USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Leicester > Brief history of Leicester, Massachusetts > Part 14
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He and his brothers Joseph Bradford and George Henry, succeeding to the business of their father, manufactured eards at the " Briek Factory " till the business was removed to their factory in Worcester, where the organizations were known as the Sargent Card Clothing Company and the Sargent. Hardware Company.
With these brothers he was also associated in the manufacture of general hardware, at their very extensive works in New Haven, Conn., superintended by Joseph Bradford Sargent, born 1822, and in their large mercantile establishment in New York City, managed by George Henry Sargent, born 1829; the | two concerns, closely allied and trading under the name of Sargent & Company, being the largest of : their kind in the world. Mr. Sargent was connected with these companies till his death.
Ile passed his life in Leicester, and was one of its wealthy and valued citizens. He was a selectman of the town. He was interested in everything that' and engaged in manufacturing with Mr. Gunn. related to the welfare of the place, and contributed liberally both money and personal supervision to all publie improvements. He was at different times nominated as a candidate for the State Legislature, and, though not belonging to the winning party, he he associated himself with his brother-in-law, Mr. had the habit of running invariably beyond his ticket, Albert Marshall, in the same business, in Holden, as
* Nathan Sargent's Diary.
in his own town, in which he was a general favorite. In the time of the Civil War he was an ardent patriot, and freely contributed to all its demands.
In 1864 Mr. Sargent completed the building of his elegant residence, opposite the attractive sheet of water on what was originally the " Town Meadow," where the beavers built their houses and dams, and through which ran " Rawson Brook," but which has long been called, after his name, "Sargent's Pond." This house is now the home of his son, J. Bradford Sargent. At the same time Mr. Sargent built his handsome stable for his horses. He was a good horseman, and, especially in the earlier years of his life, very fond of the horse and of driving. He regarded time as too vahable to be wasted in making distances on the road.
He was married, February 9, 1858, by Rev. A. II. Coolidge, to Adelaide Sophia. the daughter of Austin F., grandson of Rev. Benjamin Conklin, and Sophia (Hatch) Conklin. She was a woman of amiable and cheerful spirit and superior intelligence and worth. After twenty-three years of married life she died on the 11th day of February, 1881. They had three children,-Joseph Bradford, Winthrop (who died in childhood) and Harry Edward.
Mr. Sargent was much affected by the death of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, and survived her less than two years. He died January 30, 1883.
BILLINGS MANN. 1
The village of Manville received its name from Mr. Billings Mann, to whom it is largely indebted. He, with Mr. Albert Marshall, carried on the manu- facture of woolen cloth, in the first of the series of factories on Kettle Brook, on the corner of Earle and Mannville Streets. Around this mill there has grad- ually grown the little village that bears his name.
Mr. Marshall, a worthy and highly-esteemed citizen of the town, is still living, at an advanced age.
Mr. Mann was born in Worcester in 1797. He was the son of Joseph and Mehitable (Billings) Mann. Ilis father was a clothier, and he worked with him dressing cloth. He thus became familiar with the details of his subsequent business. His education was that of the common school. On the 21st of July. 1822, he married Jemima, the daughter of Eliot and Jemima Wight, of Bellingham, Mass., by whom he had one daughter, who was married to Maj. Theron E. Hall. The same year, at the age of twenty-five, he began the manufacture of woolen eloth in Fitchburg. In 1828 he removed from Fitchburg to Worcester, In 1837 he was in the business in West Rutland. The next year, 1838, he first came to Leicester, and, as has been elsewhere stated, was associated with Mr. Amos Earle in the manufacture of satinets. In 1844
By Rev. A. H. Coolidge.
1
0
1
Billings Mann
Alonso White
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LEICESTER.
the firm of Man & Marshall. Here he remained till 1853, when, with Mr. Marshall, he came to Lei- cester. They purebased the mill property and com- meneed the manufacture of satinets, as elsewhere stated.
Mr. Mann's home, to the time of his death, was on the corner of Earle and Mulberry Streets, the former home of Pliny Earle, Senior, His first wife died September 28, 1823, and on the 21st. of July, 1828, he married Harriet L., the daughter of Josiah Daniel, of Dedham, by whom he had seven daughters and three sons, two of whom, George and Billings are successors in the business. Mrs. Mann was a woman of rare excellence and beauty of character. She presided over her large household with queenly dignity and grace, and of her, with full truth, it could be said, "Her children rise up and call her blessed." She died February 20, 1878. Her illness was protraeted and her sufferings intense, but she endured them with a truly Christian spirit of resig- nation and cheerfulness.
For nearly quarter of a century Mann & Marshall carried on a prosperons business, but after the " Bos- ton fire," in which they were heavy losers, they were forced to abandon the enterprise, which they did in 1874.
Mr. Mann was a business man of striet integrity, and the affairs of the company, in prosperity and adversity alike, were conducted on the highest prin- ciples of business honor. lle was genial and kind, and his home at Mulberry Grove was one of generous hospitality. Ile died December 2, 1879, and his fun- eral at the First Congregational Church was largely attended. He was a member of the order of Knights Templar, and he was buried with Masonic honors.
ALONZO WHITE. 1
Alonzo White was born in Almond. Allegany County, N. Y., May 6, 1808. Ilis father was a native of Spencer, Mass .. and had emigrated to New York three months before. This was then " The West." Almond had all the characteristics of a new country. There were no school-houses, no church buildings, and few of the conveniences and comforts of older settled communities. The girls of the family rode on horse-back thirty miles to purchase their gowns; and the parish of the Presbyterian minister extended from Rochester to the Pennsylvania line.
Mr. White was born, and lived when a boy, in a log-house. He worked upon the farm until he was twenty years of age. He then determined to seek his fortune elsewhere, and first went on foot to Dall- ville, twenty miles distant, where he earned the money for bis proposed journey by carting wood, spending his extra time in making brooms. In the fall of 1828 he came to Spencer, where his uncle re- sided, and worked on the farm. In February of the next year he came to Leicester, and commeneed his
apprenticeship as a eard-maker with Reuben Mer- riam & Co. There was then no card setting machine in the establishment, although the newly-invented machine was coming gradually into use. The holes and the teeth were made by machines and the teeth set by hand. The next year card-setting machines made by Mr. Merriam were introduced.
After remaining with Mr. Merriam a year, Mr. White was engaged at one hundred dollars per year by Colonel Joseph D. Sargent, who was then making cards on the Auburn Road, in Cherry Valley. The machines were moved by dog power. Upon Mr. Sargent's removal to the Brick Factory, Mr. White came with him, and was in his employ seven years. In 1836 he, with his partners, bought ont. Colonel Sargent, and commeneed business as the firm of Lamb & White. Colonel Sargent highly valued the services of Mr. White, and expressed his appreciation in a substantial manner. He expressed his confidence in him at this time by furnishing him the capital for the new enterprise. M. White's subsequent business career is given in the notice of the firm of White & Denny, and White & Son.
Mr. White has served the town in the offices of selectman, assessor, etc. Ile was the contractor for the new town-honse. For a short time he was a director of the bank. Ile nnited with the First Congrega- tional Church in September, 1831.
In 1834, April 10th, he married Elizabeth Lincoln, the daughter of Aden Davis, of Oakham, Mass., by whom he has had six children, four of whom, two sons and two daughters, are living. He has been to them a generous parent, and to the community and the church a free and generous helper.
He built his house on the corner of Main and Grove Streets, in 1848. Here he, with his wife, with whom he has been united for almost fifty-five years, still reside, in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry and enterprise, and the society of their friends. They have the satisfaction of seeing their children with their families settled in good homes of their own in Leicester.
SALEM LIVERMORE. 2
Jolm Livermore, ancestor of all the Livermores probably in the United States, embarked at Ipswich, Old England, for New England, in April, 1634, then twenty-eight years old, in the ship " Franeis," John Cutting, master. He was admitted freeman of the Massachusetts Colony May 6, 1635. On the list of freemen his name was written Leathermore, and in other old documents and records sometimes Lether- more and Lithermore. He was a potter by trade. He was many years seleetman, and filled other of- fices of trust and honor in Watertown, where he first settled and last resided, he being, for about eleven years, from 1639 to 1650, a resident of New Haven, Conn., after which he returned to Water- town, Mass., where he died, April 14, 1684, aged
1 By Rev. A. H. Coolidge.
" By Caleb A. Wall.
.
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seventy-eight, and his wife, Grace, died there in June, 1601. Ile was probably son of Peter and Marabella (Wysback) Livermore, of Little Thurloe, Suffolk County, England, about seven miles north- west of Clare. On his removal from Watertown to Connecticut he was made a freeman of that colony, October 29, 1610, and he sold ont his estate in New
Leicester these eight children. 1. Jonas", Jr., born February 28, 1736, carpenter and farmer, married November 10, 1761, Sarah, danghter of Hezekiah and Sarah (Green) Ward, and resided in the south part of Leicester, near Anbarn, where Jonas' son, Salem Livermore, afterwards lived, and where Jonas' died, Jannary 31. 1825, aged eighty-nine, Haven May 7. 1650, and went back to Water- and his wife, Sarah, died Sept. 10, 1832, aged ninety- town. Four of his niue children-Samnel", Daniel" four, parents of ten children; 2. Micah", born in and two danghters-were baptized in New Haven, : 1738, settled in Oxford; 3. Marys, boru 1743, married and his oldest child, Hannah", who married John Thomas Scott and resided on the estate in Auburn, Coolidge, Jr., was born in England in 1633, the , near Leicester, where his father, John Scott, had lived and where Thomas' son, David Scott, Sr., after- wards lived; 4. Davids, born 1745, married, in 1770,
others in America. His fourth child, and oldest son, Jolm' Livermore, Jr., born in 1640, settled on an estate of fifty-two acres, called the "Cowpen ; for his first wife, Anna Heywood of Holden, and Farm," in Weston, near the border of Sudbury, 'settled on the south part of lot No. 59, in Spencer, which estate was given him by the father.
where they had seven children, and he died there De-
This John" Livermore. Jr., who was a lieutenant in'cember 13, 1818, and she died June 12, 1794, his the military, had in Weston, by his first wife, Han- ' second wife being her sister, Mrs. Mmy Osborne, of nah, who was mother of all his children, five sons and | Holden, who died Jannary 5, 1842, aged eighty, by four daughters, born between 1668 and 1690, of whom whom he had three children, one of them. Melinda, wife of the late Benjamin II. Brewer of Worcester: the fifth child and third son was Daniel? Livermore, born in Weston June 8, 1677, ensign, an original pro- [5. Elizabeth, twin, born 1745, married Samnel Tucker, prietor and settler in Leicester before 1720, on lot : Jr., of Leicester; 6. Elisha, born 1751; 7. Beulah, No. 29, which included what has since been called Livermore Hill. This Daniel . Livermore died March
born 1753, married Levi Dunton; 8, Lydia, born 1755, married Asa, son of David Pronty, of Spencer, 26, 1726, aged forty-nine, and by his wife, Mehitabel, 'and had there Aaron, Asa, Jr., Persis. Jonas and Joel afterwards wife of John Parmenter, of Sudbury, had ; Pronty, born between 1776 and 1784, of whom Persis five sons and three danghters, born between 1707 and 1726, as follows :
was wife of Eli Muzzy. son of John Muzzy, Jr., of Spencer.
1. Daniel,' Jr., born in Weston June 16, 1707, by wife, Mary, had in Weston three sons and three daughters, born between 1734 and 1748; 2. Jonas', born in Weston May 13, 1710, married, October, 1735.
Jonas' and Sarah (Ward) Livermore had in Lei- cester these nine children :
1. Hannah, born May 13, 1762, died Angust 24, 1707; 2. Jonas", born April 13, 1764. died mimarried,
Elizabeth Rice. of Sudbury, and settled near the foot | at Leicester, April 20, 1790: 3. Sally, born JJnnę. 28. of Livermore Hill, in Leicester, on the east side of
1766, died unmarried, February 17, 1833: 4. Patty, the road running north and south through his father's born October 22, 1768, married in 1791 Captain lot, No. 29, where Jonas' died in 1773, and his wife died Sammel Upham. Jr., of Leicester, and removed soon in 1790-parents, in Leicester, of live sons and three | after 1800 to Bandolph, Vt., where he died in 1848. daughters; 3. Mehitabel', born March 13, 1718, mar- aged eighty-seven, the oldest of their three children ried, May 14, 1736, Eliakim Rice, an early settler in being the late Hon. William Uphim, Senator in Con- Worcester, sou of Elisha Rice, who was brother of i gress from Vermont, from 1843 till his decease, Jonas, Gershom, James, Ephraim. Thomas and do- January 14, 1853. in Washington, aged sixty-one: siali Rice, original proprietors and settlers in Worces- '5. Salem, born September 26, 1770, married, first, ter (see Caleb A. Wall's " Reminiscences of Worces- Nancy Walker, who died March 2. 1838, and he ter." pages 40 to $3): 4. Sarah', born March 7. 1717; married, second, Ruth Livermore, and resided on his 5. Isaac', born May 11, 1720, resided on the west side ; father's estate in the south part of Leicester. near of the road, opposite his brother JJonas, near the foot Auburn, where he died April 20, 1858, father of nine of Livermore Hill, where, by his wife, Dorothy, he children, all by his first wife; 6. Bathsheba, born had four sons and two daughters; 6. Hannah! born | July 23, 1772, married John Page and settled in April 16, 1723; 7. Abraham', born November 9, 1724, Cambridge, Vt .: 7. Lonisa. born April 27, 1774, died died of scarlet fever September 1, 1742; 8. Nathan', December 1800, married Almer Gale: 8. Daniel. born March 26, 1726, married, May 7. 1755, Eney born June 10, 1776, married May 29, 1801, Betsy, Bent, of Sudbury.
boru 1777, daughter of Thomas Parker, of Leices-
The above-named Ensign Daniel Livermore's ter, and resided on the estate of his grandfather, Jonas sister Hannah', born in Weston, September 27, 1670. , Livermore, Sr .. near the foot of Livermore Hill, married, February 22. 1689, the above named Eph- where Daniel Livermore died August 31, 1869. aged ninety-three, and his wife, Betsy, died November 2, 1846, parents of Jonas Livermore. of Camden. N. J., Rev. Daniel Parker Livermore, of Melrose, Mass., raim Rice, then of Sudbury, who was an original proprietor of Worcester, where his children settled, near his brothers, on Sagatabseott Hill.
Jonas' and Elizabeth (Rice) Livermore had in | Diantha. wife of Daniel Henshaw, Mary, wife of
4
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.
David McFarland, late of Worcester, and Eliza, resid- ing with her brother, Rev. Daniel P., in Melrose; 9. Rebecea, born November 13, 1778, married Lebbeus Turner, from Bennington, Vt., and had in Leicester, Stillman, now deceased, Jerusha, now in Spencertown, N. Y., Caroline, wife of Dexter Converse, and Roxana, wife of Thomas Wall, all now deceased.
Salem 6 and Nancy (Walker) Livermore had in Leicester these nine children :
1. Mary, born August 25, 1795; died September 6, 1841 ; married Jonathan Warren, and had, in Lei- eester, Jonas L. Warren, formerly railroad station agent at Rochdale; now in Shirley.
2. Sarah, born August 31, 1797; died May 1, 1827 ; married, August 10, 1823, Samuel Bottomly (his first wife), and had a daughter, Sarah, who married a Schofield.
3. Nancy, born October 13, 1800; died Deeember 27, 1875; married, first, Moses Roekwood, of Grafton, and had John, Angeline and David Rockwood ; married, second, February, 1837, Stephen Adams, and had, in Paxton, Maria, June and Aaron Adams.
4. Hannah, born May 21, 1804; died July 29, 1836; married, January 9, 1828, Samuel Bottomly, and had, in Cherry Valley, Cornelia, Sarah, Levinah and Nancy Bottomly.
5. Thomas, born September 7, 1805; died young.
6. Salen, Jr., born April 23, 1809; died in Roch- dale Village March 4, 1865; married, November 26, 1833, Roxa Darling, their only child being their son, Thomas Salem Livermore, born July 22, 1836; mar- John H. and Sarah (Crossley) Symons, of Rochdale, and owns and oeeupies the homestead erected by his father in Rochdale Village, nearly opposite the rail- road depot.
7. Seraph, twin of Salem, Jr., born April 23, 1809; married James Hollingsworth, and died April 4, 1832.
8. Tamason, born May 28, 1812; married Liberty Beers, and died February 8, 1840.
9. Moses, born March 11, 1815; died June 20, 1854; resided on his grandfather's old place, near Auburn.
Rev. Daniel P. Livermore, son of Danich5 and Betsy (Paeker) Livermore, of Leicester, is a Uni- versalist elergyman in Melrose, ordained in 1841. He married, May 6, 1845, Mary, daughter of . Timo- thy and Zebiah Vose (Ashton) Rice, of Boston ; since that time distinguished as an eloquent lecturer and speaker on temperance, women's rights and other reforms. Their two surviving children are: Mary Elizabeth and Henrietta W., the latter wife of John Oscar Norris, master of East Boston High School.
Dexter and Caroline (Livermore) Converse resided in Leicester, near Charlton, where they had a family of twelve children, among their sons being Edmund, Harrison and Lebbeus T. Converse, of Worcester.
Salem7 Livermore, Jr., like his father and grand- father before him, was a carpenter, as well as a thrifty and industrious farmer and operator in real estate, in which kinds of business Salem, Jr., is well repre- sented by his son, Thomas S. Livermore, who suc- ceeded to and improves upon the five hundred acres of land in Leieester, Oxford and Auburn, including the homestead at Rochdale Village, on which he re- sides with his mother. Jonas5 Livermore, Jr., was originally a Baptist, one of the pillars of the oldl Greenville Church ; his son, Salem, Sr., was a Uni- versalist, as well as the latter's brother Daniel, and
ried, September 26, 1871, Mary Symons, daughter of | Salem, Jr., was a member of the Episcopal Church at Rochdale.
Thomas S. Livermore has a specialty in the musical line, having officiated in a choir since he was fourteen years of age, and for the past few years he has been chorister and organist of the Unitarian Church at Leicester.
APPENDIX.
MANUFACTURING BUSINESS.
Several Statements are here added, to render more nearly complete the History of Manufacturing and of Manufacturing Firms in Town.
THE EARLY MANUFACTURE OF MA-| man to cover a machine for him which he will CHINE CARDS.
BY DR. PLINY EARLE.
For many years it has generally been believed, by persons interested in the subject, that the first machine cards manufactured in Leicester were those made by Pliny Earle, for the ma- chines constructed by Samnel Slater, after the formation of a business connection between the said Slater and the firm of Almy & Brown, of Providence, R. I. Letters are still in existence by which the incorrectness of this belief is clearly demonstrated, and which show that Pliny Earle made machine eards before the arrival of Mr. Slater in America.
Under date of 11th Mo. [November] 4th, 1789, Almy & Brown ordered a set of cards of the said Earle, and in their letter alluded to a set which he had previously made for a company in Wor- cester.
On the 14th of the next month, December, 1789, Pliny Earle's brother Silas wrote, from Leicester, to their brother Jonah, then residing in New York City, as follows : - " Pliny is going to set off for Providence day after to-morrow morning, to put on long cards on to Ahny and Brown's machine."
On the "7th of 1st Mo. [January ] 1790," Pliny Earle wrote, from Providence, to his brother Jonah, in New York City, as follows :- " I have lately covered a Carding Machine for Moses Brown, here, which I have £18-18s-Od for doing, in cash. I expect now to agree with another
pay cash for. Moses Brown's machine will eard at a great rate - they tell me six or seven pounds an hour."
Two months and five days later, that is, on "3d Mo. [March] 12th, 1790," writing again from Providence to his brother Jonah in New York, l'liny Earle made the following statement :- " I have just finished* a carding machine, to-day, for one Potter, in this town, for which I have received the cash. I have a machine to do in Worcester by the 25th of this month."
Samuel Slater landed in New York on the 11th of November, 1789, just one week after Almy & Brown ordered the cards for their machine. Three weeks afterward, on the 2d of December, he first wrote to Moses Brown seek- ing employment. Brown's reply to this letter was written on the 10th of December, which was but six days before Pliny Earle, according to the letter of his brother Silas, went to Providence to put the cards npon Almy & Brown's mna- chine.
We here have sufficient proof that Pliny Earle had engaged in the making of machine eards before the advent of Samuel Slater in America. But the machine cards made by him, or by any other person in the United States, anterior to that tine, were not set in the "twilled " or " wailed " style, as they are now, but in the style called " plain ", which is still retained for hand cards. The first " twilled " cards made in this country were those made by Pliny Earle for Samuel Slater, or for the business firm of Almy, Brown & Slater; and the fact that there was no machine for pricking in that style, in America, made it
* That is, finished putting the cards upon it.
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APPENDIX.
necessary that those cards should be pricked by hand. This work was done by Pliny and Jonah Earle, each of them using a pricker which con- sisted solely of two needles set in a handle, like an awl. .
We have not the date at which Mr. Slater became connected with the firm of Ahny & Brown, nor that at which he engaged Mr. Earle to make the cards for him ; but, under date of " 5th Mo. [May] 9th, 1790," Pliny Earle, in a letter to his brother Jonah, still in New York, says " have got our Pricking Machine done, it is made with a pair of crooked Pincers which go through the Bench and the Handles come ont the under side, so that it shuts down on the back side of the Leather and holds it ; it is a very good machine indeed."
This "machine " was apparently a simple device for holding the leather firmly in place while the holes were pricked by hand, with the two needles in a handle. Jonah Earle indoubt- edly returned to Leicester soon after this ktter was written, for it is known, as stated above, that he assisted his brother in the tedions work of pricking Slater's cards. The experience gained by this work led Pliny Earle to the invention of his machine for pricking " twilled " cards, for which he obtained a patent in 1803. The important principle involved in this machine is described in a written statement made by Pliny Earle, under date of " 4th Mo. [April] 24, 1804." It is as follows :-
" I was undoubtedly the first man in America, and, for aught I know, the first in the world, who made cards with a machine moving the leather side-wise, until the pricker strikes six times through the leather; it then falls back, and so continnes to operate, falling back once for every six strokes of the pricker until completed."
The original letters here quoted are in the keeping of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, with the exception of that from Silas to Jonah Earle, which is in the hands of Stephen C. Earle, of Worcester.
While it is true, as stated in the history, that thirty years ago White & Denny's card factory was the only one in which steam was used, it is also true that Pliny Earle had long before used steam as motive power, having introduced it in 1824.
BUSINESS CHANGES AND OTHER ITEMS.
II. G. Henshaw began his wire business April 18, 1844. Ichabod and Charles Washburn were afterward admitted, the firm name being HI. G. Henshaw & Co., Mr. Henshaw retaining ownership of the machinery. The machinery was sold to Myrick & Sugden, then established in Spencer, and in 1852 the copartnership of Henshaw, Myrick & Sugden was formed for a period of six years, which expired in 1858.
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