USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume III > Part 4
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In 1885 Henry Benajah Russell married Louise A. Clark, daughter of Silas W. Clark, of Suffield. To this marriage there was born one child, Fordham Clark Russell, in 1889. He is now actively engaged in business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Russell died in 1904. Mr. Russell married (second), in 1910, Helen V. Mason, daughter of Dr. Jarvis K. Mason, of Suffield. The Russells live at No. 182 Florida Street, Springfield.
CHARLES E. HAYDEN-For a number of years Charles E. Hayden, president of the Hayden Wire Works, has been a prominent figure in the manufacturing activities of the city of Springfield, where he has founded and operated several factories, besides deal- ing in mill supplies, and operates the pres- ent wire works which have been in existence for over fifteen years. Under his able and careful management every enterprise he has headed has enjoyed outstanding success, a factor that has established him among the foremost business men of this section. Com- ing here during his youth, he worked in va- rious occupations in a modest capacity and during this period conserved his funds which eventually formed the basis for the financing of the projects he has since inaug- urated.
Charles E. Hayden was born in Otis, Berkshire County, January 30, 1877, son of John C. and Annie M. (Cropper) Hayden,
both natives of this Commonwealth. His father engaged in the lumber industry. Mr. Hayden received a general education in the public schools of his native surroundings and after completing his studies came to the community of Westfield, where he secured a position with the street railway company, operating one of the old style compressed air trolley cars. Later he came to the city of Springfield where he secured a position with the Cheney-Bigelow Wire Works Com- pany, and remained for eighteen years. Dur- ing this period he acquired a wide and varied experience in the field of manufacture and at the expiration of this time determined to enter business for himself. He founded the Charles E. Hayden Mill Supply Company, which he still owns and operates. This plant has been devoted to the manufacture of cylinder coverings and other mill supplies which are used in the production of paper. In 1920 he expanded his activities and built a factory known as the C. H. Smith Com- pany in partnership with Mr. La Croix. This factory manufactures the Dandy Roll, used in the making of paper. A short time after this firm began operations, Mr. Hayden bought out Mr. La Croix's interest and sev- eral years later, in 1926, launched an en- tirely new venture, which was known at the time as the Springfield Wire Works Com- pany. On July 3, 1929, this concern was incorporated under the title of the Hayden Wire Works Company and Mr. Hayden be- came president. Other executive officers are Erma Randall, and Della J. Hayden. This firm, which is credited as being one of the first in this section to use the power loom, produces woven wire, a product which is marketed nationally. Mr. Hayden's business achievements have shown in a steadily ascending line of success and reveal his in- herent ability in commercial affairs as well as his capacity to assume responsibility.
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Mr. Hayden is a member of Hampden Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He is interested in the civic welfare of the city and is always ready and willing to contribute to all worthy causes. In his religious convic- tions he worships at the Trinity Methodist Church.
In 1901 Mr. Hayden married Della J. Cross of Westfield, and they are the parents of two children: I. Pauline E., who is a graduate of Smith College and now married to James Godfrey. 2. Charles Wesley, who attended Syracuse University and is now associated with his father in business.
ISAAC ERSKINE SAWYER-During his long and active banking career at Hol- yoke, which has covered more than half a century, Isaac Erskine Sawyer rose from minor positions to his present responsible office as president of the Mechanics Savings Bank. He has been connected with this in- stitution since 1906.
Mr. Sawyer was born at Manchester, New Hampshire, November 6, 1865, son of Isaac and Estella (Porter) Sawyer and a grand- son of the Rev. Isaac Sawyer, a Baptist minister, who held pastorates in several eastern states. He died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, as did his wife. Hannah (Buel) Sawyer. Isaac Sawyer, the father, lived in the State of Maine as a young man and subsequently became a whaler out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. During the Civil War he served in the United States Navy and still later took up the practice of dentistry in Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio. He returned to the East in his last years and died at Togus, Maine. Estella (Porter) Sawyer, his wife, was a native of Massa- chusetts and died at Holyoke. She was a daughter of Charles C. and Caroline (Patch) Porter and a member of a family descended from the early settlers of Boxford, Massa-
chusetts. Her father, who was born in New Hampshire, had charge of the carding de- partment of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company for many years, at a time when this concern was the largest manufacturer of cotton goods in the country. He died at Manchester.
Isaac Erskine Sawyer, of this record, was educated in the public schools of Goffstown and Manchester, New Hampshire. After completing his academic training, he came to Holyoke in 1881 and began his active ca- reer as a messenger boy in the Holyoke Na- tional and Savings banks. He served a thorough apprenticeship in the various de- tails of banking practice and remained for a quarter of a century with his original em- ployers, rising steadily within the organiza- tion. At length, in 1906, he was elected as- sistant treasurer of the Mechanics Savings Bank and entered upon the connection which he has since continued without inter- ruption. After a number of years he became treasurer of the bank and in May, 1932, suc- ceeded to the presidency. For this office he was well qualified by fifty years of banking experience, and as administrative head of the institution he has directed its affairs with the sound conservatism and wisdom long associated with his name.
Mr. Sawyer is a Republican in politics and a member of the Second Congregational Church of Holyoke. He has been active in the Masonic Order, in which he is a mem- ber of Mount Tom Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and of many higher bodies, including Saint Andrew Commandery, Knights Templar, and Massachusetts Con- sistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree. Mr. Sawyer is also a member of the Holyoke Chamber of Com- merce, the Rotary Club, of which he was an organizer and first president, and the Mount Tom Golf Club. During the World War,
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INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY RECORDS
he participated in the various government drives and served for three years as treas- urer of the local Liberty Loan Committee. Golf is his principal diversion.
In 1893 Mr. Sawyer married (first) Maria L. Kirtland, who was born in Holyoke and died in this city on May 2, 1931. She was a daughter of the late Edwin L. and Ed- wina (Magna) Kirtland, the former for many years superintendent of schools at Holyoke and a government official at Wash- ington during the Civil War. Mr. Sawyer married (second) Mrs. Edwina M. (Kirt- land) Bellows, of Holyoke, a sister of his first wife. He has a daughter by his first marriage, Mrs. Lucy Erskine Bosworth, of Rocky River, Ohio, wife of Frederick M. Bosworth, a patent attorney. There are also three grandchildren : Kirtland Howard, Jonathan Erskine, and Constance Bosworth.
GEORGE GRANT BULKLEY, presi- dent of the Springfield Fire and Marine In- surance Company, the Sentinel Fire Insur- ance Company, the Michigan Fire and Ma- rine Insurance Company, and the New Eng- land Fire Insurance Company, occupies an outstanding place among the foremost fig- ures of the insurance business in the United States.
Starting in a modest capacity, he has risen through the various departments of the in- surance field and by his achievements and accomplishments has won wide recognition among his colleagues. As a business and financial leader he has also come to be prom- inently affiliated with other commercial ven- tures.
Mr. Bulkley was born at Rocky Hill, Con- necticut, on February 4, 1871. A member of an old and distinguished American fam- ily, he is a descendant of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, of Concord, Fellow of St. Johns College, Cambridge University, and Ed- mund Freeman, of Sandwich, early settlers
of the Massachusetts Colony. Mr. Bulkley received a general education in the public schools of Rocky Hill and Hartford, Con- necticut, and after completing his studies there, he embarked on a business career that was to be marked for its distinction and success.
He first became associated with the in- surance business in 1892, when he entered the Orient Insurance Company as a clerk. He worked in the Hartford office of this concern and through the aptitude and ability he displayed for this business won rapid promotion. In 1902 he became special agent for the London and Lancashire Insurance Company and the Orient, representing these firms in the section known as the Middle Department Territory. Later, he was as- signed to the Western New England field.
In 1911 he was appointed special agent for the Springfield Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company, covering this same territory for them. With this organization he acquired a thorough and well-rounded practical ex- perience that was to equip him eminently for the important and responsible posts he has since come to occupy. His record with this corporation has been one of steady ad- vancement. A year after he joined the com- pany, he was elected assistant secretary, was made second vice-president in 1917, and became vice-president in 1919. He was ele- vated to the presidency of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company on January 14, 1924, when he was elected to succeed the late A. Willard Damon.
The success he has enjoyed in the insur- ance business is graphically revealed in the positions he has been chosen to occupy in other large companies and organizations. He has been president and secretary of the National Board of Fire Underwriters and is now a member of the executive, finance and membership committees. Mr. Bulkley is also vice-president and a member of the execu-
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INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY RECORDS
tive committee of the Eastern Underwriters Rites; Evening Star Lodge of Perfection, Association ; a director of the Afia Finance Corporation ; a trustee of the American For- eign Insurance Association; a director of the Fire Companies' Adjustment Bureau; a member of the Louisiana-Mississippi Con- ference Committee; a director of the Na- tional Board of Fire Underwriters Building Corporation ; a member of the Pacific Con- ference Committee ; a member of the Texas Conference Committee; and a director of the Underwriters Salvage Corporation.
Mr. Bulkley has a wide diversity of inter- ests outside of the insurance field. He is vice-president, trustee and member of the finance committee of the Springfield Institu- tion for Savings; director and member of the finance and discount committees of the Third National Bank and Trust Company of Springfield ; vice-president and director of the Holyoke Water Power Company ; and vice-president, trustee and alternate custodian of the New England Investment and Security Company. He is a director of the Eaton Paper Company; the Hol- yoke Power and Electric Company; the Holyoke Street Railway Company; and the Package Machinery Company. He is a di- rector and trustee for preferred stockholders of the Springfield Street Railway ; a trustee of the Springfield Railway companies; and a trustee and member of the finance com- mittee of the Springfield Cemetery Associa- tion. He is trustee and member of the fi- nance committee of Wilbraham Academy, and a member of the corporation of Spring- field Hospital and Wesson Memorial Hos- pital. He is also prominently associated with the Automobile Club, and Community Chest of Springfield, the Springfield Cham- ber of Commerce, and the Izaak Walton League. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Lafayette Lodge (Hartford, Conn.), Ancient Free and Accepted Masons: Morning Star Chapter and Springfield Commandery, York
Massasoit Council Princes of Jerusalem and Springfield Chapter of Rose Croix, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites ; and a member of Melha Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His clubs are the Colony, Winthrop, Longmeadow Coun- try, and The Club. He is a member of Faith Congregational Church.
On June 11, 1895, George Grant Bulkley married Caroline A. Griswold, daughter of Charles F. and Caroline D. (Hale) Gris- wold. Mrs. Bulkley is the great-great-grand- daughter of Moses Church, first postmaster of Springfield, under appointment by Ben- jamin Franklin, first Postmaster General. Mr. and Mrs. Bulkley are the parents of five children : 1. George Grant, Jr., born Decem- ber 23, 1896. He was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University. He was special agent for the Niagara Fire Insurance Company of New York, and is now resident secretary of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company in San Francisco, California. 2. Charles Griswold, born November 6, 1900, was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Univer- sity, and is now State agent of the Aetna (Fire) Insurance Company in Syracuse, New York. 3. Chester Beach, born Decem- ber 9, 1906, was graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, and Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University. He is engaged in the insurance business in Springfield, a member of the firm of Field, Eddy & Bulk- ley. 4. James Stewart, born August 4, 1909, was graduated from Phillips Academy, An- dover, Yale University, and Harvard Law School. He is now engaged in the practice of law in Springfield. 5. Caroline, who was born September 10, 1912, and died April 24, 1921.
Mr. Bulkley resides at No. 102 Magnolia Terrace, Springfield, and maintains a sum- mer home at Wilbraham.
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INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY RECORDS
GEORGE ALBERT BACON, of Long- meadow, son of Albert S. Bacon and Cynthia (Leonard) Bacon, was born at Brimfield, Hampden County, August 27, 1869.
He lived for a short time at Wales, Mas- sachusetts, where his father kept a store, and then moved to Northampton where he attended an ungraded school. At the age of ten, when his father acquired a country store in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, George Albert Bacon moved there with his family and attended the grammar and high schools and worked in his father's store.
At the time of the blizzard in 1888 he de- cided to go to the city and departed on the first train that left the snow bound town and sought a position in Springfield. The disastrous Union fire in which eight lives were lost shortly after the blizzard, caused disaster to the wholesale shoe store of Cut- ler and Porter and it was there that he was employed as an extra hand but remained for four years. In the meantime he was being privately tutored and studied also at night preparatory to attending college and law school. In September, 1892, he matriculated at Boston University both in the College of Liberal Arts and in the Law School. He became clerk in the Law School and in the private office of Dean Edmond H. Bennett, who was then practicing law in Boston and was one of the foremost lawyers and legal writers of his day. Mr. Bacon pursued at the same time a special academic course and a full course in law, graduating with honors in 1895. He was admitted to the bar and opened his office on June 17, 1895, in the old "Winter Block" at No. 5 Elm Street, Spring- field. The adjoining office was occupied by Ralph W. Ellis, the principal conveyancer of the city and some of the extra work was entrusted to Mr. Bacon ; however, having made especial preparation in the field of corporation and business law, he pursued that specialty and was well known in that
line of practice. He conducted a large and lucrative practice numbering many concerns of prominence as clients.
During the war and for some years suc- ceeding he represented numerous New Eng- land industries in their relations with the government and devoted much time in Washington practicing before the Treasury and other departments. In 1912 Neilson P. Wells became associated with the office and in 1920 Sol W. Weltman became a mem- ber ; the office since being known as Bacon, Wells and Weltman.
In 1897 and 1898 he was a member of the Springfield City Council and served as supervisor of streets and on the joint finance committee of the city government. In 1908- 1909 he was chairman of the Republican City Committee ; in 1910 was elected to the Republican State Committee and was re- elected annually until 1919 when he refused a further term. He served in every office of the committee including those of chair- man of the executive committee and chair- man of the committee as a whole. He was chairman when Samuel W. McCall and Calvin Coolidge, respectively, were elected Governor. During his services as chairman he had the acquaintance and close contact with such Republican leaders as Jim Barnes of New York, Bois Penrose of Pennsyl- vania, Governor Livingston Beekman of Rhode Island, Harry M. Daugherty of Ohio, Will H. Hays of Indiana, Coleman Dupont of Delaware, W. Murray Crane and John W. Weeks of Massachusetts.
In 1916 he was elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nom- inated Charles E. Hughes for President ; in 1920 he was delegate to the National Con- vention that nominated Warren G. Harding for President and Calvin Coolidge for Vice- President. He was the Massachusetts dele- gate to notify Harding of his nomination, the proceedings being held at Marion, Ohio.
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INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY RECORDS
In 1924 he was one of two Republican electors at large in Massachusetts which elected Calvin Coolidge President, and was the president of the Electoral College. As State chairman in 1917, he induced his party to deviate from the time honored custom of holding its annual convention in Boston, and Springfield was chosen, much to the delight of western Massachusetts Republi- cans. Chairman Bacon presided at this con- vention.
For several years during the early politi- cal experience of Calvin Coolidge he and Mr. Bacon together campaigned for their party throughout Massachusetts. Mr. Bacon conducted campaigns for Frederick H. Gil- lette for Congress and for Henry Cabot Lodge and John W. Weeks for Senators, and for many others. In 1919 Governor Coolidge appointed Mr. Bacon as the direc- tor of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statis- tics where he served out the unexpired term of Charles J. Gettamy and refused reappoint- ment.
In 1919 he was elected in Cincinnati at the annual convention, president of the Com- mercial Law League of America, a body of some ten thousand business lawyers, and having its office in Chicago. He became a member of the American Law Institute at its organization by invitation of its first president, Elihu Root, and was a constant attendant at its annual deliberations at Washington. In 1925 he attended the meet- ings of the American Bar Association and the entertainments accorded the members at London and Paris.
At the outbreak of the World War Mr. Bacon organized the Springfield Draft Board and devoted much time to other patriotic duties and acted as agent for the United States Secret Service for this vicinity.
Mr. Bacon's home is the historic Gad Bliss Estate opposite the library in Longmeadow and is the oldest house in the vicinity, hav-
ing been erected in 1720. It is a fine example of the better New England farm houses. Its grounds extend westerly about three quar- ters of a mile. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon have here presided over many notable gatherings and social events and have been the hosts of many distinguished guests. It was here that the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge on sev- eral occasions took refuge from the busy world in order to have peace and quiet in preparing his momentous writings. The trees and gardens are admired by hosts of visitors. Mr. Bacon personally devotes much time to horticulture which is his chief hobby.
He is a lover of animals and has kept upon his place most of the barn yard varieties, all of which became friends with their master and as he says, confide in him to such an extent that he never permits them to be killed or eaten by his family. While he has raised thousands of chickens he buys from the market for his own table. His devotion to dogs and other pets is marked. His mea- dow of ten acres is a sanctuary for and is devoted to, the raising of pheasants. Here they are cared for and fed throughout the winter. He never permits the cutting of the grass in order that they may have an ideal breeding haven there. No permission is ever given to shoot upon the premises and he personally has never shot an animal. Until 1923 he owned the beautiful north sec- tion of Longmeadow Country Club which is the site of the second to the ninth fair- ways and greens inclusive and was the original organizer of the club.
He was married, in 1902, to Mabel M. Sedgwick of Boston, who survives. His daughter, Elisabeth (Betty), born in 1910, was married, in 1934, to James P. Blunt of Longmeadow. Mr. Bacon's immigrant ancestor was Michael Bacon who arrived from England in 1640 and settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, afterward locating in that part of Woburn which was set off as Bed-
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INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY RECORDS
ford. In the Bedford town history it is recorded that seven of the twenty-seven minute-men from Bedford were members from this family.
He maintains a winter home in Sarasota, Florida, where he and his family sojourn annually. He is a member of the Church of the Unity of Springfield and is a thirty-sec- ond degree Mason, Shriner, and Odd Fel- low and a member of the Longmeadow Country Club, and Whitfield Club of Sara- sota, Florida. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, American Bar As- sociation and Hampden County Bar Asso- ciation.
JOHN AVERY DENISON, Judge of Probate and Insolvency within and for the county of Hampden, was born August 17, 1875, at Chicopee, Massachusetts. He is a son of George Avery and Elizabeth Munroe Chapin Denison, his ancestry on both sides being old New England stock. In 1910 he married Laura B. Phinney of Paradise, Nova Scotia, whose family went to Nova Scotia as English Loyalists from Massachu- setts. A son died in childhood, and a daugh- ter lives with her parents.
Judge Denison was educated in the Spring- field public schools and at Harvard College, from which he was graduated in 1898. He was an editor of the "Harvard Crimson." He then attended the Harvard Law School for two years. He became a member of the staff of "The Springfield Republican" dur- ing college vacations and for a year there- after. He was secretary to Congressman (later Senator) Frederick H. Gillette during the session of 1898-99, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1902.
After having served in both branches of the city council and also as president of each, Judge Denison in 1912 was elected mayor of Springfield on the Republican ticket. He was mayor at the time of the
dedication of Springfield's famed municipal group in 1913.
Resuming the practice of law, after serv- ing two years as mayor, Mr. Denison was for a number of years a practitioner in the courts. In 1920 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Calvin Coolidge as Register of Pro- bate for Hampden County, and for nine years he served as Register under Judge Charles L. Long. Following the latter's retirement, Mr. Denison was appointed Judge of Probate and Insolvency by Gov- ernor Frank G. Allen on October 23, 1929.
Immediately after Judge Denison took office as the presiding justice of the Hamp- den County Probate Court, the business of that tribunal was expanded to a notable degree in all its branches.
Hearings in court under Judge Denison are rarely dull. They are often lifted from the heaviness attendant upon divorce cases and estate matters by pithy comment from the bench. Judge Denison has a keen sense of humor. He does not hesitate to give it full expression to relieve the tension and to put witnesses at their ease. At the same time he is quick io note any irregularity which may develop in the proceedings. Like his predecessor, Judge Denison is sometimes sharp-tongued in the discharge of his duties. His comments are frequently of a challeng- ing and critical nature. His judgments have seldom been questioned by the Supreme Court. A justice of that court wrote of him : "Upon a careful consideration of the en- tire record, it is apparent that the attitude of the judge of probate was that of one endeavoring to do justice to all parties in an extremely difficult and perplexing case."
WILLIAM H. SARGEANT-It is sel- dom the privilege of a man to have been with a company or institution for a half century or more. It is even more rare for that man to have the distinction of starting
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