USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 30
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'Tis but a cot roofed in with straw. A hovel made of clay.
One door shuts out the snow and storm. One window greets the day ; And yet 1 stand within this room And hold all thrones in scorn, For here beneath this lowly thatch Love's sweetest bard was born.
Within this hallowed hut I feel Like one who clasps a shrine, When the glad lips at last have touched The something deemed divine: And here the world through all the years, As long as day returns. The tribute of its love and tears Will pay to Robert Burns.
THADDEUS Z. AYERS.
The subject of this narrative, now living in retirement at his home in Pittsfield, passed his business life in the furniture trade, for some years as traveling representative for an eastern house, subsequently as senior member of the firms of Ayers & Jones and Ayers & Renne, in
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the conduct of a Fenn street ( Pittsfield) store and latterly in the man- agement of the furniture establishment of James Burns and his suc- cessors, H. B. Wellington, Burns (Louis) & Petherbridge, and Louis Burns. Impaired health led to his retirement in 1905. Mr. Ayers was generally recognized as one of the best informed and most capable men in his line of trade in western Massachusetts.
By his marriage to Harriet Harder he has three surviving children : Herbert and Robert Ayers, in the employ of the Pittsfield office of the American Express Company ; and T. Z. Ayers, Jr., with the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company, Morningside.
FREDERICK S. AYMAR.
Prominent among the progressive men of Berkshire county is the gentleman whose name forms the caption for these memoirs. He was born in the city of New York, March 24, 1839. His parents were Samuel and Mary (Seymour) Aymar, the former of French, the latter of English ancestry. Samuel Aymar was born in New York, and for many years carried on a successful ship-chandlery business. His wife, a native of Norwalk, Connecticut, was a descendant of Captain Thomas Seymour, who won his title by valiant service as a soldier of the patriot army in the Revolutionary war. Samuel Aymar removed his family from the neigliborhood of the Battery, in New York city, where his son Frederick was born, to Brooklyn, when the latter was four years of age, and in private schools of that city the lad received his general education.
His business career began when he was but fifteen years of age as a clerk in a ship-chandler's establishment, and two years later be entered his father's employ in a similar capacity. In 1870 he was ad-
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mitted to partnership in the concern which was known as William Aymar & Company. He retired from business in 1879. It was in 1878 that he took up his residence in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he has ever taken an active interest in all measures that have con- tributed in a substantial way to the development of the home of his adoption.
Obtaining early recognition as a most valuable member of society, his services have been almost constantly in requisition as an official, and he has discharged in fullest measure every duty that has devolved upon him. For a long term of years he was a member and chairman of the board of selectmen ; served as overseer of the poor; chairman of the board of health; chief engineer of the fire department, for the organ- ization of which he was largely responsible. and member of the execu- tive committee of the Stockbridge Library Association. Mr. Aymar was the especially active executive committeeman in the securing of plans for and erection of the recently completed town hall of Stock- bridge. Politically, he is a Democrat, and religiously an Episcopalian, and has served since 1884 continuously as clerk and treasurer of St. Paul's church. He was made a Mason in Montauk lodge, Brooklyn, and is an honorary member of Occidental Lodge of Stockbridge.
He married Mary Seymour, of Stockbridge. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Aymar, of whom one, Frederick S. Aymar, Jr., survives.
DR. GEORGE W. BRADLEY.
A graduate of a regular college of optical science, wherein is taught the proper adjustment of glasses as an aid to obstructed vision, is a recognized necessity in every progressive community, and the subject of this sketch, who is now devoting his energies to the useful calling of
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an optical specialist in North Adams, is a regularly equipped exponent of that science.
Dr. George W. Bradley, eyesight specialist, was born in Meriden, Connecticut, July 19, 1866. He is a son of Leonard H. and Martha M. (Talmage) Bradley, the former of whom was born in Branford, Con- necticut, in February, 1839, and his wife's birth took place at Cheshire, that state, in January of the same year. Both are now residing in Meri- den, and Leonard H. Bradley is a well known carriage manufacturer of that town. They have three sons living, namely: Oscar L., George W. and Arthur C. Bradley.
After concluding his attendance at the public schools of his native town George W. Bradley became connected with the silverware business, which he followed for a period of three and one-half years, and the en- suing three years he devoted exclusively to the interests of the Young Men's Christian Association. Becoming convinced that the profession of an optician offered extraordinary inducements to a young man de- sirous of a scientific as well as a useful calling, he decided to thoroughly prepare himself for the work. Entering the Philadelphia Optical Col- lege he pursued the regular course in optics as relating to the principles of human eyesight and the proper manner of protecting and increasing it by artificial means, graduating from that institution in 1890. Re- turning to Meriden he established himself in practice. In 1896 he re- moved to North Adams, and has ever since practiced his specialty suc- cessfully in that city. Dr. Bradley is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has taken the Royal Arch degree. He also affiliates with the Royal Arcanum, Foresters of America, New England Order of Pro- tection and the Workmen's Benefit Association. In politics he is a Democrat. He attends the Baptist church. At Meriden, Connecticut, July 22, 1891, Dr. Bradley was united in marriage with Miss Alice R. Peck, daughter of Julius C. and Grace L. Peck. Of this union there is one son, Harold T. Bradley, boru June 6, 1892.
Byron Heston
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WESTON FAMILY.
The Weston family, one of the best known in Berkshire county, has had four generations of its representatives located in Dalton, and in each of these generations one or more of its members has left the impress of an individuality standing for progress.
Rev. Isaac Weston, born in 1773. received a liberal education and became a Unitarian minister. By appointment of President Madison he filled the office of collector of the port of New Bedford, where he was aggressively active and successful in his measures for the protection of that coast against British cruisers. He married Sarah, daughter of Elial Dean, of Taunton, who represented the Bristol district in Congress. Rev. Weston came in 1814 to Dalton, Massachusetts, where a brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas Green, had previously located. With the latter gentle- man he immediately entered into business relations in the operation of a smelting furnace and foundry. The ore used in this pioneer plant was abundantly found in the brown hematite boulders of that vicinage, and its products were potash kettles, plowshares and stoves. He also in the same year built Dalton's first woolen mill. He died in 1821, leaving five children-Grenville, Franklin, Sarah, Isaiah and Josiah. Of these, Gren- ville (born in 1797), better known as "Colonel" Weston through his efficient military service, was a man of strong and winning personality, endowed, moreover, with excellent business capacity, which was utilized to the advantage of his native county by his capable discharge of the duties of numerous offices of trust, and latterly the county commission- ship, wherein his services were especially valuable. He had a large prop- erty, most of which had to be sacrified to meet obligations incurred by him through the business failure of a friend for whom he had endorsed heavily. He died in 1866, leaving three children, Grenville, Sarah and
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Harriet, all of whom removed to western states. Franklin, second in order of birth of Rev. Weston's children, engaged at Dalton in woolen manufacture. He took an especial interest in Free Masonry. He died in 1867. Josiah Weston, third son of Rev. Isaiah Weston, was a grad- uate of Berkshire Medical College, and was for a few years immediately following established in the practice of his profession in Natchez, Mis- sissippi. Returning to Dalton he married Lucinda, daughter of Zenas Crane. In 1857 he was the Democratc nominee for congress, and al- though in enfeebled health he made a vigorous and brilliant canvass of his district. His opponents were the Rev. Mark Trafford of Westfield, the Know-nothing candidate, and Henry L. Dawes, of Pittsfield, who had been put in nomination by the new Republican party. The obnoxious Kansas-Nebraska bill had worked ruin to the Democratic party in Massa- chusetts, and Dr. Weston, althoughi personally very popular, was defeated by his Republican competitor. A few months later Dr. Weston died in Washington, D. C., aged forty-seven years.
Isaiah Weston, fourth of the sons of Rev. Weston, had a partner- ship association with his brother Franklin in the woolen mill heretofore referred to, and the store operated in connection therewith. He was a man of means, and indulged to an extent a taste for agriculture. He removed in 1835 to Fremont, Illinois, where he died a few years later. He married, at Dalton, Caroline Curtis, by whom he had four children- Isaiah, who located in Colorado, two who are deceased, and
Byron Weston, born in Dalton in 1832, three years before the re- moval of his father to Illinois. The inception of his career as a business man put him in touch with that branch of manufacture with which he was destined to be identified throughout a useful and signally successful business life. He was a bookkeeper at Saugerties, New York, in a mill, the specialties of which were the making of news and book paper, and
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which was managed by one of his uncles. Interested from the outset in paper making. he determined to master its details, and supplemented his initial training along that line by terms of employment at Lindley Murray Crane's mill for the manufacture of fine writing papers, at Ballston. New York, and in some of the leading mills of Hartford. Connecticut. and at Lee, Massachusetts. Shortly after the breaking out of the war of the re- bellion Mr. Weston proceeded to raise a company for the Forty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment, of which company he was chosen captain. This regiment. which was enlisted for nine months, served for one year in the Department of the Gulf, sharing its full measure of the arduous cam- paigns of 1862-63, including the siege of Port Hudson. Returning to Dalton, and restored after a brief period of rest from the debilitation in- cident to the hardships of army life, he set to work with characteristic energy to establish himself in the paper manufacturing business, and pur- chased the Messrs. Henry and A. S. Chamberlain plant, located in the center of the town, which was the outgrowth of the old " Defiance " mill built by David Carson in 1824. Captain Weston enlarged and prac- tically rebuilt this structure, and equipped it with the latest and best ma- chinery for its proposed product-linen record and ledger papers. He also bought from General William F. Bartlett and Colonel Walter Cut- ting the mill site about six hundred feet distant from Defiance mill. where. in 1855, Captain A. S. Chamberlain had built and subsequently operated a paper making plant. This mill, which was burned in 1875, was not rebuilt. Here Captain Weston erected the extensive mill known as " the Centennial." The operation of these mills has been among the conspicu- ously successful achievements in the great manufacturing interests of western Massachusetts, because of both the quantity and quality of the output. Placed in competition with similar products of the greatest mills of the world, the ledger papers of the mills have received gold medals
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
and other testimonials of super-excellence wherever exhibited, notably at Philadelphia, in 1876; Paris, 1878; Australia, 1882; at similar exposi- tions in New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Louisville, Atlanta; World's Fair, Chicago, in 1893; and the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1902. Mr. Weston was the author of a comprehensive and most instructive and en- tertaining history of paper making read by him at the request of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society at a meeting of that body in 1881, and which he subsequently used in part in occasional lectures. Among the noteworthy features incident to the growth of this industry at Dalton, has been the sinking of great artesian wells in obtaining the necessary supply of absolutely pure water. In 1892 the present company was formed, being incorporated under the name of the Byron Weston Company, of which Governor Weston was president until his decease, November 8, 1898. In addition to the multiple benefits which have been the direct outcome to this community of these enterprises, such as the laying out of streets and the building of many homes for employes, Gov- ernor Weston has done much to contribute to the healthy and rapid devel- opment of the town, notably in the erection of his own spacious home. with its beautiful grounds, and the substantial business block, with public hall, built in 1882. His business counsel was highly esteemed and his association secured in the directorates of numerous important institutions. and his service to the commonwealth embraced a term in the state as- sembly of 1874 as senator from northern Berkshire, and his efficient and dignified discharge of the duties of the office of lieutenant-governor of the state, to which he was elected in 1879, 1880, and 1881, with Hon. John D. Long as the candidate for first gubernatorial honors.
Governor Weston was as happy in his marital relations as he was successful as a business man. The lady of his choice was Miss Julia Mitchell, to whom he was married in 1865. To them were born seven
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children : Franklin: Ellen, wife of Hale Holden, of Kansas City, Mis- souri ; Louisa B., Julia Caroline. Philip, Dorothy D., and Donald M. Weston. Mrs. Weston was beloved and honored by all, and her demise on September 4, 1902, was a profound grief in the community which she had for so many years graced with her presence and beneficence. Of her children the first born was
Franklin Weston. Although the decease of Governor Weston was a recognized great loss to Berkshire county, and was naturally felt with especial force in the place of his nativity, where his life work was so splendidly contributory to its well being and development, he most for- tunately left, as a heritage to that community, a son trained under his own wise counsel to assume the burden of large responsibility which he laid down.
Franklin Weston was born August 13. 1866. He attended Greylock Institute, Phillips Academy and was graduated from Andover with the class of 1887. With this substantial general education as a foundation, he immediately entered his father's mill, there to obtain that practical knowledge of paper making in all its branches that equipped him for his subsequent business career. Upon the incorporation in 1892 of the Byron Weston Company, of which his father was president, the son became treasurer, and in 1899, the year following Governor Weston's decease, was elected to its presidency. The continued prosperity of this great industry is a sufficient attestation of the business capacity and is as well a certain indication of the business integrity of its efficient representatives. The recognized equipment of Mr. Franklin Weston for valuable service in the business world is further suggested by his directorship in the Berk- shire Life Insurance Company, the Third National Bank of Pittsfield, and as trustee of the Berkshire County Savings Bank. IIe was one of the incorporators and original stockholders and is one of the board of
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directors of the Berkshire Street Railway Company. He takes an active interest in Grace Episcopal church, of Dalton, of which he has been a warden since its establishment in 1892.
He was married, June 14, 1893, to Edith C., daughter of Edward S. Brewer, of Springfield. Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Weston have four children : Corinne, Byron, Elizabeth, and Julia Caroline.
WILLIAM HENRY DEMONT.
William Henry Demont, who occupies a high place in the business circles of Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, was born July 26, 1841, a son of John Demont (sometimes spelled Dermont), and one of six children, namely: Elizabeth, who married William Miller; they make their home in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Jeannette, who married Joseph Horne, of Adams, Massachusetts; William H., mentioned at length hereinafter : 'Ann, who married Henry Waters, of Adams; James, who married Adeline - , of Adams; Marion, the wife of Ed- ward Andrews; they reside in Adams, and have one child, Lena, who is the supervisor of drawing in Huntington, Massachusetts, and a very talented young woman. The father of these children, John Demont, was a native of Renfrewshire Bridge, Scotland, who in 1854 emigrated to this country, locating in Adams, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he was engaged for a year in the cotton industries. In 1855 he was enabled to send for his family.
William Henry Demont acquired but a limited education. At the age of nine years he was in actual employment as assistant to a cotton and silk printer in his native land, and three years later was employed in a cotton mill. After his removal to Waterbury, Connecticut, he learned the trade of machinist, which occupation he followed during
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the remainder of his active, working life. In 1873 he removed to Pitts- field, where he was engaged at his trade in the Taconic mill. After a few years' service in the latter place Mr. Demont entered the Bell Ais mill, remaining there for eleven years, and the succeeding fifteen years he was engaged in the Pontoosuc Woolen Company as millwright and machinist. Mr. Demont is a first-class mechanic and excellent business man. He was one of the pioneer builders of the North street heights, which is now covered with many beautiful attractive homes. He is ex- tensively interested in real estate, and since his retirement from active business life in 1898 las devoted his attention to his real estate interests. Mr. Demont is a man who has reached a high place in business circles through his own exertion and perseverance. He started in life with very few advantages, a limited education, and no capital except those success-bringing qualities, unfailing energy, determination and perse- verance, and has reached an enviable place in the ranks of successful and prosperous business men. Politically, Mr. Demont affiliates with the Republican party. He and his family are regular and consistent at- tendants of the South Congregational church. In 1864 William Henry Demont was united in marriage to Elizabeth Meal, and the following named children were the issue of this union: Carrie, born 1865, married Thomas Holmes; they reside in Pittsfield and have one child, Florence E .; Fred Albert, born in 1871, married Annie Wright, of North Adams ; they make their home in Watervliet, New York, and have one daughter. In 1871 Mrs. Demont died, and William H. Demont married for his second wife Eliza O'Brien. One son, William Henry, Jr., was born to them. He married Jessie Dickie and they live in Watertown, New York. In 1880 Eliza (O'Brien) Demont died, and Mr. Demont took for his third wife Susan E. Teeling, a daughter of Charles and Susan Teeling. of Rensselaer, New York.
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FRANK MORTIMER WATERS.
That the gentleman whose name introduces this narrative has been a valuable citizen of the place of his nativity. is attested by many monu- ments of a most enduring kind there and elsewhere in Berkshire county- beautiful homes and imposing business edifices, the stone and brickwork of which were erected by him ; and this work is standing the test of time, silent but forceful tokens of the rugged honesty which is the crowning characteristic of the builder.
He was born in Adams, April 27, 1844, son of the late William and Harriet (Kane) Waters, natives of Berkshire county, of Scotch-Irish descent. The late William Waters was for many years the leading mason of Adams, and the son, Frank Mortimer Waters, inherited the father's mechanical skill. The latter attended the public schools in Adams and began the learning of the mason's trade under his father and continued it at Waterbury, Connecticut, whither he had gone with the expectation of remaining. Visiting Adams in 1864, his patriotism was aroused and he enlisted in the Eighth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, with which command he served until the close of the civil war.
Returning to Adams, he was employed as a journeyman mason until 1870, when he entered into business as a contractor for mason work, which vocation he has followed continuously since, meeting with the suc- cess to which honest workmanship, honest materials and general business integrity entitled him. His own home is located upon one of the most charming sites for residences in the Berkshires, and near it are a number of dwelling houses erected and owned by him. His building operations have extended throughout western Massachusetts, including numerous large structures in Pittsfield and North Adams. Mr. Waters was one of the original stockholders of the Greylock National and Co-operative
f. M. Halen
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Banks of Adams. He is a member of Berkshire Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and Berkshire Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. The family church connection is Methodist. Mr. Waters having been for ten years one of the board of trustees of Adams Methodist Episcopal church.
He married. in 1867. Mary A. Andrews, of Cambridge. New York, who died in 1890, her son, George L., having been born in 1876 and died in 1878. Mr. Waters married (second) February 27. 1894. Eliza- beth, daughter of the late Daniel and Elizabeth ( Baum) Goettel, of Syra- cise, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Waters have a daughter, Frances Louise Waters, born May 31. 1896. Mrs. Waters is a sister of the Rev. Philip Goettel, who was pastor from 1893 to 1898 of Adams Methodist Epis- copal church, and is now in the ministry in Troy, New York. He is a graduate of Drew Theological Seminary.
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS FULLER.
Dr. Samuel Fuller (1), the progenitor of the Fuller family in Amer- ica, was of English birth, had been a deacon in John Robinson's church in Leyden, Holland, and in 1620 came to Plymouth Colony in the " May- flower," being one of the signers of the famous compact in the cabin of that memorable ship. He was accompanied by his brother, Edward Fuller, who is said to have been a lawyer, and to have drafted that his- toric instrument. Edward Fuller died during the first terrible winter at Plymouth, leaving one son, who was brought up by his uncle, Dr. Samuel Fuller, as shown in the will of the latter.
Dr. Samuel Fuller was the first physician in Plymouth Colony, and his will, the first to be recorded there, can still be seen in Plymouth Colony Records, volume I, part I, page 22. Dr. Samuel Fuller was married three times; his first wife, Elsie (Glasscock) Fuller,
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died in England; his second wife, Agnes ( Carpenter) Fuller, died in Leyden: his third wife, Bridget (Lee) Fuller, whom he married in Leyden in 1617, did not accompany him on the " Mayflower." but came over in the " Anne " in 1623. Two children were born to Dr. Fuller : Samuel and Mercy.
Samuel Fuller (2), son of Dr. Samuel Fuller, was born'in 1624 and died August 17, 1695. He had been deacon of the church at Plymouth and was the first pastor of the Congregational church at Middleboro, Massachusetts. He was ordained December 26, 1694, but under a li- cense to preach and exhort he labored sixteen years prior to his ordina- tion. He married Elizabeth Brewster.
Dr. Isaac Fuller (3), son of Samuel and Elizabeth ( Brewster) Fuller, died in 1727.
Samuel Fuller (4) was a son of Dr. Isaac and Mary (Eddy) Fuller.
Zadock Fuller (5), son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Thompson) Fuller, was born in Halifax, Massachusetts, September 19, 1744, and died in Lanesboro, Massachusetts, September 17, 1818. The name of Zadock Fuller appears with rank of private on muster roll, company re- turns, and among signatures on order for bounty in Captain John Brad- ford's company, Colonel Theophilus Cotton's regiment, eight months' service, in 1775. (Massachusetts Records, volume 14, page 36; Volume 56, page 71 ; volume 57, file 8.) He married Alice Porter, December 3, 1767.
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