Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 86

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 86

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Charles M. Booth was educated in the public and high schools of Worcester. He began in busi- ness as clerk in Kinnicutt's hardware store. In August, 1884, he entered Washburn & Moen's of- fices and rose through various positions to sales agent and head of the flat wire and specialty depart- ment of the American Steel and Wire Company. He is a member of Montacute Lodge of Free Masons, Hiram Council, Eureka Chapter and Wor- cester County Commandery, the Tatassit Canoe Club, the Automobile Club. He is a Republican. He resides at 284 Highland street, Worcester. The children of Charles M. and Nellie Florence ( Pevey) Booth are: Edith Florence, born in Worcester, De- cember 12, 1884, died August 2, 1885; Martha Pevey, born in Worcester, December 23, 1890, a student in the Worcester high school.

(VIII) Benjamin Merrill Pevey, eighth child of Benjamin Abbot Pevey (7), was born in Shagticoke, New York, June 6, 1838. He studied dentistry in the office of his brother, Dr. Amos A. Pevey, at Clinton. He practiced first at Clinton, then removed to Worcester with his brother, Dr. Charles K. Pevey. In recent years his office has been at his residence, So Pleasant street. He is a prominent Free Mason, a member of Worcester County Commandery, Knights Templar. He at- tends Union Church. He married, November 19, 1870, Ella Fisk, who died in 1873. Their only child, Frank Fisk; died in infancy.

(VIII) Mary Elizabeth Pevey, daughter of Ben- jamin Abbot Pevey (7), was born in Schaghticoke, New York, February 7, 1841. She married (first), October 17, 1866, Simeon Thompson, and had one son, Simeon E., who has a livery stable at Corona, California; is married and has two sons and two

daughters. She married (second), July 4, 1871, Richard Henry French, and had three children : Sanger Eames and Edith Bradford (twins), born July 6, 1872; Henry, born June 8, 1874, of whom Sanger E. French alone survives. He is a stable keeper, is married but has no children. Mrs. French resides with her son, Simeon E. Thompson, at Corona.

(VIII) Dr. Charles Kimball Pevey, youngest child of Benjamin A. Pevey (7), was born in Schaghticoke, New York, June 6, 1848. He studied dentist. He also learned his profession with his brother, Dr. Amos A. Pevey, at Clinton, and was formerly in partnership with his brother, Dr. Ben- jamin M. Pevey, in Worcester. His present offices are at 438 Main street. He is a Knight Templar and prominent in the Masonic fraternity. He is un- married.

(VIII) Lucy Cummings Pevey, third child of Benjamin Abbot Pevey (7), was born in Green- field, New Hampshire, March 18, 1825, and mar- ried, 1851, George S. Russell, a farmer. They are now living at Wellesley, Massachusetts. Their. children are: George, born 1852, died 1852; William Tolman, born September 20, 1854; Mary Claretta, born December 19, 1857; George Amey, born De- cember 24, 1859, died July 22, 1906.

EBENEZER BUTTERICK, inventor of the cele- brated and useful "Butterick Patterns," was born in Sterling, Worcester county, Massachusetts, May 29, 1826. He was the son of Francis and Ruhamah (Buss) Butterick, grandson of Jonathan and Han- nah (Sawyer) Buttrick, great-grandson of Francis and Hannah (Gilson) Buttrick, great-great-grandson of John and Elizabeth (Falkner) Buttrick, great- great-great-grandson of John and Mary (Blood) Buttrick. The father of the last name John was a son of William and Sarah (Bateman) Buttrick, and grandson of William Buttrick, who was born in England in 1616, came to America from Kingston- on-Thames in 1635, and died in Concord, Massachu- setts, June 30, 1698. Ebenezer Butterick's father was a farmer and carpenter, an active and leading citizen, and the principal founder of a Universalist Society in Sterling, a proof of the intellectual courage which he never lacked, and which his son inherited and enlarged.

The son was educated in the common schools of Sterling and in the Leicester Academy, an ancient and still flourishing school in Leicester, Massachu- setts. The best business habits of his life he credited to his clerkship in his brother's village store, the firm, Butterick and Bartlett. Still a youth, he began the business of tailoring as an apprentice in Worcester, Massachusetts. Careful application soon made him expert and enabled him to establish himself as a merchant tailor of taste and skill in Sterling, Leominster, and finally in Fitchburg, Massa- chusetts. In 1850 he married Ellen Augusta Pollard, of his native town, who died in 1879. leaving a daughter, Mary Ellen Butterick, a son having died in infancy.

In the conduct of his business, Mr. Butterick was much annoyed by the waste of time in cutting children's garments, and conceived the idea that a set of graded patterns would be a great advantage to him and to other tailors, and especially to mothers making clothes for their own children. It was dur- ing a period of recuperation from disabling sick- ness and anxiety that his meditative mind con- ceived this idea. It was highly characteristic that a benevolent impulse and an interest in little children were fundamental to the invention which is now so intimately and honorably associated with his name. In June, 1863, he astonished his wife by telling her

Tenezer Butterick

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that he was going to set about the making of pat- terns as a new business, and her deterrent caution did not avail to check his enthusiastic confidence that he was on the track of a useful and profitable invention. Having made convincing experiments in Sterling, he cut the first salable patterns on an extension table in the sitting room of his Fitch- burg house, 41 Grove street. They were patterns for boys' clothing, and the boy who furnished the first measurements was Clarence Buttrick, a nephew of Mr. E. Butterick, then four years old and now, as then, living in Sterling, Massachu- setts. The first positive success was with the "Butterick Shirt Pattern," but an equal success with patterns for boys' and girls' clothing soon followed. The first patterns were folded by mem- bers of the family, his own and his wife's rela- tives. They were packed in boxes containing each one hundred patterns, and were sold at a whole- sale price of $10 for each box; $25 retail. The first small purchases were made in Shirley, Massa- chusetts. and the purchasers of the first box were James Tuttle & Co., of South Acton. Mr. But-

terick never spent the ten dollar bill which he personally got for this box of patterns, but kept it as an interesting reminder of the day of small things.

In September following the start in June, rooms were taken in a house near Mr. Butterick's, and five girls and women were employed to do the fold- ing under the direction of Mrs. Butterick's sister. A Mr. Curtis, of Fitchburg, did the first printing, and Mr. A. L. Howard of Fitchburg was the first traveling salesman. Another salesman, John Roach, traveling through New Hampshire, Maine and Nova Scotia in the fall of 1863, was successful to a de- gree that was decidedly encouraging. A device for "trimmed patterns" answered a good purpose till the introduction of cuts and drawings on the pat- tern labels superseded it. In the spring of 1864 the work was taken to the old Academy building in Fitchburg, and during the same season Mr. But- terick issued his first fashion-plate, a small one, showing what he could do in the line of children's garments. Later in the year he began publishing gentlemen's fashion plates, accompanied by cut pat- terns, which did away with the labor of tracing and cutting out patterns from diagrams as had been previously necessary.

Some months in advance of these improvements, Mr. Butterick had introduced his patterns in New York. In or about October, 1863, he had taken two upper rooms at 192 Broadway. Almost literally he "took up his bed and walked," for he brought a bedstead of his own invention from Sterling for the back room where, using it by night. by day it could be folded back against the wall. His inventive genius was always seeking and finding new avenues of expression. Shortly Mr. Abner W. Pollard, later for a long time a partner in the business, came to New York to assist Mr. Butterick, his brother- in-law, and he also lodged in the back room, which b- day was store-room and work-shop, in the front room Mr. Butterick meeting his customers. Factory and home were removed to Brooklyn in 1865, De- cember 7th, a day of national thanksgiving for the return of peace. The home gathered in seven per- sons who had assisted in the work in Fitchburg, while for the factory a second story in a dwelling house was at first sufficient room. From time to time a room was added, then a larger building was taken, and finally a commodious building on the corner of Throop and Lafayette avenues, which has until now (1904) been equal to the manufacturing requirements of the business. It was Mr. Butterick's habit to go to the manufactory in its humble stage

every morning before breakfast and sweep the rooms and make the fires, after breakfast going to the New York office. In 1867 Mr. Butterick associated with himself J. W. Wilder, his general agent, and A. W. Pollard, his secretary, in the firm of E. Butterick & Co., and the business throve apace until 1875, when particular circumstances conspired with the financial depression of the time to cripple it seriously. It soon rallied in response to the heroic efforts put forth by Mr. Butterick, his partners assisting to maintain an enterprise in which he had unfailing confidence and pride. The Butterick Pub- lishing Company was organized in 1881. In the meantime subsidiary offices had been established in all important centres in this country and abroad, and the praise of the Butterick patterns was every- where heard, especially as, since 1866, their most significant appeal has been to women, whose con- venience and economy and taste they had pre- eminently served.

In 1883 Mr. Butterick's health suffered a serious collapse. It rallied slowly, but never completely, during the remainder of his life, during which, still interested and influential in the conduct of the business, he lived in a quiet meditative fashion, spending nearly or quite half the year in the town where he was born, and where he made himself a commodious but simple home on a large farm, and endeared himself to all the neighborhood by his cordial friendliness. His participation in the business ceased in 1899, but never his interest in this creation of his mind and heart. Of his physical disabilities he made mental opportunities. His liberal means took nothing from the simplicity of his char- acter and tastes. To gentle manners he united an inflexible will and a sense of justice that was an immovable rock. Of a deeply religious nature, he cherished a most comfortable faith in the openness to each other of this life and the life beyond. He was formally associated with the Metropolitan Art Museum, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the Brooklyn Guild, and the American Unitarian Association. In the welfare of poor chil- dren he had special interest, and a generous. ap- preciation of their needs. No man was ever less injured by good fortune or less convinced that mere money-getting is the chief end of life. After a short illness, he died March 31, 1903, and was buried in Leomister, Massachusetts, a town adjoin- ing the pleasant town where he was born.

DANIEL EDWARD DENNY. Robert Denny (I), to whom the line of Daniel Edward Denny, of Worcester, Massachusetts, has been traced, was living in England in 1590. His children were : Edmund, born probably at Combs, Suffolk county, England, married Johan - ; he was buried at Combs, May 11, 1609; Robert, married Margaret -; he was buried at Combs, February 1, 1624; she was buried there February 7, 1609.

(II) Edmund Denny, son of Robert Denny (I), married Johan -. He was buried at Combs, May 11, 1609. The children of Edmund and Johan Denny were: Edmund, born at Combs, baptized there 1575: Johan, married Wade.

(III) Edmund Denny, son of Edmund Denny (2), was baptized at Combs, 1575. He married Agnes Castard, of Battysford, May, 1601. Among their children was a son, Edmund, born March 31, 1681.

(IV) Edmund Denny, son of Edmund Denny (3), was buried March 31, 1681. He married Dorothea Moore, of Rattlesden, 1627. She died October, 1637. He married (second) Susan Syer (Sawyer). His child by first wife was Edmund,

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died 1707. His children by second wife were: Thomas, buried November 22, 1717; John, died un- married 1684 or 5; Samuel, buried October 7, 1727, married Amy -, who died in 1733; Susannah, mar- ried Ralph Weeler; Deborah, married Thomas Granger, of Ipswich, died about 1685.

(V) Thomas Denny, son of Edmund Demy (4), was born in England and died there November, (buried November 22,) 1717. He married Grace Cook, about 1686. She was born in March, 1655, and was buried December 19, 1741. See sketch of Denny family of Leicester for further details. The children of Thomas and Grace (Cook) Denny were : Edmund, died December 18, 1731; Thomas, horn at Combs, buried there February 17, 1772; Samuel, born 1689, landed in America, July 20, 1717, died June 2. 1772; Daniel, born November 30, 1694, died April 16, 1760; Sarah, married William Green, of Battisford, married (second) Pier- son ; Deborah, born 1699, died June 1, 1766.

(VI) Daniel Denny, son of Thomas Denny (5), was born at Combs, England, November 30, 1694, died April 16, 1760. He was the emigrant ances- tor. He left England in June, 1715, and arrived at Boston, September 12, 1715. He settled in Leicester, March, 1717. He married Rebecca Jones, of Worcester, December, 1722. She died December 20, 1740, aged forty years. For a more extended account of the pioneer in Leicester see sketch of the Denny Family of Leicester in this work. The children of Daniel and Rebecca (Jones) Denny were : I. A child who died young. 2. Thomas, born March 19, 1725, died October 23, 1774; he married Tabitha Cutler, of Grafton, June 25, 1752; she died August 8, 1753, and he married (second), October 21, 1755, Mary (Chaplin) Storrs, widow, of Pomfret, Connecticut; he was a member of the first Provincial congress in 1774; he has been called "most active and zealous of those who in 1770 were in opposition to parliament ; he died while a member of the Provincial congress. 3. Mary, born April 22, 1727, died August 8, 1822; married Nathan Sargent. 4. Rebecca, born April 10, 1729, married John Lynde; married (second) Asa Stow- ers. 5. Samuel, born May 20, 1731. 6. Sarah, born January, 1778, married (first) Thomas Sargent, married (second) Hon. Seth Washburn. 7. Daniel, born October, 1736, died November 17, 1742. 8. Isaac, born August, 1739, died 1743.

(VII) Colonel Samuel Denny, son of Daniel Denny (6), was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, May 20, 1731. He died September 20, 1817. He married Elizabeth Henshaw, September 29, 1757. She was born September 29, 1737, died December 7, 1787. She was a descendant of Joshua Henshaw. John Alden, the Pilgrim of Plymouth, was an- other ancestor. See Henshaw family elsewhere in this work. Samuel Denny was lieutenant-colonel of Colonel William Henshaw's regiment of minute- men which marched upon the Lexington alarm April 19, 1775. February 21, 1776, he was elected colonel of the first regiment in the county of Wor- cester, and in November he was stationed with the army at Tarrytown, New York. He was colonel of the Second Regiment, which was engaged Octo- ber 21. 1779 He was a representative in the gen- eral court in 1778, and was a member of the con- vention called to act upon the ratification of the Con- stitution of the United States in January, 1788. He lived on Moose Hill in the northwest part of the town.

The children of Colonel Samuel and Elizabeth (Henshaw) Denny were: Daniel, born August 6, 1758, died in Worcester, April, 1822; married Nancy Watson; Elizabeth, born March 1, 1760, died No-

vember 18, 1846; married Thomas Walter Ward, of Shrewsbury: Samuel. born April 21, 1762, mar- ried Desire Boyden, June 2, 1812; David, born Jan- uary 7, 1764, married Betsey Spooner; Isaac, born November 27, 1765, married Grace Tidd; William, born September 17, 1757, married Patty Smith ; Sarah, born May 23, 1769, married Stephen Harris; Thomas (afterwards Nathaniel Paine), born July 22, 1771, married Sally Swan; married (second) Mary Denny, of Worcester; Harvard, 1797, studied law under Hon. Nathaniel Paine and by act of the legislature took his name; was seven years a rep- resentative in the general Court, and in 1823 and 1824 was in the senate; he was president of the Leicester Bank; Polly, born August 21, 1773, died October, 1852; married, May I, 1798, Rev John Miles, of Grafton; Joseph, born April 2, 1777, mar- ried (first) Phebe Henshaw; married (second) Lucinda Henshaw, sister of his first wife, and his cousin.

(VIII) Isaac Denny, son of Colonel Samuel Denny (7), was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, November 27, 1765. He was a soldier in the revolu- tion at the age of sixteen. He married May 16, 1703, Grace Tidd, descended from an old Lexington fam- ily. The emigrant John Tidd was a tailor. He came early and was settled in Charlestown, Massachu- setts, and proprietor of the town in 1637. He re- moved to Woburn, the adjoining town, in 1640. He was a town officer there. Isaac Denny died at Hardwick, Vermont, March 19, 1813. His widow, Grace (Tidd) Denny, married in 1818, John Sar- gent, and died in Leicester, Massachusetts, April 16, 1859, aged eighty-five years. Isaac Denny was a farmer. He removed to Hardwick, Vermont, after the revolution and settled there. Washburn's His- tory of Leicester says of his millitary record: "In July 1781, seven men from Leicester enlisted into the Continental service for the term of three months, viz .: Jotham Smith, Isaac Denny, Ebenezer Upham, Asa Green, Marshall Newton, John Hapgood Howe. Some of these were not quite sixteen years of age."

The children of Isaac and Grace (Tidd) Denny were: Harriet, born February 14, 1794, died June 29, 1870; married, April 16, 1816, Elisha P. Mathews, who died March 10, 1861; Gratia, born October 18, 1795, died October 22, 1860; married, March 31, 1829, Ebenezer Williams, of Brimfield, Massachu- setts, where Mrs. Williams died; Maria, born De- cember 3, 1797, married, November 22, 1826; Eliza- beth Henshaw, born January 29, 1801, lived in New- buryport, Massachusetts, unmarried, died Septem- ber 25, 1886; Isaac, born March 8, 1805, died No- vember 24, 1831, unmarried; Laura Amelia, born September 3, 1807, married, June 17, 1834, John Balch, of Newburyport, who died July 11, 1871; she died July 17. 1886; Edwards Whipple, born June 9, 1810, died February 1I, 1865, at Worcester, Massa- chusetts.

(IX) Edwards Whipple Denny, son of Isaac Denny (8), was born in Hardwick, Vermont. He was a deaf mute, but notwithstanding this handicap was entirely successful in business. He was educated at the American Asylum at Hartford, Connecticut. He married, May 4, 1837, Elizabeth D. Stone, who was also a deaf mute. She was born in Eden, Vermont, but both were pupils at Hartford among the first of the pupils of Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, the prin- cipal, who accomplished so much for the deaf and dumb during his lifetime. Dr. Gallaudet's own wife was a deaf mute and he went to Europe to learn the methods of teaching the deaf mutes and to learn how to talk with his fingers. Mr. Denny learned the carpenter's trade and was a skilled wood

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worker. He came to Worcester when it was a small village and bought a large estate on Highland estate, which has become very valuable during the past thirty years. The residence of Daniel E. Denny on West street stands on a portion of the old place. The children of Edwards Whipple and Elizabeth D. ( Stone) Denny, both born in Worcester, were: Ann Elizabeth, February 4, 1841, died December 20, 1857; Daniel Edward, born July 14, 1845.

(X) Daniel Edward Denny, son of Edwards Whipple Denny (9), was born in Worcester, Massa- chusetts, July 14, 1845. He attended the public schools of Worcester and Worcester Academy. . He learned the trade of machinist in the shops of Lu- cins W. Pond and worked for twenty years at his trade, principally for Mr. Pond and at the Wash- burn shops of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He was a skillful mechanic, and perhaps should be cited in a history of Worcester county as a fine ex- ample of the combination of brains and mechan- ical skill in the workshops of Worcester that have built up the city and attracted new enterprises herc. After twenty years of labor at the lathe and drill Mr. Denny accepted a position in the railway mail service. He was promoted step by step till he was "clerk-in-charge." He retired at the end of twenty years to enter the real estate and fire and accident insurance business. Since 1902, when Mr. Denny went into business for himself, he has been in public life and has served the city creditably in several capacities.

He served the city in the common council in 1904 and 1905. He was elected from ward one for a two years term. In his second year he was elected president of the board, one of the highest honors in the city government. Some matters of great public importance have been acted upon since Mr. Denny has been in the city council. He has been on the committees on streets, sewers and on military affairs. The making of a boulevard out of Shrews- bury street from the railroad station to Lake Quin- sigamond has been carried into effect. The Green- wood Street Park has been acquired and the mag- nificent Green Hill estate has been acquired at a nominal figure from the heirs. The water works have been extended along the Asnebumskit brook in Paxton. The city has been redistricted, making ten wards instead of eight. He was a member of redistricting committee. Mr. Denny has been an active and efficient councilman. His good record in the city government was recognized by his constit- tients, and by a flattering vote he was elected to the general court for 1906, from ward one, the fifteenth district.

Mr. Denny is known best from his brilliant ca- reer at the head of George H. Ward Post, No. IO, G. A. R., of Worcester. Mr. Denny entered the service at the age of nineteen in Company E, Forty- second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Mili- tia. He joined the Worcester Grand Army Post in 1869, and has since then been an active member and held various offices from time to time. He has been the commander in 1904 and 1905. During those two years this post made a remarkable gain in membership. Forty years after the civil war and over forty after the military service of most of the men began, this post added to its membership one hundred and twenty-six members, bringing the total membership to seven hundred and sixty-eight, and putting the post in the first place in the coun- try in point of numbers. Those who know the men believe that this post stands at the head also in the character and standing of the members, in their records as soldiers and as citizens. The auxiliary associates of this post number nearly four hundred,

and that also is the largest auxiliary of any post. The head of the post deserves some share of the credit for the strength and gains made in the mem- bership. His earnestness and executive ability have helped materially in putting the post at the head and maintaining the lead.

Mr. Denny is known all over the state among the Knights of Pythias. He was a charter member of Regulus Lodge of Worcester, No. 71, K. P. and was first master-at-arms of that body. He served through the various offices and was elected chan- cellor commander in 1887. He was admitted to the grand lodge the year following under the admin- istration of P. G. C. Charles B. Newton and was appointed grand master-at-arms; in 1891 he was elected grand prelate by a handsome vote. The year following he was chosen grand vice-chancel- lor, and in 1893 was given a unanimous election as the twenty-second grand chancellor of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. When the parade and field day sports of the Knights of Pythias of the state were held in Worcester he was grand mar- shal, a position for which his military training and physique admirably fitted him. Mr. Denny is a Free Mason of high standing. He belongs to Morn- ing Star Lodge, Eureka Royal Arch Chapter, Hiram Council and to Worcester County Commandery, Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Worcester County Mechanics Association and has recently been elected a trustee. He was formerly a member of the Royal Arcanum. He has attended Central church since a young boy.

He married, April 17, 1867, Martha Alice Fisher, daughter of Robert D. and Alice (Russell) Fisher. She was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, Octo- ber 8, 1844. They were married in Worcester. Their children are: I. Frank Edward, born Sep- tember 9, 1869, died May 16, 1872. 2. Alice Eliza- beth, born March 27, 1871, a graduate of the Wor- cester Classical high school, 1890, and afterwards a teacher in the same school for four years; married Peter Robinson Culbert, who is a newsdealer at 334 Main street, Worcester, January 11, 1900; they have one child, Janet Denny Culbert, born December 7, 1904. 3. Edward Arthur, born in Worcester, December 16, 1872, graduate of the Worcester Clas- sical high school, 1892; married Bertha J. Griswold, September 17, 1901, at Worcester; he has been with the State Mutual Life Assurance Company for ten years and is at present assistant cashier. 4. Florence Isabel, born November II, 1881, graduate of the Worcester Classical high school, class of 1900, now employed at the Worcester County Registry of Deeds.

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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 86

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