754 Maria, daughter of John and Mary (Bent) Davenport. Elijah,5 a Revolutionary soldier, born in 1757, lived at the old Fenno home- stead in Canton. He married in 1778 Abigail Smith, and had five children - Isaac, Luther, Jesse, Hannah, and Mehitable.

Isaac6 Fenno, born November 21, 1779, died September 6, 1826. He married Febru- ary 23, 1815, Milla, daughter of Simeon and Milla (Hartwell) Tucker. Her father was a lineal descendant in the fifth generation of Robert Tucker, who came to New England about 1635, lived for a time at Weymouth, and finally settled at Milton. The children of Isaac and Milla (Tucker) Fenno were: Elijah, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-two years; Abigail, who married John R. Manley ; Adaline, who married Vernon A. Messenger ; and Isaac, the special subject of this sketch. Mrs. Milla T. Fenno died July 3, 1837.

Country - born and country - bred, having passed his boyhood and early youth on the home farm and completed his education by a two years' course of study at the seminary in Framingham, Isaac Fenno at seventeen years of age came to Boston and was initiated into business life in the dry-goods store of Samuel E. and James Brackett, on Washington Street, in whose employ he remained two years, re- ceiving the salary of fifty dollars a year. In 1842 and 1843 he was with Manley & Bram- hall, dry-goods dealers, 24 Dock Square, John R. Manley, the senior partner, being his

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brother-in-law. In 1844 he was one of the firm of Manley, Bramhall & Co., which in 1845 became Manley & Fenno, and three or four years later was changed to West & Fenno. In 1850 Isaac Fenno was in business alone. In 1851 was formed the business house of Isaac Fenno & Co., which had a long and flourishing career. In April, 1853, he re- moved from 24 Dock Square to 46 Milk Street, where he engaged in the wholesale manufacture of clothing. A sagacious man of business, energetic, hopeful, diligent, he com- manded success from the start. Passing safely through the financial crisis of 1857, late in 1859 he removed to more commodious quarters on Federal Street, and thence in 1861 to the five-story building, 66 Franklin Street, a gi- gantic hive of industry from that time on till its destruction by the great Boston fire of No- vember, 1872. Intensely patriotic, a stanch supporter of the Union, Mr. Fenno during the Civil War showed his loyalty in unmistakable ways, by timely spoken words and generous deeds. As many as three thousand persons at this time were in his employ, two hundred men and women being at the Franklin Street building, the others in different parts of New England making up the cut-out cloth into gar- ments. Much clothing was furnished for the Massachusetts regiments in the field, and to this Mr. Fenno gave his personal supervision to ensure the following of his injunctions that it should be "made upon honor, and that not a button should rip off."

His health beginning to fail under the long- continued stress of care and activity, he went abroad in May, 1868, accompanied by his wife, and spent a delightful year in European travel, visiting many places of historic interest, view- ing appreciatively wondrous works of art and gaining a knowledge of foreign manners and customs. It was while he was in Paris that the idea of a machine for cutting cloth pre- sented itself to his mind, and was expressed in a drawing on paper. The "Fenno Cloth-cut- ting Machine " finally produced by him, which drew a first prize at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, was the result of long-continued labor and inventive skill - labor well applied, as its use enables one man

in a day to do the work of ten, or to cut ten times the amount of cloth that could be cut by one man without it. With the assistance of a machinist Mr. Fenno made various improve- ments in its construction after it was first placed before the public. Thus perfected, the machine is now in use by all the large cloth- ing manufacturing houses in the United States.

In 1874 Mr. Fenno removed his business from the small and inconvenient workshops in South Boston that he had occupied since the great fire to the large building he had leased at 28 Summer Street, whose rooms had been so arranged as to be specially adapted to his pur- poses. His interest in the house of Isaac Fenno & Co. continued till January 1, 1895, when the copartnership was dissolved.

For twenty-seven years Mr. Fenno was pres- ident of the Putnam Woollen Mill, Putnam, Conn., and for nearly as long a time president of the Calumet Woollen Mills, Uxbridge, Mass. He was one of the founders and earli- est directors of the First National Bank, Bos- ton; a director of the Massachusetts Loan and Trust Company and of the Boston Electric Light Company; also for six years treasurer of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospital. Always active in forwarding the growth and improvement of the city of Boston, he was one of the original members of the Commercial Club; and for two and a half years, by special request of Mayor Hart, he served on the Park Commission.

To quote what has been written of Mr. Fenno, showing the manner of man he was : "To a marked degree he possessed that inde- finable quality, personal magnetism. In every gathering his presence added much to the life of the occasion. His friendships were ardent and loyal. To young men who were strug- gling for recognition and foothold in the busi- ness world, he was most helpful. . .. His fidelity to every trust was a marked trait in his character. ... Most faithfully did he meet every obligation."

A Unitarian in religious faith, a generous supporter of liberal Christianity, ever ready to lend a hand to a good cause, he was a regular attendant of the South Congregational Church, Dr. Edward E. Hale, minister; and for

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twenty-seven years he was one of the Standing Committee of the church.

Mr. Fenno is survived by his wife, a native of East Corinth, Vt., whose maiden name was Almira Torrey Blake. They were married December 20, 1852. Mrs. Fenno's parents were Nathan, third, and Susan (Torrey) Blake, her father born at Keene, N. H., October 15, 1784, and her mother at Cornish, N. IL., July I, 1795. They were married September 6, 1815, at Chelsea, Vt., where the Blake and Torrey families then resided. Nathan Blake, third, died at East Corinth, Vt., January 31, 1849, and his wife at Roxbury, Mass., Sep- tember 18, ISS4. The immigrant ancestor of the Blake family was William Blake, born 1594, who in 1630 sold his home and land at Aisholt, England, and sailed for America on the "Mary and John," landing at Nantasket on May 30. He settled in that part of Dorchester now known as Milton.

Nathan Blake, first (Mrs. Fenno's great- grandfather), was born at Wrentham, Mass., in July, 1712, and died August 4, 1811, having almost attained the age of one hundred years. He was one of the founders of Keene, N. H., 1736. His residence was probably the first house built in Keene. In 1746, in an Indian raid on the town, his barn was burned, and he was taken prisoner and carried to Canada. He was much ill-treated by his savage captors, being beaten and abused and compelled to "run the gauntlet." Upon the death of an Indian chief he was dressed in Indian costume, and in- vested with all the privileges of the deceased, including the possession of his widow. Being a man of great physical strength and of a keen and sagacious mind, he made the best of his surroundings, and outwitted the Indians when- ever he could do so to his own advantage. After two years of captivity he was released through an exchange of prisoners, and returned to his home and family at Keene. His son, Nathan Blake, second, was born in that town. Mrs. Fenno can trace the Blake ancestry back to Robert de Blakeland, who was assessed in the Willstine Roll of Subsidies, granted in 1286 to Edward I. His son, Robert Blake, dropped the particle "de" and the terminal "land," and the family hereafter were called

Blake. The first progenitor of the family in America was William Blake, of Aisholt, Eng- land, who came to this country in 1630.

Mrs. Fenno's mother was a daughter of Oliver and Sabra (Freeman) Torrey and a de- scendant in the fifth generation from William Torrey, the first progenitor of the family in America.

Torrey is a baronial Norman name; and the English families of the name are descended from the De-Tury, Turi, or Turri family of Normandy. Henry and Richard De-Tury were in Normandy in 1180-95; barony and castle of Turry in Normandy; Jordan and Simon Turri in England in 1IS9.

Mrs. Fenno can trace her ancestry back for ten generations to William ' Torrey, of Combe St. Nicholas, in the county of Somerset, Eng- land, who died in June, 1557, leaving a will in which he mentions his wife, Thomasyne, and "every of his children," without naming them. Philip? Torrey, son of the above William, in his will, dated 1604, mentions his son William and daughter Dorothie, also his wife, Margaret. William 3 Torrey, son of Philip and Margaret and next in line of descent, was living in April, 1639, at which time died his wife, Jane. His son Philip+ had previously died. The date of his own death is not known. Philip + Torrey, son of William above mentioned, died in June, 1631, leaving a will in which he mentions three daughters - Anne, Mary, and Sarah - and four sons-William, James, Philip and Joseph. The will of his wife, Alicia, dated 1634, mentions by name the same seven children, and states that the daughter Mary was deceased. The four sons all emi- grated to America in 1640, and located within a few miles of Boston, Mass. They seem to have been the ancestors of all the early families of the name in America. William and Joseph first located in Weymouth, James in Scituate, and Philip in Roxbury. A1- though Philips reared a family, it is not learned that he had any son to transmit his name to later generations. He died in Roxbury in 1686. Joseph 5 removed to Rehoboth, Mass., and subsequently to Newport, R. I., where he was prominently active in public affairs. He died there in 1675. Nothing is known of his

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descendants. James was accidentally killed by an explosion of powder in Scituate, in July, 1664, leaving five sons and five daughters.

William $ Torrey, the other son, usually des- ignated as Captain William Torrey, through whom the line of descent is continued to Mrs. Fenno, was born at Combe St. Nicholas, Eng- land, in 1608, probably in December, as he was baptized on the twenty-first day of - that month. On March 17, 1629, he married Agnes Comb, of Combe St. Nicholas. She died be- fore he left England, and he was appointed administrator of her estate. Coming to Amer- ica in 1640, as already narrated, he brought with him two sons - Samuel, born in 1632, and William,6 born in 1638-and settled in Weymouth, which was thereafter his home. It is believed that he brought his second wife with him from England. Six children were born to him in Weymouth - Naomi, Mary, Micajah, Josiah, Judith, -and Angel, besides which he took two small children of his brother James, after their father's death, and brought them up with his family - namely, Jonathan and Mary. He was made a freeman in 1642, and was for many years Representative to the General Court, being usually clerk of the House, a place for which, it is said, "he had great qualifications." He died in . Wey- mouth, June 10, 1690. His son, Samuel Torrey, was three years at Harvard, having been prepared by his father. This Samuel Torrey was ordained as minister at Weymouth, and was pastor of the Congregational church for forty years. He twice refused the office of president of Harvard College. He died in 1707.

William 6 Torrey, of Weymouth, son of Cap- tain William Torrey, was born in England in 1638, and came with his father to Weymouth in 1640. He married Deborah, daughter of John Green. His death occurred January 1I, 1718. His wife died February 8, 1729. They had eight children - William, John, Samuel, Joseph, Philip, Haviland, Josiah, and Jane - the line of descent being through their fourth son, Joseph. Joseph 7 Torrey, born at Middle- town, Conn., in 1678, married Elizabeth Symmes. He died in April, 1723. His son the Rev. Joseph, 8 second, born in 1707, married

Elizabeth Wilson, and died in 1792. Dr. Samuel Holden 9 Torrey, born in 1738, son of the Rev. Joseph Torrey, second, married Anna Gould in 1760. He died in 1786. ITis son Oliver, 1º who was born in 1768 and died in 1820, married Sabra Freeman; and they were the parents of Susan Torrey, Mrs. Fenno's mother.

IDWARD BELCHER REYNOLDS, trus- tee and dealer in real estate, residing in the Roxbury District, was born in the old Adams house, Roxbury, January 27, 1832, son of Charles Green and Charlotte P. (Staniford) Reynolds. His father, who was born in Boston, July 10, 1802, was a descendant in the sixth generation of Robert Reynolds, who was living in Boston as early as 1632, and who died here in April, 1659. The line is traced back, through Edward Reynolds of the fifth gen- eration, his father, John,4 and Benjamin,3 to Na- thaniel,2 son of Robert.' Nathaniel Reynolds married for his second wife Priscilla Brackett, and removed about 1680 to Bristol, R.I. Their son Benjamin, born in Bristol, married Susanna Rawson, daughter of Rev. Grindall Rawson, of Mendon. John Reynolds married in 1753 his second wife, Dorothy Weld, of Roxbury.

Edward Reynolds, son of John and Dorothy and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of five brothers who lived to be over eighty-five years old. He was a prominent Bos- ton merchant of his day, transacting an exten- sive business on Commercial and City Wharves, and owning a fine homestead in Washington Square on the summit of Fort Hill. For his first wife he married Deborah Belcher, of Barn- stable, Mass .; and his second wife was Ann Foster, daughter of Dr. Foster, of Charlestown. He was the father of six children, all of whom were of his first union : Edward Reynolds, M.D., for many years a prominent Boston physician ; William Belcher, in business in Boston ; Charles Green, father of Edward Belcher; Jane T., who was the wife of Ephraim Hall, of Medford, Mass .; Fanny Mackey, wife of William T. Andrews, of Boston; and Emily A., wife of Cap- tain Thomas Dimmock, who died in France.

Charles Green Reynolds held a responsible

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position in the Boston city treasurer's office for a period of forty years. He resided in Rox- bury, where his death occurred December 14, 1885. He was actively interested in the gen- eral welfare of that locality prior to and after its annexation to Boston, and was a regular attend- ant of the old First Church on Eliot Square. His wife, Charlotte, was born in Boston, Decem- ber 12, 1804, and died August 27, 1886. She was a daughter of Daniel Staniford, a native of Ipswich, Mass., and principal of a well-known school for young ladies in the West End. Charles Green and Charlotte (Staniford) Rey- nolds had three children, namely: Edward Belcher, the subject of this sketch; Charlotte Staniford, who was born October 5, 1842 : and Ann Foster Reynolds, who was born May 13, 1847.

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Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901, Part 62

Author: Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger Number of Pages: 924

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Boston, Graves & Steinbarger
Number of Pages: 924