USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 12
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Eber Jones removed from Otis with his family to engage in business as a jeweler in Brooklyn, New York, during the childhood of their son Edward, and there the latter received his initial schooling. The family subsequently located upon a farm at Wellington, Ohio, where Edward assisted in the cultivating of the paternal acres until he had attained his majority, when he returned to his native county and there learned the trade of millwright with his uncle Timothy. Always capable, industrious and economical, he was able in a few years to estab- lish himself in business, an important and profitable early part of which was as agent for the sale of turbine wheels manufactured by the James Leffell Company of Springfield, Ohio. The addition of the business of equipping paper mills and the manufacture of paper mill machinery was added, as above mentioned, and soon became the feature and eventu-
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ally the exclusive manufacturing interest. He sold his East Lee inter- ests in 1866 to Henry Couch and Freeland Oakley (former employe), and immediately thereafter formed a Pittsfield connection for the same class of manufactures, which eventuated in the present, the E. D. Jones & Sons Company, in which he continued to be engaged up to the time of his decease, December 30, 1904. Of this company he was president and director ; vice-president and director of the Third National Bank of Pittsfield: president and director of the Central Block Corporation ; vice-president of the Co-operative Bank; director of the Keith Paper Company, of Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Park Club of Pittsfield; of Berkshire Commandery, Knights Templar, and a thirty-second degree Mason. He was one of the board of trustees of his church and a lifelong and stalwart member of the Republican party.
His political career had its inception in 1879-80, when he accept- ably represented the third Berkshire district in the legislature. He was returned to the state senate in 1886-87, where he again rendered efficient service. His conspicuously valuable public service, however. was as a member of Pittsfield's board of public works (1891-99), of which body he was chairman during the years which marked a period of most important development in the county seat, viz., the installation of its sewerage system. To this work he gave the best thoughts of his well matured practical mind and his associates freely accord to Mr. Jones the credit in large measure for the splendid results accomplished for the municipality in that connection.
Mr. Jones was thrice married. His first wife, to whom he was wedded November 10, 1849, was Nancy E. M., daughter of Francis and Zilla Breckenridge. Mrs. Jones died leaving one child, Italia N. Jones, who was born February 5, 1853; married April 9, 1874. Everett
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G. Goodell, by whom she had one child, Lena J. Goodell, who died in infancy; Mrs. Goodell died December 25, 1893.
The second marriage of Mr. Jones, October 20, 1858, was to Ar- dilla H., daughter of Levi W. and Mercy (Hamblin) Herrick. Ardilla (Herrick) Jones was born June 30, 1836, and died April 6. 1866, leav- ing two children, Harley Eber and Edward Archie Jones. (See sketch, this publication.) Harley Eber Jones was born September 24, 1861, and died September 24, 1896. He married, April 16, 1885, Libbie, daughter of Samuel H. and Margaret ( Noble) Hancock. A child born of this union August 5. 1887, is Margaret Ardilla Jones.
Mr. E. D. G. Jones' third wife, who survives him, was Arwilla ยท Bartlett Noble, daughter of John S. and Mary Ann (Granger) Noble. She was born December 18, 1843. She has had three children, Leffell Noble Jones, born November 8, 1872, died July 17, 1873; Mary Elvira Jones, born August 25, 1874, died August 8, 1875; and Samuel Ralph Jones, born March 29, 1878, now in business with the E. D. Jones & Son Company.
EDWARD ARCHIE JONES.
The numerous strong men of Berkshire county who have passed away, whose indomitable wills, business sagacity, enterprise, industry and integrity were responsible for the most enduring and valuable of monuments, the great, thriving, manufacturing establishments of the community, fortunately in a number of instances left sons who are proving fully equal to the large responsibilities which were their heri- tage. A case in point is that of the gentleman whose name introduces this narrative, son of Edward Dorr Griffin Jones, the details of whose interesting career are contained herein.
Edward Archie Jones was born in East Lee, Berkshire county,
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Massachusetts, November 3. 1863. His initial schooling was obtained in Pittsfield and this was supplemented by an academic course at Peek- skill Military Academy, class of 1882. He then entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, taking the mechanical engineering course, losing one year by reason of illness, and graduating from the institution with the class of 1887.
Immediately thereafter he entered the designing room of his father's establishment and was given a partnership interest therein in June, 1890, the plant being operated under the name E. D. Jones' Sons & Co., the members of which were E. D. G. Jones and his sons, Harley E. and Edward Archie Jones and Walter T. Noble. The business com- bined the manufacturing interests of E. D. G. Jones and William Clark & Co.
In May, 1893, a corporation-E. D. Jones' & Sons Co .- was formed with E. D. Jones, president ; Harley E. Jones, treasurer, and Edward Archie Jones, secretary, the last named succeeding to the treas- urership upon his brother's decease in 1896, and to its presidency upon the demise of his father in 1904.
Mr. Jones is a director of the Pittsfield National and Pittsfield Co-Operative Banks, President of Central Block Corporation. and a member of the board of directors of Keith Paper Co., one of the great industries of Turners Falls, Massachusetts.
He was elected in 1903 to represent Ward 4 in the city council of Pittsfield and served efficiently on the finance, fire department, fuel and lighting, and alms house and poor committees for the full term of two years, being then elected by a large majority as alderman from the same ward. He is a member of Crescent Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Royal Arcanum.
He married, October 7, 1891, Isabel Amelia, daughter of Charles
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M. and Amelia (Henry) Abbe of Springfield, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one son, Charles Edward Jones, born January 7, 1894. The family residence is 152 Wendell avenue.
HON. FRANCIS E. WARREN.
Hon. Francis Emroy Warren, United States senator from Wyo- ming, whose varied career includes gallant conduct in the Union army during the civil war, the successful conduct of important financial and commercial enterprises, and conspicuously useful service in govern- mental affairs-local, state and national-traces his ancestry in direct line to the Warrens who landed on the New England shores when the Pilgrim Fathers were painfully laying the foundations of the great Re- public.
He was born in Hinsdale, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, June 20, 1844. His boyhood was passed upon a farm, and his education from the age of eight to fifteen was limited to attendance at the district school during a few weeks of midwinter. He then took employment with dairymen for a few summers in order to earn means wherewith to main- tain himself while attending Hinsdale Academy during the winter months. His education was not completed when the civil war broke out, and he laid aside his school books and labors to enter the army in response to the call of President Lincoln. As a private soldier and non- commissioned officer he served with courage and fidelity in the Forty- ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, during the stupendous strug- gle. He participated in the operations on the lower Mississippi under General Banks, including the engagements at Plain's Store and Donald- sonville, Louisiana, and about Port Hudson, Mississippi. During the siege of the latter famous stronghold his own and other regiments were
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asked to furnish a contingent of two volunteers from each company for the dangerous duty of preceding the column of attack, tearing away the abattis and filling up with fascines the broad, deep ditch in front of the enemy's fortifications, rifle pits and bastions bristling with heavy. artillery. Warren was one of three gallant volunteers. As the "forlorn hope," as it was termed, marched upon the works, fire was opened upon it from all of the opposing batteries and concealed infantry. The loss was terrible, a very large percentage of the assaulting forces being killed or wounded. The fascine which Warren carried was struck by a cannon shot, and, though not seriously injured, he was stunned and lay unconscious for a considerable time. In later years congress and the president recognized the part taken in this affair by Senator War- ren, and awarded him the congressional medal of honor, which is only bestowed for exceptional gallantry in battle.
After being honorably mustered out of service, Mr. Warren re- turned to his native town, where he accepted employment as superin- tendent of the George Plunkett thoroughbred stock farm. He remained here until early in the spring of 1868, when he decided to go west. For several months in 1868 he was engaged as superintendent of a portion of the track laying on the new line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pa- cific Railway, then building from Des Moines, Iowa, to Council Bluffs. In June of the same year, at an urgent request of Mr. A. R. Converse, formerly of Windsor, Massachusetts, he went to Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, to take charge of the latter's mercantile business. At that time Cheyenne was a frontier place of tents, cabins and shacks, with no semblance of permanency, the terminus of the Union Pacific having moved westward. There was a general feeling that its existence was but a matter of a few months, and that it would soon become one of the " dead cities of the plains," marking the advancing line of the railroad.
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Mr. Warren did not share in the feeling, and he decided to make Chey- enne his permanent home. How abundantly his judgment was vindi- cated is discerned in the beautiful capital of the state of Wyoming. During the thirty-six years which have elapsed since its founding, Mr. Warren has been one of the essential factors in the business and political life, not only of the city, but of the commonwealth, and, to some extent, of the nation at large.
In 1871 Mr. Warren became a partner of his employer, the firm for six years being Converse & Warren; at the expiration of that time he purchased Mr. Converse's interest and the style of the firm was F. E. Warren, later F. E. Warren & Company, and, still a few years later, the business was enlarged and incorporated under the title of the F. E. Warren Mercantile Company, which until 1903 conducted one of the largest mercantile establishments in Wyoming. Between 1873 and 1883 Mr. Warren devoted much time to raising sheep and cattle, and in 1883 he organized the Warren Live Stock Company, which is now one of the few remaining large live stock concerns; at times its holdings have been 126,000 sheep besides a few thousand each of horses and cat- tle. In addition to his live stock interests, Mr. Warren is identified with the Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Company, as its president and majority stockholder, and has extensive real estate interests in Chey- enne.
During his thirty-six years' residence in Wyoming Mr. Warren has filled many positions of trust and honor. In 1872 he was elected to the legislature, serving as president of the upper house. In 1884 he de- clined the nomination for congress, unanimously tendered him by the Republican party of Wyoming. For six years he was treasurer of Wyoming. In 1885 he was elected mayor of Cheyenne, and while hold- ing that position, in addition to those of treasurer of Wyoming and
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member of the upper house of the legislature, he was appointed governor of Wyoming by President Arthur. One of the first tests of Governor Warren's executive ability was in quelling the anti-Chinese riots at Rock Springs in 1885. By his prompt and decisive action in protect- ing the Chinese citizens of Rock Springs and Evanston he won the warm commendation not only of the citizens of Wyoming, but of the people of the United States at large. Mr. Warren continued to act as governor until. under the Cleveland administration, in his official report he strongly criticised the policy of Land Commissioner Sparks, where- upon he was removed. He was reappointed by President Harrison in 1889, and served until 1890, when he was elected governor at the first state election held after Wyoming was admitted to statehood.
At the meeting of the first state legislature, Governor Warren and ex-Congressman J. M. Carey were elected United States senators. Both were sworn into office December Ist, 1890, and their terms decided by lot, Mr. Warren drawing the short term, which expired March 4, 1893. Owing to the existence of three political parties in the legislature that year, neither one with a majority, a deadlock occurred, rendering an election impossible, and the state was represented in congress by but one senator until 1895. In that year Mr. Warren was again chosen, and under such extraordinary circumstances as to constitute the highest possible tribute to his worth and the value placed upon his services, the Republican members of the legislature (all but three of the entire body). without the formality of a caucus, giving him their unanimous vote in open session. In 1900 came to him a compliment of equal if not greater significance. He was in attendance upon the second session of the Fifty-sixth congress when his senatorial term was about to expire, and practically all of the members of the Wyoming state legislature wrote advising him that he need not feel under any necessity of returning on
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account of the coming election. Confident in such assurance, and trust- ing implicitly in the loyalty of his fellow-Republicans, Senator Warren remained in his seat, and in due time was notified of his election to suc- ceed himself for the six-year term expiring March 3, 1907.
Senator Warren is known as one of the most industrious and saga- cious members of the United States senate, and is classed among the Republican leaders in that body. In the Fifty-fifth congress his speech in advocacy of the army reorganization measure attracted the atten- tion of all interested in military matters. His herculean efforts to se- cure government aid for western irrigation works during the closing hours of that session, in a speech of several hours' length, brought the needs of the west more forcibly and distinctly before congress and the country at large than ever before, and aroused the west itself to greater efforts to secure what, of right. belonged to its people. By his speech on this occasion Senator Warren advanced the cause of irrigation many years, and with the incoming of President Roosevelt's administration the desired legislation on the subject became the law of the land. Sen- ator Warren is a member of several of the most important committees of the senate. He is chairman of the committee on claims ; second mem- ber on the committee on military affairs; fifth on the committee on ap- propriations ; second on public buildings and grounds ; second on andit and control of the contingent expenses of the senate ; second on irriga- tion and reclamation of arid lands, and third on agriculture and forestry. His position upon two committees last named serve to indicate the chan- nels in which he has been primarily useful not only in behalf of the state to whose interests he has been so long and so unselfishly committed, but in the development of the entire great northwest. Senator Warren's relation to his state marks him as a fine type of the modern pioneer who, following after the explorer, prepares the way for that mighty immigra-
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tion which makes permanent homes, builds towns and cities, and. upon what was pronounced to be an arid uninhabitable soil, plants evidences of civilization and culture, which can suffer little by comparison with the older regions of the country.
Senator Warren has frequently been a delegate in the Republican conventions of his state, and chairman of its central committee. He has also sat in national conventions, and as chairman of his state dele- gation in that body. A man of broad information and attractive per- sonality. he is also an orator of high ability, and whether on the floor of congress, on the hustings, or in a deliberative body of men of affairs. he exercises, though modestly, and without dogmatism or assumption of superiority, a winning and potent influence.
Senator Warren was married January 26, 1871, to Helen Maria Smith, of Middlefield, Massachusetts, daughter of Hon. Matthew Smith, of that place, and Maria Smith, nee Root. Mrs. Warren died March 28. 1902.
Senator Warren's family now consists of two children-Helen Frances, who is a graduate of Wellesley College, class of 1903; and Frederick Emroy, of the 1905 class of Harvard University.
WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE RICE.
William Bainbridge Rice, a graduate of Williams College, class of '44, for many years an exceptionally efficient educator, eventually an equally successful manufacturer, the subject of these memoirs is one of the most interesting and one of the most honored of the citizens of Pitts- field. He was born January 12. 1824. son of the late Royal and Sarah ( Heminway) Rice, the former a native of Brookfield, Worcester county, the latter of Williamsburg, where they were married and lived out their
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lives, Royal Rice combining agricultural pursuits with following his trade of shoemaking. Royal Rice was born in April, 1800, and died in March, 1883; his wife was born in 1798, and died in the early fifties.
Their son, William Bainbridge Rice, was afforded the best facili- ties for the obtainance of an education, attending the public and select preparatory schools of Williamsburg and succeeding in entering the Sophomore class of Williams College in 1841, being graduated there- from three years later; one of his classmates being Hon. Marshall Wil- cox also of Pittsfield. His first employment was school teaching in Peru, Berkshire county, and subsequently elsewhere in that and adjoin- ing counties.
In 1846 he was called to the principalship of Norfolk (Connecticut) Academy, a position which he continued to fill up to 1858. Among the interesting personalities to come under the tuition of Mr. Rice at this institution was Asaph Hall, afterward professor at the National Ob- servatory, Georgetown, District of Columbia, eminent among astrono- mers as the discoverer of the moons of Mars. Lorrin A. Cooke, after- ward governor, and James Dudley Dewell, afterward lieutenant gov- ernor of Connecticut, were also pupils of Norfolk Academy during this period. Theron Wilmot Crissey, LL. B., compiler of " 1744-1900 History of Norfolk," commenting. on Mr. Rice's citizenship and edit- cational services in Norfolk, says: "During all his residence here he was a member of the School Board and one of the School Visitors. He was the most successful teacher the Academy ever had. While he was principal the school was large, flourishing, and had a wide reputation. drawing, especially for the winter terms, pupils not only from this and the adjoining towns in this county and from towns in Massachusetts, but also a considerable number of young men from New York city. Staten Island and vicinity." It was largely through
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Mr. Rice's personal services that the large tract now devoted to park purposes in the heart of the town was secured as such.
The same publication quotes much interesting matter from an address delivered by Mr. Rice, October 10, 1894, at a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Robbins School (which took the place of the Academy), Norfolk. An extract from these quotations is here given as an interesting revelation of educational methods of a half century ago as pursued by Mr. Rice at Norfolk Academy :
" The younger pupils were taught after a pretty well defined course in reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and history, espe- cially of the United States, with generally satisfactory results. The studies of the older pupils were such as each one chose,-somewhat after the modern plan of some of our colleges .- optional or elective, and included arithmetic, grammar, algebra, mental philosophy, Latin. Greek, etc. Most of them knew pretty well what they wanted, and I made it my business to give them what they wanted, to the best of my ability. Their notions as to the value of education were decidedly utilitarian. As to educational theories, I am not aware that I had any. The object aimed at steadily and persistently was to lead the boys and girls to think for themselves, to look at the subjects under consideration in a common sense way. A select sentence in one of our reading books ran thus: 'Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so valuable as common sense ; ' and we believed and acted accordingly. So, whether it was a problem in arithmetic or algebra, or a difficult sentence that was under consideration, appeal was made to common sense. The disci- pline thus gained was of far more valute than the knowledge acquired in the process, and this developed and strengthened that faculty, which in men and women is so difficult to define, so easy of recognition. It was not an uncommon thing for a pupil in the course of the winter ses- sion to work his way through Adams' or Thompson's arithmetic, doing as much work and doing it well, as is done in modern graded schools in two or three years. This is to be regarded simply as a statement of fact-not as a criticism, for the multiplicity of studies of today is doubt- less responsible for much of the difference."
Mr. Rice resigned his Norfolk Academy connection in 1858 to locate in Pittsfield, and there entered into the steam, water and gas pipe business in association with the late Joseph K. Kilbourn, an inventor of
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local note, the firm being originally known as J. K. Kilbourn & Com- pany, a short time thereafter as Kilbourn & Rice, and six years later, upon the admission of Eugene Robbins thereto, as Kilbourn, Rice & Company. Upon the withdrawal from the firm of Mr. Kilbourn, who had formed other associations, the business was continued under the name of Rice, Robbins & Company, and upon the retirement of Mr. Rice in 1873, after fifteen years of successful business connection therewith, be- came and is still known as Robbins, Gamwell & Company, conducting one of Pittsfield's most thriving industries.
During this active business career Mr. Rice had not ceased to be interested in educational matters, and his services were naturally sought and for a number of years secured upon the school board of Pittsfield. He was serving in the capacity of chairman of the executive committee of this board in 1876 when a vacancy occurred in the superintendency of schools, and Mr. Rice took charge of that office at the instance of the committee, and two years later was elected by the school committee as superintendent, an office which he continued to fill with characteristic efficiency by continuous annual re-elections for a period of seven years. During this time the initial steps were taken which led to the establish- ment of the graded school system.
In 1880 Mr. Rice acquired an interest in S. K. Smith's silk thread and twist manufacturing establishment at Pittsfield and his son Arthur Hitchcock Rice was installed therein to learn the business. In the early eighties Mr. Rice purchased his partner's interest in this plant, associated his son therewith, and it was subsequently conducted under the firm. name of A. H. Rice & Company up to 1905, when it was in- corporated as A. H. Rice Company, with W. B. Rice, president, and A. H. Rice, treasurer. The concern employs many operatives, being
Geolochurch
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one of the significant business successes of Pittsfield, distributing large product through offices in New York, Chicago and St. Louis.
Mr. Rice was an old-line Whig, and since its formation a staunch Republican. He has been a life-long member of the Congregational church and served for many years as one of the board of deacons of the South church, Pittsfield, and is now an honorary member of that board.
He married, November 20. 1851, Caroline P., daughter of the late Deacon Augustus Hitchcock, of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Of two children born of this union, William B., died in childhood. Arthur H. Rice, hereinbefore named, was born December 24, 1854; was gradu- ated from Pittsfield high school in 1872, and from Williams College. class of 1876; and is engaged in business as heretofore narrated. He married Alice, daughter of J. A. Thompson, of Melrose, Connecticut, and has a son, William T. Rice.
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