USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 9
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Mr. Hull is a Democrat who has exercised a very large measure of independence in disposing of his franchise, being animated therein rather by patriotism than partisanship. He was elected to the school committee of Pittsfield in 1877, and served as chairman of that body for five years, when he was compelled to resign on account of pressure
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of business. He was appointed a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Health by Governor Russell in 1893, reappointed by Gov- ernor Wolcott in 1898, and again reappointed by Governor Douglas in 1905. Mr. Hull was a delegate of the Actuarial Society of Amer- ica to the International Congress of Actuaries at Paris in 1900, and was a member of the same Congress of Actuaries in New York in 1903. He was a member of the board of assessors of the First Con- gregational Parish of Pittsfield for a period of twenty-five years, end- ing in 1902, and declining re-election.
He married, November 22, 1876, Helen Edwards, daughter of the late Thomas F. Plunkett, of Pittsfield. (See Plunkett family.) Mr. and Mrs. Hull have three daughters and two sons : Helen ; Rosamond. a graduate of Smith College; Norman C., a graduate of Yale: Edward B., class of 1906, Yale ; and Carolyn.
DR. OSCAR SAMUEL ROBERTS.
New England's centers of population are well endowed with medi- cal talent, and a large proportion of her physicians trace their ancestry to the sturdy pioneers who blazed their way through the wildernesses of the new world. Their sons and daughters, and the progeny of these, in turn, were infused with the same spirit of enterprise, with the same bravery, thrift and conscientiousness that characterized the fathers. And the aggregation of great states that constitute this great nation are foundationally their achievements.
During the closing years of the eighteenth century James Roberts, then of Greenfield, Massachusetts, took his newly wedded wife, Eunice Nimms, to the newly founded village of Whitingham, Vermont. He had a well grounded knowledge of agriculture through practical ex-
Oscar . S. Roberts
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perience in his youth on the homestead farm in Connecticut, where his English ancestors had settled, and he had a well defined love for books. the natural outcome of studious habits as a school boy.
In those days of the young republic each ambitious dweller in the inland towns and villages especially was by stress of circumstances com- pelled to become well informed and indeed expert at more than one call- ing. Thus the farmer was always a miller; the shoemaker often a teacher ; the blacksmith, an oracle upon all subjects.
James Roberts successfully tilled the soil of a large farm at Whit- ingham, a part of a three thousand acre tract granted to him and seven others, March 15, 1780. Contemporaneously and with equal success he practiced law there. His services, too, were in constant requisition in discharging the duties of town clerk (1795-99), selectman (ten years), and other local offices, and he represented his town in the state legisla- ture continuously from 1797 to 1801, and again during 1806 and 1807. He proved equal to his responsibilities in full measure, growing with their development. He was in short, a type of that aggressive, progres- sive and capable American manhood that has builded a nation. He died March 12, 1825, surviving his wife but two months.
He had four sons and three daughters: John, who became a lead- ing lawyer of Townshend, Vermont, which he represented in the legis- lature, 1819 to 1823, and again 1832-33; Horace, also a lawyer, who died in early manhood in Whitingham; James, who followed farming, and with whom he continued to reside until his decease; Thomas, the fourthi son, who was a cripple.
The son James had the same habits of thought that characterized the father although his business was confined to agriculture, which by the time he had attained his majority was becoming much more of a science than in former years. His services, too, were sought and freely
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given in various local offices of trust, where the sole emolument was the consciousness of duty well performed, and he represented his town with credit in the state legislature. In his early manhood he belonged to the local company of militia which served in the war of 1812.
He married three times. His first wife was Susan Brown, a na- tive of Whitingham, by whom he had four children: Susan Minerva, who married Dr. John W. Bement, of Townshend, Vermont ; James M., deceased, farmer of Whitingham; Sarah M., who married Joseph R. Goodnow, of Whitingham; and Martha Ann, who died in early woman- hood. His second wife, Joanna Haskell, bore him four children : B. Franklin, farmer of Whitingham; Edward L., formerly a merchant of Brattleboro; Oscar Samuel, the immediate subject of these memoirs ; and Henry M., farmer of Whitingham.
Oscar Samuel Roberts, born at Whitingham, Vermont, September 17, 1837, supplemented the usual local school attendance with a high school course at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, and academic instruc- tion at Leland and Gray's Seminary, Townshend. During his two years stay at Shelburne Falls he was a member of the family of his sis- ter, whose husband, Dr. J. W. Bement, was a leading physician of that place.
This association first directed his attention to the practice of medi- cine as a desirable profession, and immediately following the close of his school life at Townshend he took up its study under Dr. Bement's pre- ceptorship. In 1861 he came to Pittsfield for the course of lectures of Berkshire Medical College, and the following year was appointed acting medical cadet at one of the United States army hospitals in Philadelphia.
His service in this connection covered a period of two years and afforded him the opportunity which he embraced of attending the medi- cal department and clinics of the University of Pennsylvania. Return-
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ing to Vermont he went to Burlington to enter the medical department of the University of Vermont, and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1864. He then entered upon the practice of his profession at Belchertown, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1868, when he returned to Philadelphia for a final course in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated therefrom with the class of '69. In the same year he located in Pittsfield. He is a mem- ber of Berkshire District Medical Society, Massachusetts Medical So- ciety, and American Medical Association. He served for a number of years as a member of Pittsfield Board of Health, and has been since 1884 secretary of the board of examining surgeons for pensions, at Pitts- field.
Dr. Roberts is one of those born healers of men whose natural in- clination and aptitude for his profession have been augmented by a splendid education, and to this equipment have been added these many years of varied and constantly increasing practice. But the gentleman is something more than the medical expert qualified to accurately diagnose the disease and prescribe the remedy that will assist nature to the best advantage in repairing the damage, something more than the self-reliant surgeon with the requisite skill and nerve for the multiple and trying duties of that branch of the profession. He is a generous, philanthropic man as well, one whose broad humanitarianism is felt by every one with whom he comes in contact, and whose kind face genuinely expressive of interest is illumined by an optimism that bids the most greatly afflicted to hope, and the consequent mental repose of the patient is an instant important factor toward the accomplishment of the de- sired end.
The beneficence of Dr. Roberts is not confined to his contact with his fellow man professionally, but is characteristic. Certainly no finer
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tribute could be paid to another than the remark of one of Dr. Roberts' friends to the writer :
"I have known Dr. Roberts for nearly forty years and have known hundreds of his friends. neighbors, acquaintances and patients, and I have yet to hear the first word impugning his integrity as a man or his ability as a physician."
In 1900 Dr. Roberts took into partnership association a nephew. Dr. Fred A. Roberts, and has since given freer rein to the aesthetic side of his nature, with its love for good literature, music and the arts, and enjoys that which he esteems more highly-the opportunities for more frequent association with his friends. Dr. Roberts was the first Pitts- field man to use an automobile, erected and for a time conducted through a representative the automobile station, and was one of the leading spirits in the founding of the Berkshire Automobile Club.
HON. JOSEPH TUCKER.
One of the oldest and most distinguished of the families of West- ern Massachusetts is that of which the gentleman whose name in- troduces these memoirs is a member. Four generations of Tuckers have resided in Berkshire county and each of these generations has included one or more individuals whose careers have been a beneficence to the community. An extraordinary and perhaps unparalleled record of public service is included in the interesting annals of this interesting family in that for seventy-seven years the office of register of deeds and for ninety years that of county treasurer were continuously held by its members, and the duties of these important trusts were fulfilled with an unvarying efficiency and integrity that speaks in no uncer- tain way of an ancestral rugged honesty, indefatigable industry, and general native worth.
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Robert Tucker, the founder of the family, was in Weymouth. Massachusetts, in 1635, from whence he removed to Gloucester, where he held the office of recorder, later returned to Weymouth, where he held several offices, and finally settling in Milton, Massachusetts, at about the time of its incorporation, in 1662. He bought one hundred and seventeen acres adjoining land previously purchased by his son James. Mr. Tucker was town clerk of Milton for several years, a member of the legislature, and prominent in the church. That he was a man of decided opinions and in the habit of expressing them is indicated by the fact that, in 1640, he was fined for upbraiding a wit- ness, and calling him a liar. The witness was afterward hanged for adultery. Robert Tucker was born in 1604, died March 11, 1682, aged seventy-eight years. His wife was Elizabeth, and probably Elizabeth Allen, for he refers to his brother-in-law, Deacon Henry Allen, in his will, although the latter may have married a Tucker. They were the parents of nine children. The fifth was
Benjamin Tucker, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, 1646, died February 27. 1713-14, married Ann Payson, daughter of Edward an 1 Mary ( Eliot ) Payson, of Dorchester. Mary ( Eliot) Payson was a sister of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. Mr. Tucher settl.d in Roxbury, and had eleven children. The first was
Benjamin Tucker, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, March 8. 1670, died 1728, married Sarah He married for his second wife Elizabeth Williams, born in Roxbury, October. 1, 1672, daughter of Stephen and Sarah ( Wise) Williams, and granddaughter of Robert and Elizabeth ( Stratton) Williams. Robert Williams was born prob- ably in Norwich, England, about 1593. He came to America in 1637. and was admitted a freeman in Roxbury, May 2, 1638. Benjamin Tucker came into possession of part of the land in Spencer and Lei-
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cester which his father had purchased from the Indians in 1686. He was chosen constable in 1710, refused to serve, and was fined five pounds. His fifth child was
Stephen Tucker, born September 23, 1704-05, married. May 31, 1739. Hannah Parks. He married ( second), 1750, Mary Pike, daughter of Onesephorous and Mary (Sanderson) Pike, probably of Shrewsbury. He settled in Leicester, Massachusetts, and had five children by his first wife and eight by the second. One of these was
John Tucker, born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, January 12. 1772, died August 25, 1847, married, March 18, 1802, Lucy Newell, born August 7, 1772, died March 18, 1830. daughter of Benjamin and Lucy (Dodge) Newell. Lucy Dodge, Mrs. Tucker's mother, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, 1744. and died in Pittsfield; her husband, Benjamin Newell, died in Kinderhcok. She was a daughter of Joshua and Margaret (Conant) Dodge. Mr. John Tucker settled in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he was an attorney-at-law. His name is in a list of Episcopalians in Lenox, April 3. 1797. He was register of deeds from the middle district of Berkshire county from 1801 to 1847 and was county treasurer from 1813 up to the time of his decease in 1847. He was the father of seven children. The second was
George Joseph Tucker, born in Lenox, Massachusetts, October 17, 1804, died in Pittsfield. in September. 1878, married, in Syracuse, New York, September 29, 1829, Eunice Sylvia Cook, born in New Marl- boro, Massachusetts, 1807, died June 24, 1843, daughter of Benpamin Warren and Louisa (Kasson) Cook, and granddaughter of Hezekiah and Lydia Cook. He married (second) at Middletown. Connecticut, August 5. 1845, Harriet Sill, born in Middletown. February 28, 1818, died in Pittsfield, September 11, 1884, daughter of Thomas and Clarissa Sill, and granddaughter of Captain Micah Sill, of Lyme, Connecticut.
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Mr. Tucker graduated at Williams College in 1822, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and was an attorney-at-law in Lenox. He was register of deeds from 1847 to 1876. excepting three years, and was county treasurer from 1847 until his death. He had four children by his first wife, and four by his second. His first child was
Joseph Tucker, the immediate subject of these memoirs. He was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, August 21, 1832, was graduated from Williams College, class of 1851, entered upon the study of law under the preceptorship of the late Hon. Julius Rockwell and continued these studies at Harvard Law School and in 1854 went west with the ex- pectation of pursuing his profession there. He was for a time in Detroit, Michigan, and subsequently in St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1859 he returned to Massachusetts and established an office at Great Barrington.
The breaking out of the war of the rebellion found him equal to the duty of the hour. He enlisted as a private, was commissioned first lieutenant of Company D. 49th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, in 1862, went to Louisiana with Banks' Expedition and lost his right leg at Port Hudson while a member of the staff of the First Brigade, First Division, Army of the Gulf. He was mustered out in September, 1863.
From early manhood his services have been sought in the dis- charge of various public trusts. He was state representative in 1865: state senator in 1866 and 1867: United States register in bankruptcy in 1867-8-9, and lieutenant governor from 1866 to 1873. He has been since 1873 judge of the central district court of Berkshire county. He was chairman of Pittsfield's school committee for a period of nine years ending in 1904, when he declined re-election. He is now presi-
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dent of the Pittsfield Street Railway Company and president of the Berkshire County Savings Bank, succeeding Judge Rockwell.
That Judge Tucker has been fully equal to these diverse and im- portant responsibilities is abundant evidence that the mantle of worthy sires is worthily worn by him. With peculiar appropriateness this honored and useful descendant of an honored and useful family was moderator of the last annual town meeting of Pittsfield, and presided at the inauguration of Charles E. Hibbard, first mayor of the City of Pittsfield.
Judge Tucker married. September 20, 1876, Elizabeth Bishop, who died February 12. 1880, daughter of Henry W. and Sarah ( Buck- ley) Bishop, and granddaughter of Hon. Nathaniel Bishop, of Rich- mond, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Bishop was chief justice of the court of sessions, and for twenty years judge of court of common pleas for Western Massachusetts. He died February 1, 1826. Henry W. Bishop, who died in Lenox, April 13, 1871, on the day after his sev- enty-sixth birthday, was graduated at Williams College in 1817, opened a law office in Richmond in 1821, was register of probate for twenty- five years from 1826, and judge of court of common pleas for several years from 1850, and treasurer of Williams College for twenty-three years from 1847.
GEORGE FRANKLIN HALL.
It was a material loss to western Massachusetts when, as an am- bitious youth, the subject of these memoirs elected to seek employment elsewhere than in the place of his nativity. As a descendant of one of that splendid body of men from Lancashire, England, whose brain and brawn, industry and integrity have been potent factors in our national development, the capacity, thrift and enterprise which were his
G. F. Hall
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heritage were inevitably destined to work out for him an honorable, useful and successful business career. The story of his lifework has that fascinating interest that always obtains in the narration of the achievements of men who have been the absolute architects of their own fortunes. He was a son of Timothy Hall, who was born at Cummington, Massachusetts, in 1800, and who died at Pittsfield1 No- vember 10, 1882. Timothy Hall was a son of Thomas and Meral Hall. Thomas Hall spent the declining years of his life in Baltimore. He died when his son Timothy was a small boy, and his widow re- married at Chesterfield, Massachusetts, a few years later.
Timothy Hall, dissatisfied with existing home surroundings, de- termined when sixteen year of age to enter upon the serious business of life, the earning of a livelihood-as his own master. He accord- ingly went to Cheshire. where he was variously employed for ten years, cultivating a small farm during the latter part of this period. and then located at Williamstown, where he purchased a farm. He was subsequently, also, one of the proprietors of a stage line to Great Barrington. He was best known, however, as a pre-eminently capable conserver of the peace and dignity of Pittsfield, where his joint in- cumbency of the offices of constable and deputy sheriff covered the unprecedentedly protracted period of forty-five years. He was a cool and judicious officer. Absolutely fearless in the discharge of his often- times disagreeable and dangerous duties, he was a positive terror to law breakers of all kinds. All good citizens esteemed Timothy Hall and for a full half century no man in Berkshire county was better known or more highly respected.
George Franklin Hall, eldest of the children of Timothy Hall, was born in Williamstown, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, September 17, 1828. His boyhood and youth up to his seventeenth year were
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spent upon his father's farm, and the customary experiences of the farmer's son of miscellaneous muscle-making spring. summer and autumn employment and winter schooling were his. He had a marked taste for mechanics and an especial interest in that epoch-making machine -the locomotive-then inceptively revolutionizing the world's trade interests. In 1845 he abandoned the plow to accept employment with the Connecticut River Railroad, which he served with characteristic zeal and intelligence for seventeen years, during which period he be- came an expert locomotive engineer, recognized as one of the fore- most men of his profession in New England. His hand was at the throttle of the engine that drew the first train over the road from Keene, New Hampshire, to South Vernon, Vermont. It was in 1862 that Mr. Hall's railroad career was terminated by an accident near Holyoke, Massachusetts. Rounding a curve at the point named he was horrified to discover a derelict freight train a few rods in advance of him, and instantly reversing his engine he jumped therefrom, fall- ing upon a ledge of rocks and receiving injuries which invalided him for more than a year. When sufficiently recovered to resume work he accepted the position of engineer for the firm of Hall. Bradley & Company, paint manufacturers, at 211 Centre street, New York, where a further interest of the company named was the sub-letting of floors and furnishing of power to manufacturers. The stationary engine in this plant was the largest of its kind that had up to that time been built, and had been exhibited as such at Crystal Palace Exposition, New York. In keeping with his fixed habit of doing thoroughly well whatever he undertook, Mr. Hall discharged his new duties with such satisfaction and value to his employers that at the end of his first year's service he was presented by them with a bonus of $500. This connection continued until 1868. when Hall. Bradley & Company. seek-
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ing larger quarters for their manufacturing purposes, relocated in Brooklyn, offering at auction sale all of the machinery, belting, etc., in the Centre street establishment save that which was used by them in paint manufacturing. To the chagrin of the firm, which had fully expected to retain his services in the new location, George Franklin Hall, who had determined to embrace the opportunity of entering into business for himself, became the purchaser of the chattels named and the lessee of the premises. Having mastered every essential detail of the power furnishing business, Mr. Hall's venture prospered from the outset. The building known as 211 Centre street is one of the properties of the Cruger estate, of which Mr. S. Van Rensselaer Cruger, comptroller of Trinity Corporation, assisted in administering. The latter gentleman having the highest estimate of Mr. Hall's business capacity, engineering ability and integrity, appointed him in 1890 as consulting engineer for Trinity Corporation, in which he continued to serve up to the time of his decease, being invested with absolute authority in the multiple building operations of this great corporation. During this period Mr. Hall conducted a steam power furnishing plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, established by him in 1888 and operated successfully in conjunction with his similar New York enterprise up to 1898.
In the early 'gos Mr. Hall also embarked in the business of operat- ing the elevator, electric lighting and heating plants in a number of the great business structures of lower Manhattan, the enterprise involving in numerous cases the entire charge of such edifices. This business has developed to large proportions with the G. F. Hall Company, and numerous other companies and individuals are now engaged in this great and ever-increasing industry, in which George Franklin Hall had
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the distinction of being the pioneer as well as having scored the pre- eminently significant success.
In 1892 the fertile business mind of Mr. Hall conceived the forma- tion of a company to undertake the construction of the machinery equipment of the rapidly-building great business blocks, and the " New York Steam Fitting Company" was incorporated with its founder as president and his eldest son, George Edward Hall, as secretary and treasurer. This business was subsequently transferred to his sons Henry L. and Burton P. Hall, under whose proprietorship and management it has grown to substantial proportions.
The G. F. Hall Company, incorporated in 1895 with George Frank- lin Hall, president, and George Edward Hall, secretary and treasurer. conducts all other business interests established by the late George F. Hall, who was succeeded upon his decease. June 8, 1904. in both pro- prietorship and presidency of the G. F. Hall Company by Mr. George Edward Hall. All of these interests have New York headquarters at 211 Centre.street.
Mr. Hall had a winter residence in Hancock street, Brooklyn. while many summers were spent on the old homestead of his father at Pittsfield. He was most devotedly attached to the county of his nativ- ity, and while he was an extensive traveler he never failed upon his re- turn from numerous travels in this country and abroad to give en- thusiastic expression of his preference for the abounding natural beau- ties of the Berkshire Hill country over any locality which he had vis- ited.
A favorite summer pastime of Mr. Hall in his later years was automobile touring, which, in keeping with his characteristic of doing to the best possible advantage whatever engaged him, he accomplished in the best machines which the market afforded. He was a valued and
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valuable member of the Berkshire Automobile Club, which voiced the sentiment of the entire community in which he was born in the follow- ing resolutions which were passed upon his demise :
" In the sudden and untimely death of our brother and friend, George Frank Hall, Esq .. the members of the Berkshire Automobile Club realize that they have been bereft of the society of one of its most worthy, honorable and highly esteemed charter members. His fellow- ship reflected credit and honor upon the club by his social and cordial attitude towards its members, by his judicious counsels and co-operation in its organization and maintenance, and by his liberal contribution to its material needs.
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