USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
George Winslow Clark, second in order of birth of the sons of William M. Clark, was born at Lenox, May 16, 1854. He attended the public schools of his native place and took a preparatory course at Lenox Academy for the scientific course at Ann Arbor. Prepared for entrance at the latter institution, in 1872, he deviated from the plan which he had formed for his life work by an offer of employment at a tempting salary from the Berkshire Life Insurance Company at the official home of that great local institution in Pittsfield. This associa- tion continued for a period of seventeen years, during which time Mr. Clark was promoted from time to time, occupying the position of cashier at the time of his resignation in 1889. This latter step was taken for the purpose of entering into partnership association with Mr. Arthur W. Plumb (see sketch, this work) to conduct the American House,
274
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
at Pittsfield, the good will, fixtures and furniture of which were pur- chased from Mr. Cebra Quackenbush, former proprietor of the hotel and then and still owner of the premises. The success attendant upon the venture of Messrs. Plumb and Clark necessitated the material en- largement and general improvement of the original structure, and the present commodious and thoroughly well-equipped edifice, since known as the " New American," was built in 1898-9. During this interim the firm of Plumb and Clark took a lease of the Wendell Hotel and con- ducted that house from February to the close of 1899. That Mr. Clark has inastered the multitudinous details attendant upon the successful conduct of the modern hotel is attested by the popularity of the New American with the traveling public and the justifiable pride with which it is regarded by the citizens of Pittsfield especially and the people of Berkshire county generally. Mr. Clark married in 1879 Fannie, daugh- ter of the late William Dexter Brown Linn, for many years a dealer in marble and monuments at Pittsfield.
THEODORE RODNEY GLENTZ.
The subject of this memoir was one of that fortunately large group of men, natives of Berkshire county, who, naturally endowed with capability, courage and conscience, wrought within its borders to its splendid development. He was born in 1835, son of George F. Glentz, one of the early merchants of Pittsfield, who died in 1881.
Theodore R. Glentz received a limited public school education, and after a brief period of employment as a boy in one of the woolen mills of Pittsfield was apprenticed to learn the trade of carpenter. He mas- tered it readily and was doing journeyman's work and receiving jour- neyman's pay while yet a youth. He had barely attained his majority
275
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
when, in association with Thomas Atwood, he established a planing mill business on North street, Pittsfield. This business relation was severed a few years later upon Mr. Glentz's removal to Vergennes, Ver- mont, where he was engaged in manufacturing for a short period, re- turning thence to renew his residence in Pittsfield, where he entered the employ of Butler & Merrill, planing mill proprietors.
He founded a planing mill and contracting and building business in Pittsfield in 1880, and, having acquired a most excellent reputation for skillful workmanship and business integrity, was speedily possessed of a patronage which included a large share of the work of the leading invest- ors in realty improvements in the county seat and vicinity. He was always the interested mechanic given to burthen himself with much man- ual labor in showing his employees right methods, the while bearing as well all of the burdens of the contractors' responsibilities. This double duty told heavily upon him, and when at sixty-three he should have been in the full vigor of manhood, he suffered a collapse of the nervous sys- tem and a few years later died.
He had little time or taste for politics, holding office but once, when he was elected as Republican nominee to represent the third ward in Pittsfield's board of aldermen. He was a lifelong and consistent mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. There is but one opinion of Theodore Rodney Glentz, viz. : that he was a Christian gentleman.
He married Millicent, daughter of the late Cyrus Cleveland, farmer, of Dalton. Mrs. Glentz, who resides in Pittsfield, had three children, one of whom, the eldest, Olin Glentz, is deceased. The surviving chil- dren are Bessie G., wife of Fred L. Cheney, lumber dealer of Pittsfield; and Harley C. Glentz, since 1902 engaged in a managerial capacity with the Glentz Woodworking Company.
276
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
1
THOMAS WHITE NICKERSON, JR.
The gentleman whose name introduces these memoirs, rector of St. Stephen's, Pittsfield, has demonstrated his eminent fitness for his high calling by the abundant success of his ministrations, the parish being in a most flourishing condition and a recognized valuable factor in the moral uplift of the community. He was born in Boston, Massa- chusetts, January 25, 1858, son of the Rev. Thomas White and Martha Tillinghast (Westcott) Nickerson, both natives of Massachusetts, and descended from the earliest English settlers of New England.
The founder of the American family was William Nickerson, born in England, in 1604, and who came from Norwich with his wife and children in 1637 to the American colonies, temporarily locating in Boston, thence removing to Yarmouth and eventually settling on the present site of the town of Chatham, having purchased there from the Indians a large tract of land, some of which is still in the possession of his direct descendants. He married Anne Busby, daughter of Nicholas Busby. also an English colonist. resident of Boston, Massa- chusetts.
Nicholas Nickerson, eldest of the sons of William and Anne (Busby) Nickerson, was born in Norwich, England, in 1630, and mar- ried Esther Bassett, whose father was one of the early settlers of Cape Cod.
Their eldest son, William Nickerson, born in 1658, married Mary Snow, whose ancestors included Governor Prince and Stephen Hop- kins, of Mayflower fame.
Ebenezer Nickerson, third son of the last mentioned William Nickerson, born June 13, 1697, married Elizabeth Mayo, great-grand- daughter of the Rev. John Mayo, the first minister of the second church
Thomas W. Archersont
277
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
established in Boston, and numbering among her lineal connections those distinguished Puritans, John Freeman, Governor Prince and Elder Brewster.
Seth Nickerson, eldest son of Ebenezer Nickerson, was born Octo- ber 21, 1737, and married Mary Smith, of Chatham, also descended from Mayflower stock.
Their son Ebenezer Nickerson, grandfather of the immediate sub- ject of these memoirs, was born August 17, 1768, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and married. secondly. September 29, 1805. Eudoxa, daughter of Thomas White, of Lexington-Concord stock. Ebenezer Nickerson achieved remarkable business success, being accounted one of the leading merchants of his day and having quite extensive shipping interests.
His son, Rev. Thomas White Nickerson, a retired Episcopal clergy- man, married a daughter of Stephen Westcott, a leading leather mer- chant. Stephen Westcott was lineally descended from Stukeley West- cott, one of the original proprietors of Providence, Rhode Island, in which state many of his descendants continue to reside. The direct line from Stukeley to Stephen Westcott is through Jeremiah, Samuel, Ben- jamin, Captain James and James Westcott. The wife of Stephen West- cott. Mary Smith Barker, was of old colony stock.
Thomas White Nickerson, Jr .. received his preliminary schooling in Boston, was graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, with the class of '76, and from Harvard College, class of '80. He then entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, New York city. graduating in 1884, and receiving his B.D. degree therefrom in 1886. He was ordained deacon, June 18, 1884, in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, by Bishop Paddock ; and ordained priest in New York city, May 31, 1885, by Bishop Henry C. Potter. From September, 1884, to June,
278
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
1887, Mr. Nickerson was assistant to the rector of Calvary church, New York, Dr. Henry Y. Satterlee, now Bishop of Washington. From June, 1887, to June, 1895, he was rector of St. Paul's, Paterson, New Jersey, and this initial charge developed a capacity for splendid service. He early established a mission (now St. Luke's), and upon his own congregation growing to unwieldy proportions divided the parish, thus founding the present St. Mark's church. During his ministry a new church site was purchased by his congregation, and the initial work generally accom- plished which resulted in the erection of one of the most beautiful church edifices in New Jersey. His next charge was the rectorship of the Church of the Messiah, Boston, where he remained from 1895 to 1898. In the spring of 1900 he was secured as rector of St. Stephen's, Pitts- field, which he has since served as heretofore indicated with beneficent results to both congregation and community. He has taken an es- pecially active interest in the local union for Home Work serving as chairman of its executive committee. He is secretary of the standing committee of the diocese of western Massachusetts; a member of the Pittsfield Monday Evening and Park Clubs, and of the Colonial Wars and Mayflower Societies of Massachusetts.
He married, January 10, 1888, Mary Louisa, daughter of the late Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, the distinguished dean of the General Theclogical Seminary, New York. One son born of this union Decem- ber 6, 1888, Hoffman Nickerson, is a student of St. Mark's school, Southborough, Massachusetts.
JOHN FORREST KELLY.
John Forrest Kelly, of Pittsfield, who has materially contributed to electrical science and its applications, is a type of those foreign-born citizens who unite with the steady forceful characteristics of their an-
279
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
cestors a ready adaptability to new conditions, a well-directed spirit of enterprise, and an unswerving loyalty to the institutions and government of their adopted country. He is a representative of one of the most ancient and honorable families in Ireland, and several of his ancestors and their collateral relatives achieved distinction in various professional lines. He was born near Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland, March 28, 1859, a son of Jeremiah and Kate (Forrest) Kelly, both of whom served in the capacity of teachers.
John F. Kelly received the degrees of B.L. and Ph.D. in 1878 and 1881, respectively, from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He gained his first practical business knowledge as assist- ant to Thomas A. Edison in Menlo Park laboratory, his work then prin- cipally relating to the chemistry of rare earths. During the latter part of the year 1879 Mr. Kelly became electrical engineer of the New York branch of the Western Electric Company, this being the time when the telephone was being generally introduced and when dynamos were being first applied to telegraphic purposes. In the construction and installment of instruments for telegraphy and telephones and of such measuring in- struments as were then known, he received a thorough training which proved valuable to him in his later career. In 1882 he became laboratory assistant to Edward Weston, then chief electrician of the United States Electric Lighting Company, and with the exception of a year which he spent in connection with the Remingtons, continued his association with Mr. Weston until July. 1886. Some of the most important work, such as the research which ended in the discovery of high resistance alloys of very low or even negative temperature coefficients, were substantially carried out by Mr. Kelly under a few general directions from Mr. Weston, whom Mr. Kelly succeeded as chief electrician of the United States Electric Lighting Company, which in 1889 passed to the Westing-
280
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
house interests, Mr. Kelly remaining in this position until January, 1892, when he resigned to join William Stanley in experimental work.
Mr. Kelly's inventive work is partially represented by eighty patents. The art of building transformers and generators of alternating currents was revolutionized and Mr. Kelly and his colleagues were the first to put polyphase motors into actual commercial service. That success naturally led to long-distance transmission work and the first long-distance trans- mission plants in California (indeed the first in the world ) were under- taken on Mr Kelly's recommendation and advice. Most of his work has been of too technical a character to command popular appreciation, such, for instance, as that of improving the quality of steel. He was the first one to make an hysterically stable steel, a matter of vastly more importance than the comparatively spectacular transmission work. At the present time ( 1905) Mr. Kelly occupies the position of president of the John F. Kelly Engineering Company. the Cokel Company, the Tele- lectric Company, the Conchas River Power Company, and director of the Southwestern Exploration Company. The Cokel Company is or- ganized to exploit the invention of E. W. Cooke, by means of which food stuff may be perfectly dehydrated, losing on the average ninety per cent in weight. Foods dehydrated by this process, although free from all chemical preservatives, are entirely stable, and yet preserve their pristine freshness through extremes of temperature, and when served are indistinguishable from fresh foods of the ordinary type. The Telelectric Company is organized for the manufacture of electric piano players, which are either entirely automatic or entirely controllable at will.
Mr. Kelly is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engi- neers. American Electrechen Society, American Academy of Political Science, American Economical Association, American Statistical So- ciety, American-Irish Historical, and Engineers' Club, all of the United
Jacob Gimlich
2×1
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
States, and also has membership in the Institute of Electrical Engineers, Society of Arts and Irish Texts Society of England and the Societe Internationale des Electriciens of France.
Mr. Kelly was married in New York city in 1892 to Helen Fischer, and they are the parents of two children : Eoghan and Domnall Kelly.
JACOB GIMLICH.
Among the progressive citizens of Pittsfield few have had a wider sphere of usefulness than he whose name introduces these memoirs. From the outset of an unusually successful and active business career the large demands upon his time have not prevented attention to diverse public interests and this public spiritedness has been manifest in liberal contributions of coin as well as of counsel. Withal Mr. Gimlich is of unimpeachable integrity, and that time tried and often misapplied sen- tence, "his word is as good as his bond," is widely and with generally recognized propriety used in characterizing him.
Jacob Gimlich, Sr., who lived in Rheinpfalz, near Mannheim, Ba- varia, where he was owner of a productive fruit farm and vineyard, was one of those who, with Schurz, Hecker, Boerustein and others, were forced to flee from their native land on account of their unsuccessful attempt to bring about a change of government in 1848. He came to the United States in that year with his wife and six children, and settled in Albany, New York, where he engaged in the fruit business. His wife was a widow before his marriage with her, and a son of her former marriage, David Greber, served in the Union army during the Civil war, and died from illness contracted in the line of duty. Mr. Gim- lich, Sr .. subsequently ( 1860) took up his residence in Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts. In 1862 he enlisted in the Fifth Regiment, New Jersey In-
282
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
fantry, with which he participated in the siege of Yorktown and other operations of the Army of the Potomac under General Mcclellan. He performed faithful and courageous service until he was prostrated by disease which necessitated his discharge, and he died soon after his re- turn to Pittsfield. Of his children
Jacob Gimlich, born in Weisenheim, Bavaria, October 4, 1845, married Louisa Ellen, daughter of the late William Feige, of Pittsfield. Their children are: David J., in business with his father; he married Marie, daughter of William Wilcox, of Pittsfield. Matilda L., married Carl Cyrus, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Minnie, married George H. Bennett, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Marie, married Ernest Humphrey, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Carrie, who died at the age of eighteen months. Amelia. Caroline. Clifford, died at eleven years of age. Ar- thur, also died at eleven years of age.
Soon after coming to Pittsfield with his father, Mr. Gimlich en- tered thie Taconic woolen mill and learned designing, and was offered a good position in that department. He preferred, however, to enter into business with his brother-in-law, John White, and the two purchased a siniall brewery in which they began operations on a small scale, and now they are owners of a mammoth establishment two hundred feet long, operated under the corporate title of Berkshire Brewing Association with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, and a capacity of seventy thousand barrels with a gratifying yearly increase of output. Mr. Gimlich was one of the organizers of the City Savings Bank, and is yet a director. He also holds the same position in the Berkshire Loan and Trust Company and the Co-Operative Bank, and is interested in the Third National Bank, of which he was an original stockholder.
He is past chancellor in the Knights of Pythias, and has been a member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He is a member of Kas-
283
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
sid Senate, Ancient Essenic Order, and of the local camp of Sons of Veterans. Mr. Gimlich is a Democrat of the stalwart type, and has been delegated to numerous conventions, municipal, county, state and con- gressional, and has acceptably represented Pittsfield in the state assem- bly, sessions of 1883 and 1884, serving on the printing and towns com- mittees. Mr. Gimlich has been for more than forty years a member of Zion Evangelical Lutheran church; he served as chairman of the build- ing committee in the erection of the edifice in which the congregation now worship, was for thirty-four years a member of the church choir, and has always taken an active interest in its welfare. For many years he was active in his connection with the Volunteer Fire Department of Pittsfield. He is a director of the Musgrove Knitting Mill and Berk- shire Automobile Company, and a stockholder of the Spark Coil Com- pany, of Pittsfield, and Telelectric Piano Player Company, in all of which connections he interested himself rather in the promotion of the general industrial interests of the community than for personal profit. Mr. Gimlich purchased in May, 1905, the Colonnade Hotel, Sea Breeze, Daytona, Florida, where he established his son-in-law, Mr. George H. Bennett, as lessee, and there Mr. Gimlich spends portions of each win- ter.
EUGENE BOUTON, A. M., PH. D.
Eugene Bouton, A. M., Ph. D., late superintendent of the public schools, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a lineal descendant of Jolin Bouton, a Huguenot who fled to England at the time of the persecution of the Huguenots in France. He is supposed to have been the son of the Count Nicholas Bouton.
John Bouton sailed from Gravesend, England, July, 1635, in the bark " Issuance," and landed at Boston in December of the same year,
284
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
aged twenty years. He married Joan Turney, and resided first in Bos- ton and then in Watertown, Connecticut. He was an early settler in Hartford, Connecticut, removing to Norwalk in 1651, and served in many official positions in the town, and was a representative for several years previous to 1671. His wife died at Norwalk, and he married (second), January 1, 1656, Abigail Marvin, daughter of Matthew Mar- vin, who came from London, England. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, about 1640, and died about 1672. He married (third), about 1673, Mary Stevenson, widow of Jonathan Stevenson, who was killed in an Indian fight near Norwalk. John Bouton himself died in Danbury, Connecticut, and left an estate in Norwalk, part of which is still in the hands of his descendants. He had two children by his first wife, five by the second, and four by the third. The first child by the third wife was
Joseph Bouton, born in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was a captain under General Montgomery in his march on Quebec, and after the war settled near South Salem, New York, and was an elder in the Presby- terian church there until he died. July 8, 1747. He had nine children. The third was
Joseph Bouton, born in Norwalk, about 1725, died about 1778. He married, August 25, 1748, Susannah Raymond. He enlisted in the French war at the age of nineteen, according to the " History of Nor- walk." He had eleven children. The first was
William Bouton, born in Norwalk. in the year 1749, died May 30, 1828. He married, February 15, 1769, Sarah Benedict, born in Nor- walk. June 15, 1752, died August 16, 1844, daughter of John and Eliza- beth Benedict. They lived in Norwalk, and were both buried in Pine Island Cemetery, at South Norwalk. They had fourteen children. The third was
285
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
William Bouton, born in Norwalk, March 4, 1774, died at Meredith Square, Delaware county, New York, August 4, 1845. He married, March 26, 1795, Hannah Carrington, born August 2, 1777, died Au- gust 7. 1845. They lived in Meredith, New York. They had ten chil- dren. The third was
Ira Bouton, born in Watertown, Connecticut, May 4, 1799. died in Jefferson, New York. August 30, 1864. He married, at Jefferson, Cath- erine Marie Stanley, born January 1, 1805. died November 29, 1844. He married (second) Emma Foote, born 1810, died October 7, 1863. He removed with his father to Meredith. New York, in 1808, and from there to Jefferson, New York. He was lieutenant in the 104th Regiment New York Infantry in 1828. He had eleven children by his first wife, and one by the second, who was
Eugene Bouton, born in Jefferson, New York, December 8, 1850. He married, June 29, 1887, Elizabeth Renville Gladwin, born in Sher- burne. New York, October 9, 1865. daughter of Albert R. Gladwin, Esq.
Mr. Bouton entered Yale College, after a course at the seminary at Cazenovia, New York, where he secured numerous prizes, and gradu- ated in 1875, and was the class poet. He taught in the academy at Norwich, New York, for two years, was principal of the union school at Sherburne for three years and professor in the academy at Albany, New York, for three and a half years. While in the latter place he was elected a professor in the college at Charleston, South Carolina, but re- mained in Albany. In 1881 he received the degree of Master of Arts from Yale College, and made a trip to Europe. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Syracuse University. January 1, 1884, was appointed a member of the institute faculty of the state of New York, January, 1886. deputy superintendent of public instruction, and soon
286
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
after principal of the State Normal School at New Paltz, New York. He was until recently superintendent of public schools in Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts. He published an educational work in 1884, and has written many papers on other topics, as well as on education. He was a warden of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal church, while a resident of Pitts- field. He has a child, Katherine, born in Sherburne, New York. Janu- ary 26, 1889.
GEORGE HENRY TUCKER.
Another of the worthy members of an old and honored family of the colony and commonwealth is he whose name is the caption for this narrative. He was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, September 12, 1856, youngest of the children of the late George J. and Harriet (Sill) Tucker, and half-brother of Hon. Joseph Tucker, whose personal history and genealogical memoirs are contained herein.
George H. Tucker prepared for college in Pittsfield high school and was graduated from Williams College, class of 1878. He succeeded his father as county treasurer in 1878, and served with the characteristic efficiency and uncompromising integrity of his predecessors up to July, 1902, when he was called to the cashiership of the Pittsfield National Bank. of which he is incumbent.
He has been a director of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company since 1888, and a member of the finance committee since 1894; was a director and vice-president of the Third National Bank of Pittsfield up to 1902 ; has been a director of the Housatonic National Bank of Stock- bridge since 1898, and of Pittsfield Gas, Coal Company since 1890, and a director of the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company from its organization until it was merged with the General Electric Company.
George J. Tucker.
287
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
In all these important business relations, Mr. Tucker has won and re- tained the confidence and esteem of his business associates.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.