USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol II > Part 34
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Dr. Babbitt married, September 24, 1835, Ann Eliza Robinson, daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Wells) Robinson. She was educated at the Adams Academy and at Mr. and Mrs. Hyde's Young Ladies Boarding School in Pittsfield. She was a consistent member of the Congregational church, and took an active interest in both local and foreign missionary work.
Thomas Robinson, father of Mrs. Dr. Babbitt, was a native of Windsor, Massachusetts, and a well-known lawyer of his day. After practicing his profession in Adams, Massachusetts, for some years, he moved to North Adams and was appointed master in chancery by Gov- ernor Briggs. At the request of President George Bliss, of the West- ern Railroad Company, he called the first meeting of business men to take action regarding the construction of the North Adams Branch of the Boston and Albany railway. He was one of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of North Adams, and in various ways evi- denced the interest he took in the educational, industrial and business affairs of the town. He died October 3, 1867. He was twice married. By his first wife, Nancy Wells, who died in 1826, he had four children : James T., for thirty years judge of probate for Berkshire county, Massa- chusetts ; Millicent C., deceased, who was the wife of F. O. Sayles, of Adams; Ann Eliza, aforementioned as the wife of Dr. Babbitt, and Mary Sophia, who married Jackson Mason, of Richmond, Vermont. His second wife, Catherine Susana McLeod, of New York, bore him the following children: Alexander M .; Margaret Maria, who married Linden Smith, of St. Louis, Missouri; Elizabeth Rapelie, who married Albert R. Smith, of North Adams; John Cutler, who served as an of- ficer in the civil war; Charles Henry, and William Dennison Robinson.
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FRANCIS WILLIAMS ROCKWELL.
Francis Williams Rockwell, lawyer, was born in Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts, May 26, 1844, the son of Julius and Lucy Forbes (Walker) Rockwell. Since 1630 the ancestors of the family have lived in New England. After a term of study in the public schools of his birthplace, Mr. Rockwell went to the Edwards School at Stockbridge, Massachu- setts, where he was prepared for college. He then entered Amherst, and became prominent as a winner of prizes for oratory and debating and as the class orator of the class of 1868. His next collegiate training was in the Harvard Law School, where he was presiding officer of the stu- dents' assembly, graduating with several of his Amherst friends in 1871. Being at once admitted to the bar, he commenced a practice in Pitts- field which was continued until the present time, except when inter- rupted by terms of service in public office. In 1873 Mr. Rockwell was appointed associate justice of the district court of Central Berkshire, which office he resigned in 1875. He was then for two years clerk of the Pittsfield Fire District, and two years later (1879) was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts house of representatives. In the stormy ses- sion of that year Mr. Rockwell made. in connection with the question of cutting down the salaries of state officials, a speech on the governor's salary which provoked much attention and comment throughout the state. In 1881 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate and was re- elected the following year; it was in the session of 1881 of the senate that he made his famous reply to Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higgin- son, who had attacked Hon. Henry L. Dawes, of Pittsfield. Mr. Rock- well was elected in 1882 a member of the Republican state central com- mittee and in January, 1884, after the resignation from congress of his friend. Hon. George D. Robinson, he was nominated a candidate for
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congress, winning the election after an exciting contest just forty years after his father had first entered congress. In the Forty-eighth con- gress Mr. Rockwell devoted himself untiringly to the intricate inter- ests of his district, which was essentially a business section, his most valuable service being the promotion of the measure to create Springfield " a port of delivery." thereby contributing greatly to the business of the Connecticut valley and western Massachusetts. He was three times re- nominated, serving four terms, from 1884 to 1891. Mr. Rockwell has written extensively for the press, served in various local offices and delivered a great many speeches and addresses upon a wide variety of subjects. He has been president of the City Savings Bank of Pittsfield since 1893. and president of the Pittsfield Republican Club in 1899, and chairman of the Republican city committee in 1900.
Mr. Rockwell was married. June 11. 1873. to Mary Gilbert Davis, of Pittsfield: their children are: William Walker, Henry Davis, Sam- uel Forbes, Julius, Lawrence Dowse. Francis W. and Elizabeth Rock- well.
HON. WELLINGTON SMITH.
Numbered among the strong men of Berkshire county, a generally recognized factor in its business development, a man of moral worth, of political significance and social distinction, is he whose name intro- duces this biography. He is of that fortunate number of New England- ers whose most valuable heritage is the constancy of purpose which characterized the Pilgrim Fathers, from one of whom he is lineally de- scended. Religion and patriotism, industry and integrity were in- grained in these colonial settlers, and throughout the United States the influence of their example is traceable in the careers of their descend-
Wellington Smith
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ants whose name is now legion. (For Smith genealogical data see sketch of the late Hon. Elizur Smith, in this publication.)
Wellington Smith was born in Lee, Massachusetts, December 15, 1841, son of John R. and Parthenia C. (Yale) Smith. On his moth- er's side he is descended from the first couple on record married in Lee. viz: Captain Josiah Yale and Ruth Tracy, who were married Sep- tember 26, 1774. His life work has been the development of the in- terests of the Smith Paper Company, whose chain of mills in and near Lee constitute one of the greatest industries of western Massachusetts. Of this company Mr. Smith has been treasurer for more than forty years. He was president for some years also of the Derby Mills Paper Company, and the first president of the American Tissue Paper Manufacturers Association. He is president also of the Greylock Mills Cotton Company and since 1880 has been a member of the board of directors of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Smith is a Republican, strongly partisan, but in no wise a politician. He has been delegated to numerous conventions, among them the Republican National Convention, which in 1880 at St. Louis, nominated Mr. Garfield for the presidency .. The only office for which his name was ever permitted to be presented as a candidate was that of governor's council, to which he was elected in 1882, serving during Gov- ernor Benjamin F. Butler's term. During this year also Mr. Smith was president of Berkshire Agricultural Society.
Mr. Smith was active in the formation of the local chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, and its first president. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and delivered the address of welcome in the celebration in 1895 of the One Hundredtli Anniversary of the organiza- tion of his lodge, Evening Star, the charter of which was signed by Paul Revere, then Grand Master of the state. He has been a member
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of the Congregational church since 1858 and served as a member of the prudential and finance committees of his church at Lee. His hand- some home at Lee has long been noted for the graciousness of its hospi- tality. He has been twice married, in 1861, to Mary Shannon, who was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, March 25, 1839, and who died in 1877. His second wife is Annie, daughter of the late James Bullard, of Lee.
Mrs. Mary (Shannon) Smith left two children : Augustus R. Smith, for more than twenty-five years in business association with his father and now vice president of the Smith Paper Company, and Miss Mary Shannon Smith, a student of Smith and subsequently of Rad- cliff College and graduate of Stanford University, California. The children of Mrs. Annie ( Bullard) Smith are: Wellington Smith, Jr., a graduate of Williams College, class of 1901, now of the Smith Paper Company : Miss Etta Lucy Smith, who attended Smith College and the Teachers' College of Columbia University, receiving degrees from both of the latter institutions; and Elizur Smith, who entered Williams Col- lege, and is now in business in New York City.
HON. ELIZUR SMITH.
Hon. Elizur Smith, paper manufacturer, for more than twenty years president of the Smith Paper Company of Lee, Massachusetts, and one of the best known and most successful business men of Southern Berkshire, was a native and lifelong resident of this county. He was born at Sandisfield. January 5, 1812, and died on April 3, 1889, at his home in Lee.
He is a descendant of old and substantial, partly Pilgrim, colonial stock, numbering among his ancestors on the paternal side Stephen Hop-
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kins, the fourteenth signer of the " Mayflower " compact, and Nicholas Snow, who came over in 1623 in the " Ann," one of the latest of the " forefather ships," and in the male line tracing back to Ralph Smith, immigrant from England, who settled first at Hingham, Massachusetts, and thence removed to Eastham on Cape Cod. Samuel Smith, born in Hingham in 1641, son of Ralph by his first wife, Rebecca, married in 1665 Mary, daughter of Giles Hopkins, who came over with his father, Stephen Hopkins, and his sister, Constance, in the "Mayflower " in 1620. John Smith, son of Samuel and Mary Smith, born at Eastham May 26, 1673. married, May 14, 1694. Bethia Snow, daughter of Stephen Snow, and granddaughter of Nicholas Snow and his wife, Constance Hopkins. Samuel Smith, second son of John and Bethia Smith, born at Eastham, July 19. 1718. married for his second wife Sarah Snow, of Eastham.
Stephen Smith, Sr .. son of Samuel and Sarah Smith, born Sep- tember 28, 1744, married at Eastham, January 18. 1766, Sarah Pepper, a descendant of Isaac Pepper, one of the pioneers of Eastham. Stephen was the first in this line to pass beyond the narrow limits of the Cape and journey inland to seek a new home. With his wife Sarah, and his brother Reuben, also Reuben's wife, Phoebe Snow, he went to East Haddam. Connecticut, and thence to Sandisfield, Massachusetts. The houses built by them before the Revolution are still standing. Stephen Smith died at Sandisfield at the advanced age of ninety-five years, hav- ing long outlived his wife, who died on August 16. 1796. They were the parents of four children: Samuel and Temperance, who went to New York state: Rebecca, who married John Canfield, Jr. : and Stephen, Jr., who married Mary Canfield, and they were the parents of Hon. Elizur Smith.
When a youth of eighteen, equipped with a common school edu-
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cation, supplemented by a two years' course at Westfield Academy. Elizur Smith took the first step in the business career by engaging as a clerk in the employ of John Nye & Company, proprietors of a paper mill and of a country store at Lee. His salary was twenty dollars a year and his board. His greater gains were the practical knowledge and efficiency compassed by diligent attention to the duties of his position. At twenty-one he became a member of the firm of Plattner, Smith & Company, owners of the " Turkey " mill, built at Tyringham in 1833. In 1835, on the retirement of Milton Ingersoll, the firm became Plattner & Smith. Buying the Union and the Enterprise mills, a mill on the site of the present Housatonic mill, and in 1850 the satinet factory and clothiers' shop on the Laurel Lake outlet. and converting them into the Castle and Laurel paper mills, the firm did an extensive manufac- turing business, being by far the largest producers of writing paper in the United States.
In the meantime Mr. Smith had interests also in a mill at Ancram, New York, with his brother, and in one at Russell with Cyrus W. Field. For a brief period after the death of Mr. Plattner, in 1855, Mr. Smith continued to carry on the business alone. In 1865 he, with his nephews, Wellington and De Witt C. Smith, sons of John R. Smith, formed the Smith Paper Company. After this writing paper was no longer made in the former Plattner & Smith mills, which had produced the first laid paper made in the country. A large and successful business, however. still continued, with four mills having a capacity of one hundred and sixty tons per week and a pulp mill producing a ton a day. Mr. Smith continued as president of the company up to the time of his death, but in the last fifteen years or more of his life had little to do with its active management. He gave much attention to the breeding of fine horses on his famous stock farm " Highlawn," where he had over one
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hundreds thousand dollars' worth of blooded stock. He was one of the first members of the New England Association of Trotting Horse Breeders. His farming interests were a pleasant relaxation, and no doubt, as he claimed, a means of prolonging his life.
A true-hearted American, during the Civil war he was one of the staunch supporters of the Union. While not an active politician, he took a hearty interest in town and state affairs, voted with the Republi- can party, served in various local offices, as representative of the gen- eral court. and as state senator in 1880 and 1881. He was a member of the Congregational church. He was a director of the Lee National Bank, trustee of the Lee Savings Bank, one of the founders and a trustee of the Lee Library Association, and a member of the Lee Business Men's Association.
In March, 1889, Mr. Smith attended the governor's reception in Boston. For a few months previous he had been in failing health, and at the Hotel Vendome he was taken suddenly ill, and upon his return home was confined to the house for a few days. On Monday he was out again, and seemingly as well as usual. His sudden death on April 3 was from heart trouble. On Saturday the Congregational church was thronged by friends and neighbors from far and near, who came to pay a last tribute to his memory. The services were conducted by the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Rowland, who delivered a feeling and appreciative address, dwelling on his business integrity. his benevolence, his refine- ment and gentleness, and on his deeply religious character as the crown- ing quality of his life, commending the study of his career from youth to old age as profitable for aspiring young men of the present generation.
" He was deeply respected and loved in Lee and all over Berkshire because he was so sincere and faithful and because he loved and trusted men. He had no affectations. no effusive professions and manifesta-
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tions. He was modest and grave, but genial and gracious to all, and met the trials and troubles of life with the courage of a man and the heart of a child. When years ago he was overtaken by business disaster and failed, he compromised with his creditors for twenty-five cents on the dollar, and resumed business. But, when a second fortune was ac- quired, he paid every debt in full, principal and interest. He carried to the duties of the citizen the same excellent judgment, the same in- tegrity. courage, and serenity he displayed in business. His influence, lis wealth, his character, were all exerted for the town, for good gov- ernment. for education, for improvement, and the common welfare. All good causes and influences found in him a stanch and generous friend and supporter. He was a rich man, but he made no display, and lived a simple, beneficent life of industry, kindness, Christian fidelity to every duty, and love to kindred, friends, neighbors, and country."
Fond of travel, Mr. Smith made two trips to Europe. besides re- peated journeyings in this country. His first trip to Europe was made in 1849. in his bachelor days, and beginning April 21 occupied nearly six months. In his party were the Hon. Cyrus Field. Dr. Henry M. Field. and Miss Mary Field, afterward Mrs. Stowe, together with a few other congenial companions. On his second European trip, which lasted from November. 1875, to June. 1876, Mr. Smith was accom- panied by his wife. It included considerable time spent in England and some in France, Algiers, Italy. Egypt. Constantinople, together with short excursions in Asia, Greece and Austria.
Mr. Smith married, February 2, 1865, Mary A. Smith, a daughter of Henry and Hannah (Crosby) Smith. Henry Smith, a native of Groton, Connecticut, son of Moses Smith, a Revolutionary soldier. came to Lee when a young man. He married here, and with the ex- ception of a few years that he spent at Hudson, Ohio, he resided in Lee for the remainder of his life, and was engaged in farming. He was a member of the Congregational church. In politics he was first a Whig and later a strong Republican. He served as selectman of Lee and as representative of the general court. He was a personal friend of
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Governor Boutwell. He died in June, 1866. His wife, who was a na- tive of Lee and a daughter of Thomas and Susanna Crosby, died in 1893, a woman greatly respected and beloved. They had seven children, namely : Thomas, deceased. Mary A., widow of Hon. Elizur Smith. Maria C., the wife of W. S. Kelsey, of Marseilles, France. Ermina, wife of F. T. Hamlin, of Marseilles, France. Adelaide S., widow of the Rev. Elias Clark, a Congregational minister. Martha M., de- ceased, who was the wife of Dr. M. M. Frisselle, of Minneapolis, Min- nesota, and Henry L. Smith. Mrs. Smith was born April II. 1826. She was educated at Lee Academy and at Mount Holyoke Seminary, which she attended in 1843-44 as a pupil of Mary Lyon. Mrs. Smith is now widely recognized as a social leader. having an extensive circle of acquaintances. She entertains largely, and numbers among her friends many persons of worth and distinction. She occupies a pleas- ant residence on Franklin street in the town of Lee, Massachusetts.
JOHN MILTON BREWSTER, M.D.
The Brewster family, of which John Milton Brewster, M.D., of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a representative, is of honored Pilgrim stock, lineal descendants of William Brewster, elder of the church at Leyden and Plymouth. Elder William Brewster, born in England, probably at Scrooby. in 1566 or 1567, came over in the " Mayflower " in 1620, and died April 10, 1644 .
The next in line of descent was Love Brewster, who came over with his father, married in 1634 Sarah Collier, daughter of William Collier, and died in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1650. William Brew- ster, son of Love and Sarah (Collier) Brewster, born in Duxbury, mar- ried in 1672 Lydia Partridge, daughter of George and Sarah (Tracy)
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Partridge. William Brewster, son of William and Lydia ( Partridge) Brewster, born in 1683, married Hopestill Wadsworth, daughter of John and Abigail (Andrews) Wadsworth, and removed to Lebanon, Connecticut. Oliver Brewster, son of William and Hopestill (Wads- worth) Brewster, born 1708, married Martha Wadsworth, daughter of Joseph Wadsworth, of Lebanon, Connecticut. Wadsworth Brewster, son of Oliver and Martha (Wadsworth) Brewster, born in 1737, mar- ried Jerusha Newcome, daughter of Silas and Submit (Pinneo) New- come. Oliver Brewster, son of Wadsworth and Jerusha (Newcome) Brewster, born April 2, 1760, in Lebanon, Connecticut, was for some years a surgeon of the New York Regiment in the United States army, commanded by Colonel Brown, of Stone Arabia, and had an experience in medicine and surgery that was of inestimable value to him in later life. On leaving the service he started on horseback northward in search of a favorable place to settle. This he found at Becket, Massachusetts, where he spent the night, and in the morning was induced to remain. Until his death, in 1812, he was one of the leading medical practitioners of that part of the county.
Dr. John Milton Brewster, Sr., son of Dr. Oliver Brewster, was born at Becket, Massachusetts, October 22, 1789. After completing his literary education at the Lenox Academy he read medicine under the efficient tutorship of his father; in 1810 attended lectures in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1812 was graduated from the Boston Medical School. He began the practice of his profession in Becket, remained there until 1821, then removed to Lenox, from whence he removed in 1837 to Pittsfield, where he engaged in active practice until his death on May 3, 1869, a period of fifty-five consecutive years. He was a con- sistent member of the First Congregational Church of Pittsfield. He was a strong Abolitionist, and frequently assisted runaway slaves to the
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next station on the underground railway, at Dr. Sabin's, in Williams- townl.
Dr. Brewster married Philena Higley, and their children were : I. Oliver E., graduated from Williams College in 1834, was a surgeon in the Fortieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry from 1861 till 1865. and died September 12. 1866, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he had been in active practice as a physician for twenty-nine years. 2. John Milton, Jr., born November 28, 1817. 3. Joseph Higley, born January 27, 1820, was ten years a clerk in the State Primary School, at Monson, and afterward was employed in the State Library in Boston : he died in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1878. 4. Flavia Jerusha, born May 23, 1822, deceased, was the wife of the late F. W. Gibbs. of Lee. 5. Henry Badger, born April 14, 1824, deceased, was for many years a farmer in Pittsfield: he married Mary J. Noble. 6. William Cullen, born May II, 1827, died September 9, 1847, was a railway official in Springfield, Massachusetts. 7. Sarah Philena, born September 20, 1829, deceased, was the wife of Robert W. Adam. 8. Mary Minerva, born January 24, 1832, married George H. Laflin, formerly of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
JARVIS NELSON DUNHAM.
Jarvis Nelson Dunham, who at one time was counted among the distinguished politicians, lawyers and insurance men of western Massa- chusetts, was born May 1, 1828, in Savoy, Berkshire county. His father, Bradish Dunham, a son of Job and Elizabeth ( Williams ) Dun- ham, and who was born in Mansfield, Massachusetts, January 19, 1795, removed with his parents to Savoy when about five years old. Bradish Dunham subsequently spent his life in that little town, and until his death, in 1862, was one of its most influential and active men. He married Can-
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clace Cornell, who was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, May 12, 1797, and died in Savoy in 1864. Her father, James Cornell, was a captain in the Revolutionary war. Bradish and Candace Dunham lost one child in infancy. They reared five children, namely: Bradish P., died in 1895: Charles R., died in 1854: Jarvis N .; Henry J., and George. George lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In addition to the educational advantages offered by the district schools of Savoy. Jarvis N. Dunham also had excellent instruction at home from his talented father, and from his mother, who was a woman of rare judgment and looked well after the interests of her boys. Until he was eighteen years old he worked on his father's farm, and then taught school for two years. Though of slight build he was an ath- lete, and seldom found a boy that could throw him in wrestling. At the age of twenty he had his own time and wages, and, being industrious and prudent, saved enough money to enable him to pursue the study of law for a time. In 1850 he married Miss Eliza Cummings, of Ben- nington, Vermont. Afterward he worked as clerk and bookkeeper until, by the joint exertions of himself and wife, he had accumulated a few hundred dollars. Mr. Dunham then entered the law office of Judge Daniel Noble Dewey, of Williamstown, who was then the secre- tary and treasurer of Williams College. While here, besides making rapid progress in law. he was enabled to earn some money toward pay- ing current expenses by doing work relating to college affairs. When the police court was established in Williamstown he was appointed its first justice, but resigned after a short service. In 1856, at the May term of the supreme judicial court, he was admitted to the Berkshire county bar, and immediately began the practice of law in Adams. Six years later he accepted the position of secretary of the Western Massa- chusetts Insurance Company of Pittsfield, and removed to that place,
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where he made his home for the remainder of his life. He resigned that office in 1866 to become the secretary of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company, was chosen its president in 1880. and filled that position until his death. In 1874. 1877 and 1878 he was a representative to the state legislature, and at each term served on important commit- tees. He was vice-president of the Agricultural Bank of Pittsfield for some years, a director of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, and also of the Boston and Albany Railway Company at the time of his death. The latter event occurred at his residence in Pittsfield. on De- cember 2, 1891.
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