Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 21

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I > Part 21

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and influential men of his day in the town. He was in the battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill and White Plains, Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. He was a corporal in Captain Blaney Shirley's com- pany at Lexington. He was first sergeant in Cap- tain John Walton's company, Colonel Brooks's regi- ment, in 1776, and was at White Plains, Trenton and Princeton battles. He was lieutenant in Colonel Thatcher's regiment of Middlesex militia in 1778, and later was captain of the Malden company. After the revolution he was deputy to the general court, and for thirty years justice of the peace and magis- trate. Much of the early history and especially the oral traditions were preserved owing to his interest in them. He is described as a man of towering frame and colossal mind. His son was the orator at the two hundredth anniversay celebration of the foundation of the town of Malden. He died at Malden, July 15, 1834, aged eighty-two years.

He married (second) Lois Diman, daughter of Rev. James Diman, minister of the East Church at Salem, Massachusetts, June 7, 1789, and she died February 22, 1839, aged eighty-one years. The children of Bernard Green were: Bernard, born December 30, 1783; Mary Anne, born August 5, 1791, died young : Eunice Burrill, born October 21, 1792; Ezra, of whom later; Mary Orne, born Au- gust 22, 1796; James Dimon, born October 8, 1798, graduate of Harvard 1817, pastor Third Church, Cambridge, mayor of Cambridge, 1653; orator at the Malden bi-centennial.

(VI) Ezra Green, fourth child of Bernard Green (5), was born at Malden, Massachusetts, February II, 1795. He was educated there in the public schools and at Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. He thought he preferred to follow the sea to study- ing at the academy and without permission of the constituted authorities he shipped before the mast and brought his school days abruptly to an end. Upon his return home he worked on the farm until 1858, succeeding his father on the homestead at Mal- den. He was a Whig in politics and a Unitarian in religion. He was interested in public affairs and wrote several books of travel. He was a man of sturdy character, broad views and unusual general intelligence. He removed from Malden to Lancaster in 1858, and died there in 1862. He had a handsome home in Lancaster, in which his widow has since resided. She is a bright and interesting woman notwithstanding her great age. She was born in 1819. the daughter of Ralph and Abigail (Childs) Richardson, of Vermont.

Bernard Green married Elmina Richardson, 1842. Their children were: Bernard Richardson, born December 28, 1843, married Julia Lincoln, and they have four children; Elmina Minerva, born August 28, 1845, married H. T. Harwood, and they have eight children: Sarah Elizabeth, born April I, 1847, married Charles Wilder, and they have one child; James D., born December 25, 1848, married Elizabeth Damon; George Ezra, born September 17, 1850, died young: Abby F., unmarried : Marion, unmarried. They were born in Malden. Two others died young.

JAMES LOGAN. The "Logan family, repre- sented by James Logan, a prominent Massachu- setts manufacturer, of Worcester, originated in Ayrshire, Scotland. The genealogy of James Logan is traced as follows from the middle of the eighteenth century.

(I) David Logan, of Brouchallmuir, in the parish of Dunlop, in Ayrshire, Scotland, married Elizabeth Muir.

(II) James Logan, son of David and Eliza-

Jane Rogan

WORCESTER COUNTY

beth ( Muir) Logan, was born in the village named above, July 18, 1778, and died March 26, 1860, aged eiglity-one years, eight months and eight days. He married, December 25, 1801, Margaret, daughter of Archibald and Janet (Gibson) Thompson, of Cor- bert. parish of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland; she was born in November, 1782, died August 28, 1825. Their children were: Janet, born November 3, 1802, died August 23, 1855: married John Alli- son; David, September 1, 1805, died July 23, ISI8; Elizabeth, July 31, 1807, died September 30, 1824; Mary, March 30, 1809, died February 27, 1829; mar- ried Alexander Reid : Margaret Thompson, June 15, IS11, died October 27, 1812; Archibald Thompson, July 22, 1813, died January 4, 1886; Margaret Thompson, August 2, 1816, died December 2, 1835; David (see forward) ; Agnes Logan, July 24, 1822, married William Robb.

(III) David Logan, eighth child and third son of James and Margaret (Thompson) Logan, was born in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland, De- cember 5, 1818. He married Mary Kennedy, born in Paisley, Scotland, January 25, 1816. With their children, two sons and two daughters, they sailed in 1852 from Greenock, Scotland, in the ship "Isa- bella," and arrived in the United States after a voyage of seven weeks. David Logan first settled in Connecticut, whence he soon removed to Wor- cester, Massachusetts. He found employment with the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, serving as watch- man for several years, and subsequently located on a farm in Cherry Valley, near Worcester, Massa- chusetts. He died in Cherry Valley, Massachusetts, March 20, 1893. His wife died in Cherry Valley, Massachusetts, September 20, 1888. Of his children, four were born in Scotland, and two in Worcester, Massachusetts. David, born August 16, 1840, in Paisley, Scotland, died in Brewster, New York, October 10, 1902: Margaret, August 2, 1848, in Pais- ley. Scotland, died at North Woodstock, Connecti- cut. February 2, 1902: Annie Kennedy, born Sep- tember 7. 1850, in Paisley, Scotland, became the wife of Lendall Houghton; James, see forward; Oscar Alva, born January 24, 1854, in Worcester, Massachusetts ; John Kennedy, born December 14, 1855. in Worcester, Massachusetts.

( IV) James Logan, fourth child and second son of David and Mary (Kennedy ) Logan, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, May 6, 1852, and was a babe three months old when his parents came to the United States. His life was one of arduous labor from his very boyhood, and his education was in greater part eked out at spare times. As was the custom then in both Great Britain and the United States, boys became bread winners as soon as they were large enough, and at the age of ten years young Logan found employment in the Park- hurst Woolen Mill at Valley Falls, a village near Worcester, Massachusetts. Labor began at five in the morning, the operatives working for two and a half hours before breakfast, the entire mill day being extended to fourteen hours. The machinery was clumsy, even when working at its best the pace was slow, and there were frequent stoppages on ac- count of breakdowns and want of water, that being before the day of steam engines. These delays were of great advantage to the young workman. He had attended school some little before, and he now devoted his hours of enforced relief from work to further improving his mind. The teacher at the Valley Falls school was Mary E. D. King, a noble woman whose entire life was given to school work in Worcester, and whose memory is revered by hundreds of men and women as the friend of their youth, the faithful guide who inspired them to

apply themselves to study, and to fit themselves for the active duties of life. Upon young Logan she left a strong impress, and he ever regarded her with peculiar affection and gratitude. She induced a half-dozen mill lads to come to the school to recite in the odd hours when the mill was shut down, for want of water power, and at noon hour, when the work was more continuous, she heard them recite their lessons. Of this company young Logan alone persisted in continuing his studies and recita- tions, and the fact is significant as showing his determination to procure an education which should enable him to enter upon a larger. career than that of a mere laborer. When about eleven an accident indirectly further advanced him on the highway to success. His arm was caught in a machine and was broken in three places, being almost torn off at the wrist, and leaving a frightful scar for life. While his arm had lost some of its power and use- fulness, he was not incapacitated, and he resumed mill work. At fifteen he was taken ill, and on his recovery, after a period of six months, was able to perform only light mill labor, and the fact that his left arm was weak turned his mind toward bookkeeping. In his sixteenth year he entered B. G. Howe's Business College, which then occupied quarters in the building where the Park theatre now stands, and while attending that school assisted for a short time as billing clerk in the office of S. R. Heywood & Co., the veteran shoe manu- facturer. The next year after completing his com- mercial course, he took temporary employment with the First National Fire Insurance Company, then in the building now occupied by Green's drug store, at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets ; he soon obtained a position as bookkeeper with A. Y. Thomp- son & Co., dry goods dealers, in the Flagg block. on Main street. Here he remained for about two years, receiving $150 for his first year's work, and sleeping on the counter, as was the custom in those days, in order to serve as a watchman over the store. Ilis course now was one of gradual but sub- stantial advancement. After leaving Mr. Thompson he returned to the woolen mill of G. N. and J. A. Smith, Cherry Valley (now operated by their nephew, Channing Smith), in which he had pre- viously worked as a mill boy, and in which he now served for about two years in the capacity of book- keeper. In 1873 he became bookkeeper for Sanford & Company, book sellers and stationers, at the corner of Main and Maple streets, one of the two book stores then in the city, and now conducted by the Sanford-Putnam Company. Finding that his office duties did not require all his time. he volunteered to sell goods in the store in addition to his office duties and developed unusual ability as a salesman. In 1878 he received an offer from David Whitcomb, of G. Henry Whitcomb & Company, envelope manu- facturers (established since 1864, to enter their employ. The salary was considerably less than he had been receiving, but he saw an opportunity for a more extended field of usefulness, and hc accepted. Mr. Logan soon gained an accurate practical knowl- edge of all the processes of manufacture, the marketing of the product, and the details of the business, gaining the entire confidence of his em- ployers. His services as a salesman were of particular advantage, and he contributed in marked degree to the extension of the business.

In December. 1882, Mr. Logan associated with himself George H. Lowe, of Boston, under the name of the Logan & Lowe Envelope Company. A fac- tory was established in the Stevens block, on South- bridge street, Leader machines were installed, and the business was inaugurated most promisingly. In

WORCESTER COUNTY

July, 1883, Mr. Logan received a flattering offer to return to the Whitcomb Company, and the firm of Logan & Lowe Envelope Company, was dissolved, Mr. Lowe returning to Boston to become a partner in the wholesale paper house of Carter, Rice & Com- pany. Mr. Logan's stay was short, and in January, 1884, he with Henry D. Swift, D. Wheeler Swift, and John S. Brigham (all formerly connected with the Whitcomb Company) formed the Logan, Swift & Brigham Envelope Company, for the manufacture of envelopes. A factory was established at 16 Union street, and operations were begun with Leader and Reay machines, which were soon superseded by a new equipment designed by the Swifts, who were the mechanical experts of the enterprise, and who were the inventors of all the envelope folding ina- chinery in the Whitcomb Company. With the ad- vantage of the more rapid production made possible by improved machinery, and Mr. Logan's splendid ability for marketing the goods, the success of the firm was phenominal, and it was of world-wide fame as the most extensive, most completely equipped and most profitable of any in its line in the United States. In 1898 the business was consolidated with that of the Whitcomb Company, the Hill Envelope Company and seven other large envelope manu- facturing firms, under the corporate title of the United States Envelope Company, with Mr. Logan as first vice-president and general manager, positions which he has occupied to the present time. To the complex duties thus devolved upon him, with new problems and new conditions continually arising, he has brought tireless energy and abilities of the highest order, his grasp extending from the initial process through all the stages of manufacture, the continual improvement of the equipment, and the great responsibilities connected with the marketing of the immense product of the factories. At the present time nearly two thousand operatives are constantly employed. Much of the success attend- ing the practical work of the establishment is due to D. Wheeler Swift, the chief mechanical engineer, Of the original Logan, Swift & Brigham Company, Mr. Brigham died February 19, 1897, and Henry D. Swift has retired from business.

Mr. Logan occupies much of his time in the general offices in Springfield, Massachusetts, and makes his home in Salisbury street, Worcester. where he occupies a handsome residence. He has always taken a deep and active interest in com- munity affairs. He was formerly a trustee of the Worcester County Institute for Savings; served for several years as president of the Worcester County Mechanics' Association ; was a director of the board of trade; was a member of the grade crossing com- mission of 1898, and would at that time probably have heen elected to the mayoralty, had he been willing to accept a nomination, but having agreed to accept the office of general manager of the Con- solidating Envelope Company, did not feel he would be able to give to the service of the city the time

which he believed a mayor ought to give. He has ever heen particularly interested in the educational and benevolent institutions of the city. He has long been a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic In- stitute: is a trustee of the Bancroft Scholarship, charged with the use of a fund by George Ban- croft. the historian, in aiding Worcester young peo- ple to a collegiate education ; and is a trustee of the Worcester City Hospital, in which he takes an active and efficient interest. He was one of the chief promoters and has always been among the principal supporters of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion in Worcester, which he has served in the capacity of president, and is at the present time one

of the trustees, and it is largely through his effort that this beneficent institution has been preserved from financial embarrassment. He is also a mem- ber of the state executive committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He is a member of the Central Congregational Church and of its board of deacons. He is an active member of the Congregational Club, of which he has been president; and of the Wor- cester Society of Antiquity. He is a member of various Masonic bodies-Montacute Lodge, Eureka Royal Arch Chapter, and Hiram Council. He is one of the thirty members of the Civic Federation of New England, representing the manufacturers of the state of Massachusetts in that body. Mr. Logan gave to the town of Leicester a park adjoining the cemetery at Cherry Valley ( where he began his life as a school and mill boy) known as Towtaid Park, the Indian name for that locality. He is one of the lecturers upon business topics at Dartmouth College in the Tuck School of Administration and Finance, and in 1904 received the degree of Master of Arts from that institution.

James Logan married, in 1879, Annie D., daugh- ter of Levi Johnson, of Worcester, who for many years was proprietor of the jewelry store in the Bay State House at the corner of Main and Ex- change streets. Mr. Johnson is now (1905) living in Worcester at his home, 12 John street, having retired from business several years ago. He was born in 1819. The children of James and Annie D. Logan are: Oscar Johnson, born September 23, 1880, died August 28. 1881 : Donald Brigham, No- vember 8, 1881, graduated from Dartmouth College in1 1904, taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws; after spending another year in the Tuck School of Administration and Finance he received in 1905 the degree of Master of Commercial Science; Alice, born August 29, 1887; Ruth, born April 20, 1889.

CHACE FAMILY. Bartholomew Chace (1), one of the first settlers of Rhode Island, was proba- bly the immigrant ancestor of Mrs. Maria A. (Chace) Haskell, of Clinton, Massachusetts. The Chace family of Rhode Island has been distin- guished for ability and worth. Most of the des- cendants spell the name Chace in distinction from the numerous descendants of Aquila Chase and his brother, Thomas Chase, of northern Massachusetts and of New Hampshire.

(II) Joseph Chace, perhaps a grandson of the immigrant, Bartholomew Chace, was born about 1680. He settled in Warwick, Rhode Island. His wife Abigail died there November 25, 1730. Their children born in Warwick, were: Gideon, born De- cember 22, 1712; Ebenezer, January 17, 1715: Paul May 22, 1716; Mome, July 23, 1718; Arbra, July 1, 1720; Joseph, January 13, 1723, died young ; Abigail, January 13, 1723 (twin), died young; Mary, June 18, 1726; David. The children of Joseph and Mary Chace, born at North Kingston, Rhode Island, were : Joseph, William, settled in Bellingham, Massa- chusetts, and had Isabel, born May 12, 1758, mar- ried Seth Hayward; Joseph, born August 16, 1764, and others.

(III) Joseph Chace, Jr., son of Joseph Chace (2), was born at North Kingston, Rhode Island, February 16, about 1740. Among the children of Joseph was Charles, born in Rhode Island about 1765. Joseph appears to have been a soldier in the revolution from Bellingham, and his brother Wil- liam settled there permanently.

(IV) Charles Chace, son of Joseph Chace, Jr. (3). was born in Rhode Island about 1762. He was at Cumberland, Rhode Island, November 5.

WORCESTER COUNTY

1786, when he married Abigail Ide, daughter of Timothy Ide, of a well known old family. He lived there a few years, then was at Bellingham, where his father lived at one time and where his uncle made his home. He married (second), also at Cumberland, Rhode Island, December 28, 1794, Ruth Jencke, of Wrentham. Charles and his wife's brother, William Jencke, of Wrentham, bought the Tucker house and farm on what is now known as Chace street in the spring of 1798 of Major Merrick Rice. As Major Rice was one of the lawyers of Lancaster and as the property had come into his hands from Benjamin Houghton and Josiah Cool- idge, who had it two years before from Thomas Tucker, it is probable that the estate had passed from the hands of the Tucker family on account of the hard times at the close of the eighteenth century. The house, like that of William Gould on the Mill road and that of Elias Sawyer at what is now Lancaster Mills, had been begun, but through lack of funds had never been finished. It remained for Mr. Chace to complete it, a large square New England mansion, still standing on the original site between Chace street and the Nashua river. The farm contained about one hundred and fifty acres, or some thirty-five more than in the old Tucker place. The price paid was two housand dollars. In 1802 Mr. Jenks (as the name is now spelled) released his part in the ownership to Mr. Chace.

Mr. Chace was not only a farmer but also a tanner, currier and shoemaker. He bought di- rectly from the neighboring farmers whenever they slaughtered cattle and tanned the hides in vats to the north and south of his house. Some two years after he bought a skin he had it ready for use as leather. His currying and shoemaking were done in a shop one story high, eighteen by. thirty feet. six rods or so west of the house. The sides of leather were hung on the sides of this building to dry. On one side of the shop the drying and dressing were done, on the other the boots and shoes were made by Mr. Chace and his hands and apprentices. He had simple tools and all the work was by hand. His two eldest sons probably learned the whole business of their father, but in later life Alanson confined his activity to shoemaking while the other son Charles became a tanner. Mr. Chace's home life is thus described in the Clinton history : "The family life was that of the ideal New Eng- land home, as it existed in the early part of the century (nineteenth). There was great earnest- ness of religious belief, but no austerity. Mr. Chace belonged to the Rhode Island family of Chaces and brought with him from his old home the Baptist belief. Although the members of the family attended public worship at the old church at Lancaster Center. still they clung to their own form of faith and gathered their neighors to wor- ship with them, and thus became the originators of the Baptist organization in the town. When John Burdett settled in Clinton, they found in him an equally devoted worker. Something of the beau- tiful home life of the family can be surmised from this extract from a letter written by the youngest son to his mother on his thirty-sixth birthday. "This day reminds me anew of the untold, unpaid, and unpayable debt of gratitude which every son is under to a good mother, and for which the only return he can make is to show her that he is not insensible of it. Frequently when not otherwise occupied, does my mind wander back to the days of iny early childhood, when it was so sweet to pillow my head upon my mother's knee, when her lap was my home, the safe refuge to which I flew from every childish grief and trouble. And

there are moments when my spirit, worn and soiled by the cares of life, has lost its freshness and its hope, in which I would fain be that little boy over again and nestle in my mother's bosom and find it as secure a retreat from the trials of manhood as I did then from the trials of infancy."

Mr. Chace died in 1852, aged ninety years. In his will, which was proved in 1852, he mentioned his nephew, Timothy Ide Crowninshield, and his four surviving children : Alanson, Charles, Jr., George Ide and Diana. The children of Charles and Abigail (Ide) Chace were I. Titimothy Ide, born March 6, 1787, at Cumberland, Rhode Island, died Sptember 12, 1789. 2. Sally, born November 7. 1789, married - Crowninshield. The children of Charles and Ruth (Jenks) Chace: 3. Alanson, see forward. 4. Charles, Jr., built the old part of the house at No. 1 Green street; he was a tanner ; settled at Stillriver (Harvard) and became deacon of the church there in August, 1819, and served for more than seventy years. 5. William J., died young. 6. George Ide, who gained a world-wide reputation, prepared for college at Lancaster Acad- emy, graduated as valedictorian of his class at Brown University in 1830; he was for a year prin- cipal of a classical school at Waterville, Maine, then returned to Brown in 1831, as tutor in mathe- matics, in 1833 became adjunct professor of mathe- matics and applied philosophy, in 1836 professor of chemistry, geology and physiology, and filled that chair for thirty-one years; was well known as a public lecturer, traveled in Canada, Nova Scotia and Central America, as well as the western por- tion of his own country in his capacity as mining expert; in 1867 he was acting president of the Uni- versity; resigned as professor in 1872 and traveled abroad; returned to Providence and during the re- mainder of his life devoted himself to the inter- ests of his city and state, chiefly as the chairman of the Rhode Island State Board of Charities and Correction; a volume of his essays published in 1886, reveals his scholarship and ability. Presi- dent Andrews said of him after his death, April 29, 1885: "Professor Chace had the keenest analyti- cal power of any thinker whom I ever heard dis- course * * * and he joined with this a hardly less remarkable faculty for generalization." Diana. 8. Amia Ann.

7. .

(V) Alanson Chace, son of Charles Chace (4), was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, October 22, 1795. He came to South Lancaster, now Clin- ton, with his father when he was very young and was educated there in the common schools. He learned the trades of tanner and shoemaker of his father. In 1818 he and his brother, Charles Chace, Jr., probably with the aid of their father, bought of Seth Grout one acre of land and of James Pitts one acre of land and one twentieth of the water power at the dam now controlled by the Lancaster Mills; they erected a small tannery between the spot where the present machine shop stands and the river. He settled on the homestead at Clinton and as his father was old took charge of the farm and of the shoe making ; about 1828 he sold his house, shop and water rights to James Pitts. He served the district as member of the Lancaster school com- mittee; as one of five representing Clintonville in the division of property when the town of Clinton was incorporated, and was a selectman in the new town of Clinton. He was one of the organizers and most devoted supporters of the Baptist church in Clinton. He built the Chace mansion formerly on Prescott street, now removed to Cedar street. He was, in fact, one of the most honored and trusted as well as among the most public-spirited men of

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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 21

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 824

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824