Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 78

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 78

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FISK This name is derived from fish. The breakfasting Englishman of early times ate his fisc. The family flour- ished in the county of Suffolk, England, as early as the reign of King John in 1208. In that year we find the name of Daniel Fisc, of Laxfield, where he ocupied manorial lands and had a coat-of-arms. Among the distin- guished men of this line were Professor John Fisk, the historian; General Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, who ran on the Prohibition ticket for president ; Colonel James Fisk Jr., the New York banker; the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas : Ezekiel A. Straw, governor of New Hampshire ; and Gail Hamilton, the anthoress. When a country is new and agricultural, the tendency of emigration as the inhabitants expand, is to follow the river from its mouth to its source. In this way, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and nearly all the towns along the Connecticut Valley, were peopled from down below. Even institutions so travel. Dart- mouth College was a Connecticut fledgling before its location in the wilds of northern New Hampshire. But in the run of years after the country has developed along com- mercial and manufacturing lines there is a reactionary movement from the farms and the hillside to repossess the land of the fathers and the treke down the river to the centers of population sets in. Down the river to Spring- field came those great captains of industry,

Elisha Morgan, Thomas W. Wason and George C. Fisk. Members of the family in America for centuries have been prominent in private and public life as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, financiers, soldiers, merchants, teachers and professors in college, farmers, philanthropists and patriots. Rev. Perrin B. Fiske, of Lyndon, Vermont, has written of them :

"Ffische, Fisc, Fiske, Fisk (spell it either way) Meant true knighthood, freedom, faith, good quali- ties that stay.

Brethren, let the ancient name mean just the same for aye.

'Forward, every youth! to seek the higher good to-day!' "

(I) Lord Symond Fiske, grandson of Dan- iel Fisc, was Lord of the Manor of Stand- haugh, parish of Laxfield, county of Suffolk, England, lived in the reign of Henry IV and VI (1399-1422). He married Susannah Smyth, and after her death, he had wife Katherine. Symond Fiske, of Laxfield, will dated December 22, 1463, proved at Norwich, February 26, 1463-64, died in February, 1464. He was survived by five children: William, Jeffrey, John, Edmund and Margaret.

(II) William, eldest son of Symond Fiske, born at Standhaugh, county of Suffolk, Eng- land, and lived during the reign of Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III and Henry VII. He died about 1504, was survived by his wife, who died in 1505, and left seven children : William, Augustine, Simon, Robert, John, Margery and Margaret.

(III) Simon, son of William and Joan (Lyme) Fiske, was in Laxfield, date unknown. He married Elizabeth who died in Halesworth, June, 1558. In his will made July 10, 1536, he desired to be buried at the chancel end of the church of All Saints, in Laxfield. He died in that town in June, 1538, leaving (living or dead) ten children: Simon, Will- iam, Robert, Joan, Jeffrey, Gelyne. Agnes, Thomas, Elizabeth and John.

(IV) Simon (2), son of Simon (1) and Elizabeth Fiske, was born in Laxfield. The name of his wife and date of his marriage are not known. He died in 1605. His children were : Robert, John, George, Nicholas, Jeffrey, William, Richard, Joan, Gelyne and Agnes.

(V) Robert, son of Simon (2) Fiske, was born in Sandhaugh about 1525. He married Mrs. Sybil (Gould) Barber. For some time he was of the parish of St. James, South Elm- ham, England. Sybil, his wife, was in great

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danger in the time of the religious persecution, 1553-58, as was her sister Isabelle, originally Gould, who was confined in the Castle of Nor- wich, and escaped death only by the power of her brothers, who were men of great influence in the county. Robert Fiske fled from relig- ious persecution in the days of Queen Mary to Geneva, but returned later and died in St. James in 1600. His sons were: William, Jef- frey, Thomas and Eleazer. The latter had no issue, but the progeny of the other three sons, in whole or in part, settled in New England. Besides these sons there was a daughter Eliza- beth who married Robert Bernard; their daughter married a Mr. Locke, and was the mother of the celebrated John Locke, the English philosopher.

(VI) William (2), eldest child of Robert and Sybil (Gould) Fiske, was born at Lax- field in 1566. He married Anna Austye, daughter of Walter, of Fibbenham, Long Row, in Norfolk. After her death he married Alice He is described as of St. James in South Elmham, and it is said of him that he fled with his father from religious persecu- tion. He died in 1623. Of the first wife Anna, there were children: John, Nathaniel, Eleazer, Eunice, Hannah and Esther (some- times called Hester ). The youngest child Mary seems to have been of the second wife, Alice.

(VII) Nathaniel, second son of William and Anna (Austye) Fiske, was born in Ditching- ham, and resided at Weybred. He married Alice (Henel) Leman. Children : Nathaniel and Sarah.

(VIII) Nathaniel (2), eldest son of Nathan- iel (I) and Alice (Henel) (Leman) Fiske, was born in Weybred. There is a tradition in the family that he died on the passage to New England. He married Dorothy, daugh- ter of John Symonds, of Wendham. Children : John, Nathan, Esther, Martha.

(IX) Nathan, second son of Nathaniel (2) and Dorothy (Symonds) Fiske, was born in 1615, died June 21, 1676, in Watertown, Mass- achusetts. He settled in Watertown as early as 1642, and was admitted a freeman, May 10, 1643. He was selectman in 1673, and his homestall was the lot in the town plot granted to R. Frake on the north side of the Sudbury road, opposite to A. Brown. His sister, Martha Underwood, testified that he was very "crazy" in his memory before he died. He married Susannah ( surname unknown). Children : Nathan, John, David, Nathaniel, Sarah.

(X) Nathaniel (3), fourth son of Nathan and Susannah Fiske, was born in Watertown,

July 12, 1653, died there September, 1735. He was a weaver. His will was dated June 10, and proved October 3, 1735, and the estate inventoried one hundred and forty-two pounds. He married the Widow Mary (Warren) Child, born November 29, 1651, a daughter of Daniel Warren, of Watertown, and widow of John Child. Children : Nathaniel, Hannah, John, Sarah, Lydia, Mary, Elizabeth, Abigail.

(XI) John, second son of Nathaniel (3) and Mary (Warren) (Child) Fiske, was born in Watertown, March 17, 1682, died in Sher- burne, May 8, 1730. He married, in Sher- burne, July 31, 1706, Lydia, daughter of Moses and Lydia ( Whitney ) Adams. Children : John, Lydia, Isaac, Daniel, Lydia, Peter, Abi- gail, Nathaniel.

(XII) Isaac, second son of John and Lydia (Adams) Fiske, was born in Sherburne, April 24. 1714, died December 22, 1799. He was a weaver by trade, resided first at Worcester and later at Framingham, first near Addison Dadmun's, after at Guinea End. His will was dated August 24, 1789, and proved March 17, 1800. He married Hannah, daughter of Rich- ard and Lydia (Whitney) Haven, of Fram- ingham, who died February 21, 1800. Children : Isaac, Hannah, John, Richard, Daniel, Moses, Lydia and Moses.

(XIII) Hon. John, second son of Isaac and Lydia (Haven) Fiske, was born in Framing- ham in 1741, where he always resided, and died there December 17, 1819. He lived near the Isaac Warren place on the Silk Farm, and built the house of Rufus Brewer. For years he was justice of the peace, for six years he was representative in the legislature and for twelve years selectman. He married Abigail Howe, born in 1752, died in April, 1829. Chil- dren : Nat, Thomas, Sally, John Boyle, Sus- anna, Sally, Edward, Nancy, William, George.

(XIV) Thomas, second son of the Hon. John and Abigail (Howe) Fisk, was born in Framingham, March 22, 1774, died at Chester- field, New Hampshire, July 25, 1861. In 1807 he went to Chesterfield and settled on the farm now owned and occupied by his son, John B. Fisk. When about two years old, he had an attack of scarlet fever which caused him to be deaf and consequently dumb. He learned nevertheless to read and cipher in the four fundamental rules of arithmetic. At the age of fifty years he was admitted to the school for deaf mutes at Hartford, Connecti- cut. for the term of one year. He made rapid progress and acquired knowledge that was of great use to him during the remaining years

GEO, C. Fisk

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of his life. He married, in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, Lucinda Trowbridge. of Pomfret, Connecticut, who was born in 1782, died April 14, 1869. Children : Thomas T., Lucinda D., Mary Ann B., John B.

(XV) Thomas Trowbridge, eldest son of Thomas and Lucinda ( Trowbridge) Fisk, was born in Chesterfield, November 27, 1806, died in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, June 17, 1861, on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill and just as the clouds of rebellion were lowering over the land. He was a farmer, conducting an express and trucking business, and later began the manufacture of soap in a small way with his son, Lucius I., which busi- ness has since grown to mammoth propor- tions and is now located at Springfield, Massa- chusetts. He married Emily H., daughter of Elijah Hildreth, who was born in Chesterfield, November 28, 1806, died in Hinsdale, Janu- ary 6. 1849, and together with her husband is buried in the Pine Grove cemetery there. She was a woman warmly devoted to the interests of her family. Children: George C., Lucius I., Noyes W., Addie E., the latter by second marriage to Miss Goodnow.

(XVI) George C., eldest son of Thomas Trowbridge and Emily H. (Hildreth) Fisk, was born in Hinsdale, March 4, 1831, and received the merest rudiments of an elemen- tary education in the district school. For three years previous to leaving Hinsdale he was employed in the store kept by E. W. Hunt and by Amidon & Holland; but drawing molasses, weighing nails and selling dry goods, all at one time, did not suit him. In 1851, at the age of twenty years, he left Hinsdale with $15 in his pocket to commence life in earnest. He went to Springfield, Massachusetts, and for want of something better suited to his taste entered a dry goods store, but soon after- wards left and went into a grocery store. A few months service in the grocery business satisfied him that mercantile pursuits were not congenial to his tastes. As every active young man at that time was attracted towards the great West where new fields of labor were opened, Mr. Fisk turned towards that land of promise. Reaching Cleveland, Ohio, he stopped to renew the acquaintance of a friend who had given some encouragement that work would be given him. While waiting for a decision, like a genuine Yankee he looked around for an opportunity to turn an honest penny. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had just been published and thinking it might sell well he purchased several copies and started

out as a book agent. ' The business flourished with him until a crabbed old fellow threatened to kick him out of his house if he was ever seen selling another book to his family. If this was the treatment that book agents were to receive in Cleveland he should shake the dust from his feet and "go West," which con- clusion he immediately put in practice, dispos- ing of the books unsold to a railroad newsboy. He started for Beloit, Wisconsin, which place he duly reached. He spent some time in look- ing around, but the slip-shod way of doing business, then general in the West, did not suit him and besides he found that a young man without capital in the West had as few chances for success as in New England. He turned eastward and soon found himself back in Springfield, Massachusetts. Eleazer Ripley, of that place, was about to commence the manu- facture of locomotives, and wanting a book- keeper he offered the place to Mr. Fisk which he accepted. While waiting for the machinery to be put in order he went home to Hinsdale to make a desk. Two weeks afterward Mr. Ripley sent for him to take a temporary place in T. W. Wason's car shops, while Mr. Wason was absent in the West. Mr. Fisk took the place and acted as bookkeeper until Mr. Wason returned, who then made him an offer of a permanent position. Mr. Ripley giving his consent he accepted of the offer and com- menced work for Mr. Wason for one dollar per day. In 1854, after the company had been running a year, J. S. Mellen, one of the pro- prietors, became discouraged as very little had been made, sold to Mr. Fisk his interest, one- sixth for $3,333, and this was his commence- ment of a partnership interest. He continued to serve as bookkeeper and cashier of the establishment until it was organized as a cor- poration, when he became treasurer. In addi- tion to the duties of the office he had more or less to do with the general business of the company, and for some time previous to the death of Mr. Wason he was chosen vice-presi- dent and took the general management of busi- ness of the concern. On the death of Mr. Wason he was chosen president and is now general manager, the direction of the entire business coming upon him.

The works built in 1871 are situated at Brightwood, three miles above Springfield. on the banks of the Connecticut river, named after the author Dr. J. G. Holland's country seat which overlooked the site. Mr. Fisk planned and had entire charge of the building of these shops. Mr. Fisk determined that the new

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shops should be light, airy, symmetrical in plan and perfect in convenience-in short, the model manufactory of the city. Accordingly, he de- voted himself to elaborating a systematic method of utilizing to the best advantage the sixteen-acre plot devoted to the Wason car works. A survey of the completed buildings will prove that Mr. Fisk's intention has been carried out to entire success. Lying on the west of the railroad and the north of the entire purchase, the plot is occupied by two ranges of buildings flanking a wide transfer track that runs east and west between them and into the long lumber yard that stretches beyond to the Plainfield road. The transfer track and table which moves upon it the whole length of the works are among the most novel and remarkable apparatus to be found there. The works and the lumber yard, it must be premised, are seamed at regular distances with lateral car tracks. This transfer table's duty is to receive cars of freight, (iron, lumber, etc.) from the railroad switch track, and con- vey them to the place where they are needed ; to take cars from the wood shops and trans- fer them to the paint shops, and to deliver to the railroad for transportation the completed cars ; being in short, a movable bridge. The table is 42 feet long, built entirely of iron, except the cab, in the company's own shops, and at a cost of $10,000. It ran on three tracks set upon eight foot piles, and operated by steam. It could be run its whole distance of one thousand feet in about two minutes with sixty pounds of steam, while ten pounds pressure was enough to operate it. At any of the ninety lateral tracks it could be stopped instantly or gradually, and moved half an inch as easily as a greater distance ; in all respects a wonderful and invaluable invention.

The foundry itself is one hundred and sev- enty feet long, sixty-two wide, and thirty-five high to the apex of the deck roof ; a deck roof, be it explained, being as if the ridge of the roof for twenty-five feet width were raised some six and a half feet and the sides beneath it occupied by windows for purposes of light and ventilation ; an arrangement adopted throughout the new works. Beside the east wall of the foundry stand a set of Howe's eighty thousand pound track scales, the first lateral track passing over their platform, on which cars loaded with iron from the smelt- ing, are received from the transfer, weighed, and run through to the iron yard at the rear, whence the iron is transferred to the great cupola room. There were contained therein

three Mckenzie cupolas, melting twelve tons each per day, two of them used for wheels and one for floor castings, and contained in a house forty feet by twenty-eight. From these the metal passed into the moulding room, which contained four wheel cranes, capacity twenty-five car wheels each daily, though at one time but seventy-two were made, using three cranes. A peculiar notion of Mr. Ladd committed each crane to the care of a different nationality, the three in operation being wield- ed respectively by French, Irish and Yankee gangs ; the fourth may perhaps be a "heathen Chinee." The full daily capacity of the foundry was one hundred wheels and ten tons of castings. After the wheels left the molds, they were taken across the track (which is roofed in at this point) to a house eighty feet by thirty-eight, where they were put into pits to remain three days. Continuous with the pitting house was a core room thirty feet long for molding and baking wheel cores, which were made of a mixture of rye meal and yellow sand, the latter article being brought from Waterford, New York, as all the molding sand used about here is, and kept in a brick cellar (fifty feet long) to prevent its freezing in winter. Still north of these buildings is a shed eighty feet by thirty-three for foundry supplies, directly opposite which is a coal shed eighty by forty. Twenty-five feet west of the foundry rose the second group of buildings, the machine and smith shops. The machine shop was a two story building, ninety-six feet by forty-five, the lower story being devoted to heavy and the upper to light machine work, while the trimmings and pattern rooms were also on the second floor. Among the improved machinery that took the place of the obsolete processes of the old shops may be mentioned in this shop the Bement No. 30 hydraulic press, for gauging the pressure with which wheels are set upon the axles, a process which was before guess work, depending on the judg- ment of the mechanic. At the north of and connected with the machine shop was the spacious smith shop, one hundred and fifty feet by forty-five, and thirty-five feet high to the deck roof, having a wing forty-eight by twenty-four for an iron room. This shop con- tained twenty-six side fires, with new, im- proved cast iron forges, three large center forges for heavy work, a Waters patent one thousand two hundred pound drop, and the usual deafening array of trip-hammers.

The passenger car erecting shop, twenty- five feet farther west, begins the next fellow-

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ship of buildings. It is one hundred and seven- teen feet long by seventy-five wide, and the same height to the deck roof as the shops before mentioned. This room area contains five tracks, and is used exclusively for build- ing passenger-car bodies; the trucks on which they are mounted being set up in the lower part of a two-story building, sixty by forty- five, adjoining on the north, whose upper floor will be occupied as a tin shop, for tinning is a very considerable item in the business of car manufacture. Extending continuously west- ward from the car-erecting shop, and separated therefrom by a fire proof partition, a heavy brick wall and double iron doors, is a building two hundred feet by sixty-two and two stories high, with a wing on the northwest forty-two by fifty feet. The lower floor of both main portion and wing is filled with machinery for the heavy woodwork, nearly all of which is new, though a portion comes from the old shops. The cabinet shop above occupies the entire area of the main building, while in the wing are the upholstery and the varnish and seat-trimming rooms, each twenty-five by forty-two feet. East of this wing, and also north of the main shop, is another two-story addition, containing below the engine and boilers. The engine is one of the Providence steam engine company's, one hundred and fifty horse power, eighteen inch cylinder, four foot stroke, and running a fifteen foot fly wheel with thirty-two inch face. The belt, which is probably the most perfect specimen of that manufacture in the whole country, and of course, therefore, in the world, won the premium of the American Institute, in whose fair at New York it was exhibited. It is of double leather, one hundred and twenty-two and a half feet long and thirty inches wide and cost one thousand dollars.

Passing still westward, the pilgrim through this vast industrial array reaches the lumber yard, extending on both sides the transfer track, and to whose present and prospective uses twelve of the sixteen and a half acres of the factory are dedicated. Twenty-five feet west of the wood-work buildings is a lumber shed four hundred and twenty feet long and forty wide, two stories high, in which are stored all the choicest woods used in the elabo- rate cabinet work expended on the modern passenger coach, and a bridge leads from the upper story directly into the cabinet rooms. The lumber beyond is systematically arranged according to the order of demand, and tracks run through between every two piles, so that

a supply of lumber can be taken with the utmost economy of handling.

The south side of the grounds was occupied for five hundred feet in length and seventy- five in width by the paint shop. A noteworthy feature connected with this shop was the keep- ing of the paint stock beneath ground, in a fire-proof cellar, some distance south of the shop, and communicating with it by a sub- terranean passage. On the same side and two hundred and fifty feet from the west end of the shop, in the lumber yard, was a brick double dry house, forty-two feet by thirty-five, heated by stoves.

The product of the company was in service in every section of the United States, and they had large contracts from the Central Pacific, the Canadian Southern, the New Jersey Cen- tral, and Manhattan railways. Their goods have also gone to Argentine Republic, Brazil, Canada, China, Central America, Chili, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, Nova Scotia, Panama, Portu- gal, Venezuela, Yucatan. In 1893 the build- ing of passenger coaches for steam railways declined so that the company commenced build- ing electric cars. Their product for one year was fifty-one steam railway cars, four hund- dred and fifty-three Manhattan cars, fifteen rapid transit cars, sixty-four closed and forty- nine open street cars, four freight cars and fifty snow plows, valued at $1,200,000. It may not be generally known that the first through train which rolled upon the rails of the Pacific railroad bound for San Francisco was built, equipped and decorated at these works.

Mr. Fisk is not one who forgets former neighbors and youthful scenes. How dearly he prizes his old New Hampshire home is illustrated by his selecting a view of Monad- nock mountain and the Ashuelot valley as a scene for the drop curtain at the Fisk Casino. Mr. Fisk started the Brightwood Paper Mills at Hinsdale, which furnishes employment to a number of people and is one of the principal industries of the place.

The Fisk Casino, built through the generos- ity of George C. Fisk, to provide a place of amusement for the people of Brightwood, is situated at the corner of Main street and Wason avenue. It is constructed of wood and is of Queen Anne style, and has cost about $12,000. The casino, although but about one- quarter the size of a good-sized theater, is nevertheless as well equipped probably as any in this part of the country. The corridor, opening on Main street, is ten by fifteen feet.

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The auditorium is thirty-seven by forty-five feet and twenty-five feet high. The house, including the balcony, has a seating capacity of three hundred and eighty-seven. The main floor has settees and the balcony has chairs. There is a trap door in smoothly polished floor, so that all the seats can be removed to the basement and the room cleared for danc- ing. The woodwork is ash with cherry panels. The windows are of yellow cathedral glass and a Madras lambrequin is hung over each. Over the proscenium arch is a monogram G. C. F., Mr. Fisk's initials, and above this is a head of Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. The stage, twenty feet deep and forty-five wide, is thoroughly equipped with all the paraphernalia which goes to make the modern stage complete.

One of Mr. Fisk's fads at his farm at Eagle Rest was thoroughbred cattle of the Holstein- Friesians breed. Among his registered im- ported animals have been Promoter Bull Ryse Duke 3075, sire Promoter, dam Koster 2nd (4612 quarts). Ryse Duke was bred by Elizur Smith, of Lee, Massachusetts. The females in the herd have been Kouingin Van Friesland 6th, 6489, Dorrice 6863, Aagie Lee 2nd 4435, Kalma 2nd 3299, Slot 2nd 1520, Aaggie Beauty 2907. Aaggie Beauty made a record in Holland of 681/2 lbs, in one day, when three years old, and 13,574 lbs. in one year when four years old, and was dam of Aaggie Beauty 2nd, and Aaggie Beauty 3d. Aaggie Beauty's bull calf, by Netherland Prince, sold for $500 when two weeks old. He also owned the Dutch cow "Atossa" which took the sweepstakes premium at the Bay State fair and won premiums at several other fairs. This choice pet was imported by Mr. Bradley, of Lee. Mr. Fisk has purchased the old homestead farm at Chesterfield, New Hampshire, together with other farms, making about six hundred acres, where he spends much of his time during the summer, during the daytime, spending his evenings at Hinsdale. He retird from the Wason Company in 1907, after over fifty-four years with the company, and thirty-seven years as president.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 78

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924