USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 22
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He married September 7, 1892, Mary Talcott Briggs, who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, July 4, 1853, and died November 4, 1895, and who was a daughter of General Henry Shaw Briggs and Mary Elizabeth (Talcott) Briggs.
General Henry S. Briggs was a son of George Nixon Briggs, who was a member of congress for twelve years from 1831, and governor for seven years from 1843. Governor Briggs was born in Adams, Mas- sachusetts, April 12, 1796, son of Allen and Nancy (Brown) Briggs, of Cumberland, Rhode Island. He married in 1818, Harriet Hall, daughter of Ezra and Triphena Hall, of Lanesborough.
CHARLES ALBERT BROWNE.
Charles Albert Browne, inventor of the electric fuse, which proved such a valuable and effective agent in hastening the completion of the Hoosac tunnel, is of early colonial ancestry and traces his line of de- scent, directly and collaterally, from several of the most distinguished founders of New England, including Governor Bradford, John Tilley, George Soule, Richard Warren, William Brewster, Miles Standish and Edmund Dotey, all of whom were Mayflower Pilgrims; also from Ed- ward Bobit, the early Taunton settler, who was killed in King Philip's war, and others.
On the maternal side he is a lineal descendant in the eight genera- tion of Chad Browne, from whom the line of descent is through Daniel (2), Jabez (3), William (4), Eleazor (5), Isaac (6) and Albert (7). Chad Browne, who was among the first settlers of Providence, Rhode Island, was the friend and associate of Roger Williams in establishing
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the first church of the Baptist denomination in America. The maiden name of his wife, whose Christian name was Elizabeth, is unknown. He was the origin of a numerous progeny, and Brown University was founded by one of his descendants. Daniel (2) Browne, died in 1710, married Alice Hearnden, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (White) Hearnden. Jabez (3) Browne, died in 1724, married Anne -; and William (4) Browne, whose death occurred in 1757, married Patience Cobb. Eleazor (5) Browne, born December 31, 1732, died in 1815, married Sarah Scott, daughter of Nathaniel (4) and a descendant of Richard through John (2) and Sylvanus (3) Scott, who married Joanna Jenckes, the latter a daughter of Joseph (2) and granddaughter of Joseph (1) Jenckes. Isaac (6) Browne, born August 24, 1776, died August 31, 1865. married Susanna Bradford Browne, born February 15, 1782, died January 22. 1876, was a descendant in the sixth genera- tion of Governor William Bradford, through William (2), Israel (3), Abner (4), and Elisha (5) Bradford. She was also of the eighth gen- eration from Richard Warren and William Brewster, and of the sev- enth from Love Brewster and John Alden.
Albert Gallatin (7) Browne, Charles A. Browne's father, was born in Adams, Massachusetts, October 3, 1810. He resided in Cheshire, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, from whence he removed to Lanes- boro, and finally settled in North Adams, where his death occurred No- vember 13, 1888. He was married April 29, 1837, at Cheshire, by Rev. John Leland, to Adeline Babbitt, who was born in Hancock, Mas- sachusetts, April 25, 1815. She was a daughter of Dr. Snell and Jael (Edson) Babbitt, and a descendant in the seventh generation of Ed- ward Bobit, previously referred to, through Edward (2). Nathan (3), Nathan (4), Snellum (5) and Snell (6). Mrs. Adeline (Babbitt) Browne died July 7, 1888. She was a member of the Congregational
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church. Albert Gallatin (7) and Adeline (Babbitt) Browne were the parents of five children, namely: Frances, born March 7, 1838 (died August 16, 1867) ; Ann Eliza, born March 30 (died August 4, 1860) ; Charles Albert. the principal subject of this sketch ; Isaac, born Septem- ber 23, 1850; and William, born January 9, 1854 (died August 20 of the same year).
Charles Albert (8) Browne was born in Adams, July 17. 1842. He was educated in the public schools, including the Drury High School, and completed his studies with a commercial course at Comer's Business College, Boston. As a young man he was a close student of electrical science, which he not only mastered theoretically, but became a prac- tical electrician of world wide reputation. He is the inventor of an improved form of the now indispensable electric fuse ; his fuse being used with such wonderful effect during the construction of the Hoosac tun- nel, and has since proved of inestimable value to modern engineering. This device he manufactured until the fruits of his invention enabled him to retire permanently from active business pursuits, and he is now residing in North Adams. In politics he generally supports the Repub- lican party but prefers to act independently when occasion demands. voting for the candidates who in his opinion are the. best qualified to hold public office. He is a member of the First Congregational church.
On June 9, 1869, Mr. Browne was joined in marriage with Miss Susan McCallum, who was born in North Adams, February 26, 1847. daughter of Miller and Sarah ( Arnold) McCallum. She is of Scotch descent on the paternal side, being of the fifth generation in direct line from John McCallum, through John (2). William (3) and Miller (4) McCallum. The first John McCallum mentioned here was an iron- monger of Glasgow, and seems to have been a man of considerable im- portance, as he was buried in the crypt of the Glasgow Cathedral. The
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second John McCallum married Margaret Morrison, and his son, Will- iam (3) McCallum, whose death occurred in 1813, married Agnes Flem- ing, daughter of John Fleming, who belonged to a famous Scotch family of remote antiquity. Miller (4) McCallum, Mrs. Browne's father, who was born January 15, 1806 (died June 7, 1875), acquired a knowledge of the woolien manufacturing business in Scotland, and emigrating to the United States was for many years in charge of the dyeing depart- ment of the Blackinton Woolen Mills, North Adams. Shortly after the discovery of gold in California he went there by the way of Cape Horn, and he also resided for some time in Brazil. On April 21, 1846, he married Sarah Arnold, who was born March 15, 1820 (died March 4, 1864). She was a daughter of John and Susanna (Sherman) Arnold, and a granddaughter of Ebenezer Arnold. Susanna Sherman was a daughter of John and Amy ( Gardner) Sherman, the latter a daughter of George Gardner. John Sherman was a son of Jacob Sherman and through William and Ebenezer was a descendant of Philip Sherman, who was a colleague of Roger Williams in the settlement of Rhode Island. Miller and Sarah (Arnold) McCallum were the parents of one child, Susan, who married Charles A. Browne as above stated. Mr. and Mrs. Browne have five children, all born in North Adams, and gradu- ates of the Drury high school :
I. Charles A. Browne, Jr., born August 12, 1870. He was gradu- ated from Williams College with the class of 1892, subsequently studied at the University of Gottingen, where he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1902, and is now the official chemist at Audubon Park, New Orleans, Louisiana.
2. Frances Eliza Browne, born August 31. 1872. She is a grad- uate of Smith College, and is now teaching in the Drury High School.
3. William Bradford Browne, born May 7, 1875. He graduated
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from Drury Academy in 1893. He spent seven years in Holyoke, Massachusetts, learning the stationery and tablet business, and when he left that place was foreman for the Smith Tablet Company. After spending two and a half years in North Adams, in the office of the Arnold Print Works, he resumed the paper business, and is now fore- man for the Hampden Pad and Paper Company, of Springfield, Massa- chusetts.
4. Sarah Arnold Browne, born May 2, 1879. She was gradu- ated from the North Adams Normal School in 1898. She was mar- ried September 18. 1901, to Clifford Campbell Haskins, who was grad- uated from Williams in 1898, and is now of the firm of Haskins Broth- ers, local insurance agents. Their children are: Frances Alden, born May 21, 1902; and Stuart Campbell, born February 26, 1904.
5. Agnes Fleming Browne, born November 13, 1881. She is stenographer for the Waterhouse and Howard Woolen Company of North Adams.
JOHN WHITE.
Four years' brave service for the country of his adoption and forty years of close and successful attention to a business which developed from meagre proportions to a leading industry of western Massachusetts are the main features of the career of John White.
He was born in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, December 27, 1839, son of Conrad and Elizabeth (Lange) White. Conrad White, who was a farmer, died in 1867, and his widow and five children immediately there- after came to the United States, eventually locating in Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts, where she died in 1888. Of her children. Henry died in Pittsfield: Elizabeth married Francis Stein, of New York city: Mary
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married John Van Nida, of Pittsfield; Lizzie married John Frisch: and Libbie married Paul Koepke, of Pittsfield.
John White, eldest of the children, was educated in Germany and came to the United States at the age of eighteen. He spent the first four years (1857-61) in New York city, and in August of the latter year enlisted in the Thirteenth New York Independent Battery. He participated in some of the most notable campaigns and bloody battles of the Civil war, and bore a soldierly part in the engagements at Bull Run, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He re-enlisted for three years in the same battery, which was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and while serving in that command he was engaged in the battles of Murfreesboro and Nashville, and was with Sherman in the operations against Atlanta. He was honorably discharged July 28, 1865, the war having ended, and returned to New York city, where he resumed the baking business in which he had been engaged when he entered the army.
In January, 1866, Mr. White removed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in September, 1868, entered into the partnership relations with Jacob Gimlich, which have ever since been maintained, and which resulted in the establishment of the extensive brewing plant at Pittsfield, now oper- ated by them under the name of Berkshire Brewing Association. Mr. White is a member of several societies-the order of Odd Fellows, the Harugari, the German Society, and the Turn Verein. He is past com- mander of Rockwell Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1897 served on the staff of General Clarkson, department commander, at the state encampment at Buffalo, New York. He has been a leading mem- ber of the Lutheran church for nearly forty years, and has served the congregation as secretary and treasurer continuously since 1872.
Mr. White was married September 19, 1867, to Miss Rachel Gim-
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lich, a sister of Jacob Gimlich, his partner. Their children are: George, engaged in the office of Gimlich & White, and who married Mary Ho- dacker and has two children, Ruth and Marion; Frederick, who mar- ried Elizabeth Engel, has two children, David J. and Dorothy, and is owner of a brewery in Schenectady, New York. Agnes married John , Vogel, of Albany, New York, and has three children, Martha, John and Marguerite : Ellen, recently graduated from Nurses' Training School, Providence, Rhode Island; Emma, wife of Charles W. Gamwell, of Pittsfield : John A., engaged in the office of Gimlich & White; Dorothy, wife of Charles W. Hodacker; Lillie; David L .. Walter G. and W. W. Rockwell White.
HENRY COLT, M. D.
Dr. Henry Colt, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is descended from an- cestors of the early colonial times, and from those who were conspicuous in military and community affairs during the Revolutionary period.
Captain James Denison Colt, born 1740, married Phebe Ely. (See Ely genealogy in this work.) He married (second) in Pittsfield, pub- lished December 18, 1773, Miriam Williams, born February 6, 1756, died March 30. 1811, daughter of Colonel William and Sarah ( Wells) Williams. He and his wife were admitted to the First Congregational church in Pittsfield in 1767. Captain Colt was a Revolutionary soldier, and was prominent in town affairs, serving on the various committees appointed during the war, and also on a committee appointed to settle church matters concerning which some difficulties arose. He was one of the heaviest taxpayers in town, and held one thousand acres of land in the southwest part of the town. He was selectman in 1782. He had three children by his first wife and ten by the second. His first child was James Danielson Colt, baptized in Pittsfield, October 17, 1768, died
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December 1, 1856. He married, May 8, 1791, Sarah Root, born June 24, 1771, died April 8, 1865, daughter of Ezekiel and Ruth (Noble) Root. He began business in 1799 with his brother Samuel D. Colt, as J. D. & S. D. Colt, on the corner of South and West streets, the map of 1800 locating the store at No. I South street, and his house at No. I West street. Mrs. Colt was descended from John Root, who came from Bad- by, England, and was a first settler of Farmington, Connecticut, in 1640, and from Thomas Noble, an early settler of Westfield, Massachusetts. She was admitted to the church June 30, 1799, and was an original member of the Union church, August 22, 1809. By her marriage with James D. Colt she became the mother of seven children, of whom the youngest was
Henry Colt, born November 2, 1812, baptized June 27, 1813, died January 16, 1888. He was married, at Utica, New York, September 24, 1839, to Elizabeth Goldthwait. She was the eldest daughter of Judge Ezekiel and Abigail (Smith) Bacon, and was born February 12, 1812, at the corner of Pomeroy avenue and East street, where the resi- dence of Mr. E. D. G. Jones now stands. She lived in Utica, New York (whither her parents removed), until 1839, when she married Mr. Colt, and resided thereafter in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Mrs. Colt was a descendant of one of the most distinguished of Berkshire county fami- lies. Her grandfather, Hon. and Rev. John Bacon, was born in Con- necticut, and graduated from Princeton College with the class of 1765. In 1771 he was installed assistant pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, in which connection he remained until 1775. He then located in Stockbridge, Berkshire county, where he found early recognition as one of the master minds of that community, and his services were brought into requisition in the discharge of the duties of many important posi- tions. He was a member of the state senate, and president of that
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body ; judge and chief justice of the court of common pleas of Berkshire county, and from 1801 to 1816 served as a member of congress. He married Elizabeth Goldthwait. Their son Ezekiel, the father of Mrs. Colt, was born at Boston, September 1, 1775, was graduated from Yale College with the class of 1794, read law with Hon. Nathan Dane, and commenced the practice of his profession at Williamstown, Berkshire county. He removed to Pittsfield in 1806, in which year he was elected to congress, receiving every vote cast in Pittsfield. He was war chair- man of the congressional committee of ways and means in 1812. and proved abundantly equal to the onerous task then thrust upon him. After leaving congress Mr. Bacon was on the bench in Massachusetts. but ultimately removed to Utica, New York, where he died at an ad- vanced age. A volume of his poems was published in 1842. Mrs. Eliza- beth Goldthwait Colt died September 9, 1890.
Henry Colt was a farmer in early life, and was prominent in the County Agricultural Society. As a wool dealer he became interested in a factory, and was the first president of the Pittsfield Woolen Company in 1852, and the plant was sold to the Bel Air Company in 1873. He was a selectman from 1852 to 1856, and through the Civil war, when the duties of such an officer were strenuous and exacting. in all of which he acquitted himself with ability and integrity. He was a water com- missioner in 1864, a director of the Pittsfield National Bank, a trustee of the Massachusetts AAgricultural Society, and a director of the Boston & Albany Railroad Company from 1878 until his death. He was a member of the First Congregational Church parish, and always took an interest in its growth and usefulness. Of his four children. the youngest was Dr. Henry Colt, born November 9, 1856. He attended the public schools of Pittsfield, and was graduated from Williams Col- lege with the class of 1878. He graduated from the Harvard Medical
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School in 1881, and is a practicing physician in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He is associate medical director of the Berkshire Life Insurance Com- pany ; medical examiner Berkshire county; chairman of the medical and surgical board. House of Mercy Hospital, Pittsfield; trustee of the Berkshire Athenaeum; director in the Pittsfield National Bank, and the Berkshire Loan and Trust Company. Pittsfield.
Richard Ely, from whom is descended Dr. Henry Colt in the ma- ternal line, was a native of England, and died in Lyme, Connecticut, November 24, 1684. He married in England, Joan Phipps, who died at Plymouth, England, January 7, 1660. He married (second) at Bos- ton, Massachusetts, in 1664, Mrs. Elizabeth Cullick, widow of Captain John Cullick, and sister of Hon. George Fenwick; she died at Lyme, Connecticut, November 12, 1683. Richard Ely came from Plymouth, England, between 1660 and 1663, with his son Richard, and after re- siding in Boston for a short time settled in Lyme, Connecticut, which was in 1660 a part of Saybrook. He had three thousand acres of land in Lyme, and was prominent in colonial affairs. His tombstone of brown stone has the Ely coat-of-arms at one end, and is a sarcophagus of stately appearance. He was among the first to give freedom to his slaves. His wife is supposed to have been a sister of Constantine John Phipps. Baron Mulgrau, the great navigator and admiralty com- missioner, and of Viscount Normandy, an officer in the British army. She bore to Richard Ely four of his five children (his fifth being by his second wife), and their births are recorded in Plymouth, England. The third of the children was
Richard Ely (2), born in 1656. baptized in Plymouth, England, June 19, 1657. He married, in Lyme, Connecticut, Mary Marvin, born 1666, daughter of Lieutenant Reinold and Sarah (Clark) Marvin. of
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Lyme. He came with his father to America, and settled with him at Lyme. Of his four children the youngest was
Deacon Richard Ely, born in Lyme, October 27, 1697, died Feb- ruary 24. 1777. He married Elizabeth Peck, who died October 8, 1730. He married (second), October 26, 1732, Phebe Hubbard, born 1705, daughter of Robert and Abigail (Adams) Hubbard, of Middle- town, Connecticut. She was descended from George Hubbard, one of the original settlers of Hartford, Connecticut. Deacon Ely was the. father of thirteen children. The eleventh, who was the seventh by his second wife, was
Phebe Ely, born in Lyme, Connecticut, May 16, 1743, who be- came the wife of Captain James Denison Colt, the progenitor of the Pittsfield family of that name. She died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, December 25, 1772.
WILLIAM H. GROSS.
Many causes have combined to render world-famous the Berkshire Hills county, pre-eminently, of course, its abounding beauties of land- scape, again through its wonderful development in the manufacturing world, and in no small measure through the beauty, density and durabil- ity of the white marble there quarried. In the early '50s Charles Heeb- ner, in company with Messrs. Rice and Baird, opened quarries at Lee, the development of which has been one of the significant business suc- cesses of Berkshire county, Massachusetts. The original firm was suc- ceeded by Mr. Heebner, who took into partnership assistance a nephew, Frank S. Gross, who succeeded to the quarry ownership upon his uncle's decease.
William H. Gross was born May 1, 1844, in Trappe, Pennsylvania.
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son of Thomas J. and Catherine ( Heebner) Gross. As a youth he be- came, in association with his brother, Charles H. Gross, an assistant of the brother Frank S. Gross, and upon the decease of the latter attained to the proprietorship of the business. Two years later he formed a part- nership withi Gray & Sons, but this connection was dissolved at the end of fifteen months, since which time ( 1896) William H. Gross has been sole owner of the plant. The product of the Lee quarries is a pure, white marble, fine enough for statuary, and capable of taking a beauti- ful polish. From its density it has long been regarded by scientific building experts as superior to any other variety of native marble now in use for building purposes. The extent of the deposit is about one mile in length and a quarter of a mile wide. The quarry and works are equipped with the latest and best machinery and the workmen are the best to be found in the country. Many notable edifices are con- structed of Lee marble; the new public building, on Broad and Market streets, Philadelphia; the First National Bank building, postoffice build- ing, and wings and terrace of the capitol at Washington, D. C .; the new addition to the capitol at Boston, Massachusetts; the Cathedral and many other New York buildings; the Foster mansion at Lenox; the Farm- ers' and Mechanics', Fidelity and Drexel Buildings, the Caldwell, Jaynes and Messchents stores, Philadelphia; the Newell and Jones buildings of Boston, and very many others. There is a constant shipment of carved trimmings to all parts of the country. Mr. Gross by his administrative ability and his adherence to the strictest principles of integrity com- mands the respect of his fellow citizens, and his generous nature and genial manner have won for him the cordial regard of all.
Mr. Gross' Democracy is of the stalwart type, his active support of men and measures and the characteristic generosity of his pecuniary
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assistance in every campaign being relied upon with absolute certainty and invariably and unhesitatingly given.
He married, August 27, 1903, Miss Kate Tobey, of Thomaston, Maine.
HARVEY STEARNS CROWELL.
The Crowell family is of English origin, and the name is popu- larly supposed to be a contraction of the name Cromwell which took place during the days of Cromwell's unpopularity. The name Crowell is one of the earliest that appears in our New England history, and seems to have spread from the early settlers of Cape Cod.
The paternal grandfather of Harvey S. Crowell with his family removed inland and were among the early settlers in the town of West Brookfield, Massachusetts. His family consisted of two sons, Ste- phen, who was born, married, lived and died in West Brookfield, and whose family became extinct by the death of his only son George; and Nathaniel S., also a native of West Brookfield, where he became a leading citizen. He married a daughter of New Hampshire, Susan Page Stearns, and the issue of this union was two sons: Charles Page Crowell, born 1838, who died in August, 1870, in Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, leaving two daughters, and Harvey Stearns Crowell.
The latter was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, October 6, 1834. He spent his boyhood days on his father's farm, and acquired a good English education in the district schools of that village. When he was only fifteen years of age he went to work with his brother Charles, who was a millwright, with whom he remained four years and then accepted a clerkship in a grocery store in Ware, Massachu- setts, which occupation he followed four years. He then went on a visit to his uncle, Reuben Dutton, in Messena, New York, where he
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established himself in a small grocery store of his own. He conducted two or three stores in different villages in New York state, including one in Hoosic Falls, which he conducted for a period of twelve years. After disposing of the latter he spent one year in Windsor, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. In 1871 he purchased the stock and fixtures of a grocery establishment at the corner of Fenn and North streets, which he conducted with success up to 1888, since which time he has been living in retirement. His political affiliations are with the Dem- ocratic party. January 25, 1865, Mr. Crowell married Martha A. Merithew, daughter of Horace and Lucy Merithew, of Petersburg, New York, and the first year of their married life was passed in Hoosic Falls, New York. In 1869, while a resident of Windsor, Massachu- setts, their only child, Charles H., was born. Charles H. Crowell has been employed for about fifteen years by the A. H. Rice Silk Company of Pittsfield, serving now in the capacity of bookkeeper. He married Julia Phelps Van Rensselaer, daughter of Dr. Walter and Jane Van Rensselaer, of Kingston, New York, and they are the parents of two children: Harvey and Merithew Crowell. They make their home at 88 Bradford street, Pittsfield, with Mr. and Mrs. Harvey S. Crowell. Mr. Crowell is not actively identified with any church; his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his son is an attendant at the Protestant Episcopal church.
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