USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 11
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Robert Francis, born 1755, died in Pittsfield, March 7, 1848. He married Sarah Hubbard, born 1761. died February 1, 1847, aged eighty- six, daughter of Daniel and Naomi ( Root) Hubbard. He was a Revo- lutionary soldier. He had eleven children. The first was
Daniel Hubbard Francis, born in Pittsfield, January 13. 1783, died April 25, 1850. He married, September 5. 1824. Mahala Chapman, born September, 1784, died February 7, 1850, daughter of Daniel and
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Lucy (Talcott) Chapman. He was one of the fifteen original members of the Baptist church in 1850. He had six children. The second was
Deacon Almiron Daniel Francis, born May 11, 1807, died Decem- ber 12, 1899. He married, April 17, 1829. Lucy Churchill, born June 12, 1799, died October 30. 1865, daughter of John and Mehitabel ( Hub- bard) Churchill. He married (second) widow Mary (Jackson) Mer- rill, and (third) Mrs. Margaret B. Ray. He had three children by his first wife. The third was
James Dwight Francis, born in Pittsfield, December 23, 1837, died September 29, 1886. He married, June 15, 1859, Martha J. Tower, of Lanesboro, born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, May 9, 1838, died August 29, 1882, daughter of Justus and Emeline (Talcott) Tower. He married (second) at Arlington, New Jersey. September 29, 1885. Anna Maria Fabricius, of Pittsfield, born May 9, 1864, daughter of George and Julia ( Mack) Fabricius. He had five children : 1. Henry Almiron, born October 6, 1861, married Agnes Bartlett. 2. George Dwight, born January 22, 1866, died March 27, 1886. 3. Frederick Tower, born November 21, 1869. 4. Clifford, born March 3, 1872. 5. Robert Talcott, born December 7. 1873.
Henry Almiron Francis, born in Pittsfield, October 6, 1861, mar- ried. June 6, 1894, Agnes Bartlett, daughter of General William Fran- cis and Agnes ( Pomeroy) Bartlett. He is general manager and treas- urer of the Pontoosuc Woolen Company, one of the oldest and most suc- cessful companies in western Massachusetts. Mrs. Francis is descended from Robert Bartlett, who came from England before 1640, and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, where he died before 1647. His son Rich- ard, born in England, had Samuel, born 1646, and the latter had son Thomas, who married Sarah Webster, and had Enoch, who married a daughter of Dr. Joshua Bayley, of Haverhill, formerly a surgeon in the
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British navy. Bailey Bartlett, born in Haverhill, 1750, was a member of the legislature, delegate to state conventions, member of congress, and sheriff of Essex county nearly forty years. He married Peggy White, a daughter of John White, Jr., and a descendant of William White, an early settler of Haverhill. Their son was
Charles L. Bartlett, who married Harriet Plummer, of an old Essex county family. He was a commission merchant in Boston. He had five children. His only son was
William Francis Bartlett, the father of Mrs. Francis. He was one of the most distinguished soldiers who served from Massachusetts in the civil war, entering the army April 17, 1861 (two days after the capture of Fort Sumter by the South Carolina rebels), while a junior at Harvard College, becoming a captain July 10, same year. He was in the battle of Ball's Bluff, October 24, 1861, and distinguished him- self. At the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, he was struck by a rifle ball. April 24, 1862, and lost his leg in consequence. Recovering, he became colonel of the Forty-ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry Volun- teers, November, 1862; sailed for New Orleans, January, 1863, and later marched to Port Hudson, where, May 27, he led his regiment on horseback, the only mounted man on the field. Three months later his regiment was mustered out at Pittsfield. He recruited the Fifty-seventh Infantry Regiment during the fall, and was appointed colonel March 28, 1864. The citizens of Winthrop, where his father lived, presented him a sword. He was again wounded, May, 1864, at the battle of the Wilderness, in Virginia. In June he was promoted brigadier general, and assigned to the Ninth Army Corps. At the storming of Petersburg, July 30, he was taken prisoner, and was not exchanged for two months. In June and July, 1865, having previously been out of health, he was inade commander of the First Division, Ninth Army Corps, near Wash-
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ington, although not entirely recovered. Six months later he was given six months' leave of absence, and was mustered out of service in July, 1866. He was brevetted major general of volunteers March 13, 1865.
General Bartlett married, October 14, 1865, Miss Agnes Pomeroy, of Pittsfield, and had six children, of whom Mrs. Francis is one. He was treasurer and general manager of Pomeroy Iron Works, at West Stockbridge, and was also in the paper business. In 1873 and 1874 he was in charge of the Powhatan Iron Company at Richmond, Virginia. He became senior warden of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal church in Pittsfield in 1871. He was an eloquent speaker, and was beloved by all who knew him. That his splendid military services were appre- ciated by the people of his native state has been shown by the fact that his statue is to be placed in the State House in Boston, executed by the celebrated sculptor, Daniel Chester French, at his studio in Glendale, Berkshire county.
Mr. Francis is also descended from John Churchill, who came to Plymouth, 1643, and married ( 1644) Hannah Pontus, daughter of William Pontus. They had a son John, born 1652, which son married (1672) Saralı Hicks, and had Barnabas, born 1686, married Lydia Harlow, born 1689. They had nine children. The eighth was Ebenezer Churchill, born November 9, 1732, married Jean Fisher. They had six children. The fifth was John Churchill, born June 23, 1763, died in Pittsfield, January 8, 1849; married ( 1789) Hitty Hubbard, born December 17, 1767, died September 1, 1843, daughter of Deacon James and Martha (Livermore) Hubbard. They had ten children. The sixth was Lucy, born June 12, 1799, married Almiron D. Francis, and they were the grandparents of Henry A. Francis. (For the Pomeroy ancestry of Mrs. Francis see Theodore L. Pomeroy.)
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HON. JOHN CRAWFORD CROSBY.
Few men of his years have been called to the duties of as many offices of large responsibility as has the gentleman whose name intro- duces these memoirs, and none could have discharged those duties with more efficiency and integrity. His official career has included services to his city, county, commonwealth and the country at large, and this notwithstanding the demands of a markedly successful legal practice. which latter is now having its natural climacteric in his occupancy of the bench as one of the justices of the Superior Court of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts.
John Crosby, grandfather of Judge John Crawford Crosby, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, December 30, 1799, and came to the United States when eleven years of age with the family of his father, who settled in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. John Crosby became one of the leading agriculturists of that locality, with a large landed estate. He married Hannah Curtis (for genealogy see " Curtis Family," this publication), by whom he had three children, one who died in early life, John Crosby, and Harriet, who married Richard Per- kins, a farmer of Sheffield and a Union soldier who met his death at Winchester during the Civil war. John Crosby (Sr.) died February 7, 1886; his wife December 30, 1892. Their son, John Crosby, father of Judge Crosby, was born in Sheffield, February 15, 1829, received such education as was afforded by the public schools of the day, the while assisting in the cultivation of the homestead farm. As a young man his services were sought in the fulfillment of the duties of numerous local offices and shortly after attaining his majority he was appointed deputy to Sheriff Edward F. Ensign, being retained in that capacity throughout the administrations of Sheriff Ensign and of his successors.
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Sheriffs George S. Willis and Graham A. Root, a period covering a quarter of a century. In 1860 Deputy Sheriff Crosby removed from Sheffield to Stockbridge, and while at the later place was chairman of the board of selectmen, as such being actively identified with the raising of troops in defense of the Union. In 1868; at the request of Sheriff Root, Deputy Crosby took up his residence in Pittsfield, where he continued to live up to the time of his decease. December 17, 1902. He was appointed in 1875, by Governor Gaston, a member of the Mas- sachusetts state detective force, an office which he held for several years. during his incumbency rendering conspicuous service in some of the most important criminal cases that had been tried up to that time. He was for several years one of Pittsfield's board of assessors, and his services were frequently called into requisition as administrator and executor in the settlement of estates.
In 1886 he was elected sheriff of Berkshire county, re-elected thereto in 1889, and again in 1892, serving three full terms of three years each. An onerous duty which devolved upon him as sheriff was the carying out of the sentence of execution of William Coy for the atrocious murder of John Whalen. During his term of service as sheriff each grand jury at its sitting of the court reported after due inspection of the jail and house of correction an excellence of condition and efficiency of management of both institutions, the especial charges of the sheriff. It has been said of Sheriff Crosby that he " knew every man, woman and child in Berkshire county;" it is certain that he enjoyed and merited a large measure of the confidence and esteem of all who knew him.
He married, February 17, 1858, Margaret, daughter of Andrew and Anna (McIndoe) Crawford, both natives of Scotland, and resi-
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dents for many years of the city of New York, where Mr. Crawford was a contractor and builder.
John Crawford Crosby was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county. Massachusetts, June 15, 1859, attended the public and high schools of Pittsfield, and was graduated from Eastman's Business College, Pough- keepsie, New York, in 1878; began the study of law in the office of Hon. Marshall Wilcox, of Pittsfield, and was graduated from the law department of Boston University and admitted to the bar in 1882. He established himself for the practice of his profession in Pittsfield under especially favorable auspices for ten years ; he occupied offices with the late United States Senator Henry L. Dawes, and from 1894 to 1905 was in partnership association with John F. Noxon, the present district attorney. Summed up briefly, Judge Crosby's professional career may be said to have been successful both in the extent and character of his practice. the partnership association especially being prolific of a pat- ronage and lucrativeness of practice second to none in Berkshire county.
Judge Crosby is a Democrat of the stalwart type and has rendered valiant service thereto in every campaign from the attainment of his majority up to the date of his accession to the state judiciary. He served as a member of the Pittsfield school committee from 1884 to 1890; was a representative in the state legislature in 1886 and 1887, serving on the rules and railroads committees; following which, in 1888 and 1889, he was state senator, serving as chairman of the com- mittee on Probate and insolvency, chairman of the committee on mer- cantile affairs, and as a member of the judiciary committee. During his senatorial career it devolved upon him to secure the city charter for Pittsfield.
In 1890 lie was elected as the Democratic candidate to the Fifty- second Congress from the then Twelfth Massachusetts Congressional
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District. During this term he was present at every roll call and intro- duced more bills and petitions than any other member from Massachu- setts. He served on military affairs and post-office and post roads committees, taking an especially active interest in the work of the latter and securing the passage of various bills for the improvement of the postal service. He was defeated for re-election in 1892 by a plurality of less than 200 out of a total of 35, III votes.
He was elected third mayor of Pittsfield for two terms, 1894 and 1895, an administration which was marked by diverse and important public improvements ; during this period the central station of Pitts- field fire department was erected and thoroughly equipped; the beautiful high school building constructed, and the Redfield, Russell and Briggs schools built. It was Mayor Crosby who appointed the first board of license commissioners. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention which in 1896 at Chicago, Illinois, nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. He was elected city solicitor of Pittsfield and served as such from 1899 to 1903, inclusive. He was Democratic candidate for attorney general of Massachusetts in 190I and was defeated, and defeated again in 1904 as candidate for lieutenant governor on the ticket with William L. Douglas, who was elected gov- ernor by a majority of 35,000. Although defeated by 18,000 votes, Mr. Crosby led the remainder of his ticket by 8,000.
He was appointed one of the justices of the superior court of Massachusetts by Governor Douglas and unanimously confirmed by a Republican council, January 25, 1905. He was for several years mem- ber at large of the Democratic state committee, resigning that office upon his appointment to the justiceship. A political organization of which he was a member and first president, and in which he took an especial pride and interest, was the Young Men's Democratic Club of
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Massachusetts, the well directed efforts of which are generally conceded to have resulted in the election for three consecutive terms of Willian E. Russell as governor of the commonwealth. He declined a re-election as president of this club because of his election to Congress.
Judge Crosby married, February 4, 1897, Henrietta, daughter of the late Captain Nathan Richards of New London, Connecticut. Mrs. Crosby is a lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster, and numbers among her direct and collateral ancestral connections numerous of the most interesting descendants of the early colonial settlers (including Roger Williams), some of whom bore arms for the mother country in the French and Indian war and against her in the wars of the Revo- lution and of 1812.
THEODORE POMEROY.
The family from which was descended Theodore Pomeroy, late of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, claim descent from Sir Ralph de Pomeroy, a knight of William the Conqueror, and received lands in Devon and Somerset. In Devon the ruins of the castle of Berry Pomeroy may still be seen.
Eltweed Pomeroy was in Dorchester, Massachusetts. in 1630, and probably came over in the " Mary and John." He settled in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1638. His wife died in 1655, and he married (second) Lydia, widow of Thomas Parsons, and in 1672 removed to Northamp- ton to live with his son Medad, and died there in March, 1673. He had three children born in Dorchester, and five in Windsor, Connecticut. The fourth was
Medad Pomeroy, who was baptized in Windsor, August, 1638, died December 30, 1716. He married, November 21, 1661, Experience Woodward, daughter of Henry Woodward. She died June 8, 1686.
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He married (second) September 8, 1686, widow Abigail Chauncey. She died April 15, 1704. He married (third) widow Hannah Noble. He was town clerk of Northampton, Massachusetts, for several years. a deacon in the church, and representative six times between 1677 and 1692. His fourth son by his first wife was
Ebenezer Pomeroy, born in Northampton, May 30, 1669. He was known as Major Pomeroy, and was one of the commissioners for the settlement of Sheffield, in Berkshire county, and was prominent in establishing the Indian mission at Stockbridge. As King's attorney hie acted in the trial of some Indians for murder in 1696. His son was
Colonel Seth Pomeroy, who was a manufacturer of fire-arms and an officer in the French and Indian war. At the beginning of the Revo- lution the first Provincial Congress appointed him one of four briga- diers, but he declined the honor, serving as a volunteer at the battle of Bunker Hill. Later he served as a colonel, and died in February, 1777, at Peekskill, New York, while in command of the post there. His son was
Lemuel Pomeroy, who lived on the original grant of Southampton. His son was
Lemuel Pomeroy, born in Southampton, Massachusetts, August 18, 1778, died August 25, 1849. He was first married in 1796, and lost his wife and child in less than a year. He married (second), in 1800, Hart Lester, of Griswold, Connecticut, born 1781, died August 12, 1852, in her seventy-first year. Mrs. Pomeroy was admitted to the Union Church in 1809 as an original member. She was probably descended from Andrew Lester, who first appears at Gloucester, Massachusetts. where he was licensed to keep a house of entertainment, February 26, 1648-9. He had four children recorded there, and removed to New London, Connecticut, in 1651. He married three times.
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Mr. Pomeroy came to Pittsfield in 1799, and bought the Bement place on East street, now owned and occupied by Miss Mary J. Cooley, daughter of the late William B. Cooley. In 1800 he bought the lot of eleven acres on the opposite side of East street, extending eighty rods from the John C. Williams place, now St. Stephen's rectory, to Mrs. Ensign H. Kellogg's place. Pomeroy's lane (now Pomeroy's avenue) was laid out and a workshop built on the east corner, where Mr. Pom- eroy advertised general blacksmithing, sleighs, wagons and plows. His shop burned down in 1805, and, building a larger one, he soon began to make muskets exclusively. In 1808 he bought the forge built in 1806 by Jason Mills, on the site of the present Taconic Mills, and soon made two thousand muskets a year, and from 1816 to 1846 had a con- tract with the United States government, renewing it every five years. Besides supplying the government, he turned out about two hundred muskets a year for general use. In 1823 he put up a brick building, adding a trip-hammer shop in 1828. The muskets were finished at the shop at the corner of East street and Pomeroy's lane. He gave up making muskets in 1846, when the government adopted the percussion musket and established the armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1826 he bought the United States cantonment grounds of twenty acres for $760, removed the barracks, and erected the three brick buildings used first by his son-in-law, Professor Chester Dewey, for a seminary for young men, called the Berkshire Gymnasium, which was incor- porated in 1829. After 1836 the buildings were occupied by the famous Maplewood Young Ladies' Institute, and now form part of the Maple- wood Hotel. one of the leading summer hotels of Berkshire county.
Mr. Pomeroy was prominent in all local affairs. He did much to secure the location of the Western Railroad, now the Boston & Albany division of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and was
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a director of the Agricultural Bank from 1825 to 1848. He was also a director of the Boston & Albany Railroad from 1839 until his death. He first engaged in the woolen business in 1817, taking a lease of mills that had not been profitable to the owners, and held the lease until 1824. when he associated himself with a distant kinsman, Josiah Pomeroy, the firm being Josiah Pomeroy & Co. They bought out the old stock- holders gradually, and by 1827 had become owners of the property, which included the land for one mile along the Housatonic river. In 1830 Mr. Pomeroy bought out the interest of Josiah Pomeroy, and took into the firm his sons Theodore, Robert and Edward, as Lemuel Pom- eroy & Sons, and they conducted a successful business for ten years, making satinets and other fabrics. In 1852 the Pomeroy brothers built a larger mill. Theodore was the business manager, and Robert was connected with the firm until his death. Lemuel Pomeroy had eleven children. The eighth was
Theodore Pomeroy. born September 2, 1813, baptized November 24, 1813, died September 26, 1881. He married, at Utica, New York, September 14, 1836, Fanny Smith Bacon, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel and Abbie (Smith) Bacon. She died in New York city, January 30, 1851, and he married (second), at Pine Plains, New York, October 7, 1852, Mary E. Harris, daughter of Colonel Silas H. and Maria E. Harris. She died, and he married (third), February 1, 1866, Miss Laura C. Knapp, of New York, born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, February 25, 1831. died in Pittsfield, October 29, 1890.
Mr. Pomeroy was admitted to the church in 1832. He was edu- cated at the school of his brother-in-law. Professor Dewey, previously alluded to, and learned the woolen business from the foundation in his father's factory. His father arranged to have his woolen business car- ried on by his sons Theodore, Robert and Edward, as L. Pomeroy's
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Sons, but the two latter named, not liking the business as well as Theo- dore, sold him their interest. Mr. Pomeroy was a stockholder and di- rector in the Pittsfield Bank from its incorporation, and a director in the Berkshire Life Insurance Company until his health failed. He held a controlling interest in the Greylock Mills at North Adams at the time of his death. He was especially generous and open-hearted, and was always to be relied upon to aid in all movements for the promotion of the welfare and advancement of the town. He had several children. His son by his third wife was Theodore L. Pomeroy, now living in Pittsfield.
Robert Pomeroy, born June 30, 1817, baptized June 20, 1818, died December 12, 1889. He married Mary C. Jenkins, born in Hudson, New York, July 31, 1820, died August 22, 1889, daughter of Edward and Sarah Jenkins. He and his wife were admitted to the church in 1843. He lived in the old homestead on East street, which has been torn down since his death. He had several children, of whom one was Agnes Pomeroy, who married General William Francis Bartlett, and their daughter Agnes became the wife of Henry A. Francis. (See Sketch of H. A. Francis, in this work.)
EDWARD DORR GRIFFIN JONES.
The significant business successes are achieved by men who have the wit to use and the wisdom to grasp opportunity.
When the gentleman whose name introduces these memoirs found himself at East Lee, Berkshire county, a half century since environed by a network of paper mills, and foresaw the giant strides which this industry was inevitably destined to take, he added to his modest milling establishment the necessary equipment to embark in a small way in the
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making of paper mill machinery. In keeping with his habit of doing thoroughly well whatever he undertook he speedily acquired the repu- tation among the neighboring manufacturers of an ability and integrity in carrying out to the letter and with expedition such contracts as were entrusted to him, and to this local recognition was steadily added an ever increasing patronage until his company had attained high national rank, and numbered among its patrons leading paper manufacturers of the United States, France, Sweden, Canada, China and Japan.
The exacting demands of a great and growing business did not deter Mr. Jones from giving much of his time and splendid business ability to the community in which he lived, and this he was impelled to do solely through good citizenship, and not for either emolument or fame, for his public service was largely without remuneration and he was essentially a modest man and without aspiration for any character of notoriety.
With his growing success as a manufacturer Mr. Jones found a necessity for seeking fields for investment and thus became interested in various local financial institutions, and here the wisdom of his coun- sel found frequent test and his services upon numerous directorates were brought into requisition.
Nor did he neglect the social duties of life, fraternizing with and being appreciated by the best men of his community. He stood high in Masonic circles and was a consistent and valuable member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was in short a Christian gentleman, measuring up to that full stature in every responsibility assumed by or thrust. upon him.
He was born September 22, 1824, in Otis, Berkshire county, Mas- sachusetts, of which place his grandfather Adonijah Jones is enumerated as one of the first settlers. (See " \ History of Berkshire County "
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-1829.) The latter was of Welsh descent and was born August 20, 1748, and died December 18, 1820. His wife, who was Ann McElwain, was born February 27, 1753, and died December 18, 1831. Of their children Eber Jones, father of the immediate subject of these memoirs, was born June 7, 1787, and died April 4, 1860. The wife of Eber Jones, Betsey (Pelton) Jones, was born April 20, 1794, and died April 13, 1886. The latter was a daughter of Captain Samuel and Mary (Woodworth) Pelton, the former (a Revolutionary soldier) born May 9, 1757, died January 28, 1849; his wife, born June 21, 1761, died March 19, 1848. The other children of Eber and Betsey ( Pelton) Jones were Orville Orlando Jones, born June 18, 1814, died October 26, 1902 ; Samuel Pelton Jones, born January 17, 1817, and now living in San Diego, California; Mary Eliza (Jones) Barker, born June 2, 1819, died September 14, 1885; Eber Loomis Jones, born May 13, 1827, died in childhood, and Harley Leander Jones, born August 30, 1831, died November 30, 1876.
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