USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Shelburne > History and tradition of Shelburne, Massachusetts > Part 38
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His sympathy for the unfortunate, whether human or animal, was well known. Many an old horse spent its last days at his farm, Sunnyside, and at one time more than twenty cats were given homes in the barn there. It was hard for him to say no to appeals for financial help, consequently he did not amass a great fortune. He died in 1897.
EDWIN BAKER
Edwin Baker, son of Roswell and Bertha Baker, was born at Hawley, Massachusetts, January 18, 1842. When very young his parents moved to Meri- den, New Hampshire, where he was educated. Later, he prepared to become a pharmacist. He came to Shelburne Falls as manager of the Taylor Pharmacy, which he bought two years later and conducted until his death, with marked success. As his business ability
became recognized, he was called to fill many offices locally, both in business and political institutions. As director and vice president of the First National Bank of Shelburne Falls and trustee of the Savings Bank he contributed, by his conservative judgment, much to the stability of these institutions and to the growth of the town. As moderator of the town meeting he will be remembered as dignified, impartial and able. This office he held for many years. As chairman of the school board and chairman of the Trustees of Arms Academy, he was a familiar figure at graduation exercises, listening attentively while young people performed their final public require- ments. These offices were held so many years that it seemed appropriate to name the grammar school in town for him. As a soldier in the Civil War and a leading figure in the G.A.R., his patriotic nature led him to contribute his one-half share of the lot on which Memorial Hall now stands to the town as a memorial to his commander in the Civil War. He was one of several who annually visited schools to relate a bit about that terrible struggle.
A Republican throughout his life, he served in the State Legislature, 1885-1886. In 1889 he was elected State Senator.
On August 1, 1867 Mr. Baker married Emma Isabel Bannister. She possessed a commanding pres- ence, a remarkable contralto voice, and also ability to assist in the store as she was the first registered woman pharmacist in the State. She was active in the Con- gregational Church in the choir and in the Eastern Star order, holding the office of Grand Matron of the State. Mr. Baker was well known in Masonic circles, holding a thirty-second degree in that frater- nity
His death on August 6, 1924 was a loss to many local institutions.
JOSEPH C. SEVERANCE
Joseph C. Severance, born September 7, 1841, was a farmer on the old homestead farm of his father, Ruel, considered one of the best farmers both in crop raising and stock raising. He served as Repre- sentative in the Legislature in 1899.
HERBERT NEWELL
Senator Herbert Newell was born in Whitingham, Vermont, April 2, 1855. He was educated in the public schools and in Williston Seminary, Easthamp- ton, Massachusetts. He married Addie M. White, November 28, 1878.
The following year he bought the hardware busi- ness from his brothers, the firm name being H. Newell & Co. Later, his son, Baxter H., became manager and at his death his sister, Gertrude, acquired the business. Other business activities included managing the Heath Telephone Co., and acting as director of the Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway.
As water commissioner and chairman of that body,
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he became interested in the installation of the present gravity water system. His political experience also included service in the House of Representatives, be- ing elected in 1895, and in the Senate from 1902- 1904.
In 1882 he became trustee and clerk of the Shel- burne Falls Savings Bank, later becoming vice presi- dent. In 1918 he was elected treasurer of the bank, serving until his death, April 2, 1921.
Socially he was prominent in Lodge work, both with the Alethian Lodge of Odd Fellows and the Mountain Lodge of Masons.
He was Past Grand of the Alethian Lodge of Odd Fellows - Past Chief Patriarch of Alethian Encamp- ment; Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Patriarch's Militant ; a member of Mountain Lodge of Masons and of the Commandery of Knights Templars.
DR. JOSEPH CHARLES PERRY
Dr. Joseph Charles Perry was born May 1, 1856 and died April 26, 1927.
He was a dentist in Shelburne Falls for nearly fifty years, his office being in the wooden building at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets where the new National Bank building now stands.
He was active in Mountain Lodge of Masons, serving as Master in 1887, and belonged to Franklin Royal Arch Chapter, Titus Strong Council, and Connecticut Valley Commandery. He was also a member of local bodies of Odd Fellows, being Noble Grand of Alethian Lodge No. 128 and Chief Patri- arch of Alethian Encampment No. 35. He and his wife, Miriam Packard Perry, were likewise active in the Eastern Star.
Long a Prohibitionist, he was elected on the Repub- lican ticket to represent the First Franklin District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for two terms in 1915 and 1916, serving on the commit- tees on Social Welfare and Counties.
He was associated with his brother, David Perry, in building the first macadam roads in this region, in constructing dams on the Deerfield River for the cut- lery company and at North River for the street rail- way company, and in building a tunnel in Rowe to explore a copper deposit. For a brief time he ran the local newspaper.
His wife, Miriam Packard Perry, taught a Sun- day school class in the Congregational Church for forty years, and her father led the choir in the same church for an equal length of time.
Dr. Perry was generous in the support of every local community enterprise and all local charities.
CLIFTON LAMSON FIELD
Clifton Lamson Field, son of S. T. Field, was born February 8, 1858 in Shelburne Falls, the eldest of seven children. Having graduated from Williston Seminary in 1876 and Amherst College in 1880, he entered the wholesale cutlery business in New York
City where he remained two years and then studied law at the University of Michigan for a year. He completed his law studies in his father's office and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1885. From October 1885 to January 1, 1897 he was engaged in the manufacture of cotton cloth and yarn. He was treasurer of the cotton mill at Shat- tuckville until November 1896, when he was elected clerk of Supreme and Superior Courts for Franklin County, holding this position until 1920. Because of his legal ability and business experience he held many offices of trust, director of First National Bank, trustee of Greenfield Savings Bank, chairman of the Trustees of the Greenfield Library and special judge of Probate.
Mr. Field made daily trips from Greenfield to Shelburne Falls, for many years, in connection with his work at the cutlery. He also assisted many local causes with his counsel.
Mr. Field was a member of All Souls' Unitarian Church and a member of Mountain Lodge of Masons in Shelburne Falls.
At the time of his death, May 12, 1946 at the age of eighty-eight, he was president and director of the Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing Company of Shelburne Falls.
He married Isabella Clapp Bardwell, daughter of Samuel D. Bardwell, and two daughters, Mrs. Lewis Allen and Mrs. F. F. Gilmore of Wellesley Hills, survived him.
CARVER HOTCHKISS
Senator Carver Hotchkiss was born in Scotland in 1805 and was one of four brothers emigrating to a Scotch colony in Nova Scotia. He later lived in New York State for a time and finally made his home in Shelburne Falls where he amassed a con- siderable amount of money buying and selling wool in the building later known as "The Marble Shop." He was prominent in the formation of the Shelburne Falls Bank, later the National Bank, and served as Senator in 1859 and 1860. He was a Spiritualist. He married Sarah Gillette and raised quite a large family - a son, Douglas, lived in the house now owned by his daughter, Hope. He died March 10, 1862.
GEORGE WASHINGTON JENKS
George Washington Jenks was born in Cheshire January 16, 1840. He was educated in the public schools there. His first wife was Abbie Northing of Cheshire. He was in the shoe business here, always maintaining a high grade of merchandise. Later in life he had as a partner, Andrew Amstein. He served in the Legislature in 1892. His second wife was Mary E. Green, mother of Miss Annie Green, of High Street. In addition to raising two children of his own - Charles E. Jenks and Mabel L. Jenks -
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he also undertook caring for his nephew, George, of Brooklyn, and gave him a college education. He died in 1912.
EDWARD K. HALL
Edward K. Hall was born in Granville, Illinois, July 8, 1870, the son of Lucia K. and Charles P. Hall. At the age of eight he moved with his family to Hinsdale, New Hampshire, where he received his elementary school training. Later, he attended St. Johnsbury Academy preparatory to entering Dart- mouth College. After graduating from that college, he served as football coach for one year at the Uni- versity of Illinois at Champaign, Illinois.
During this period his father accepted an appoint- ment as superintendent of schools for the Buckland, Colrain, Shelburne School District in Massachusetts. It was from this place as his home that he embarked on his legal education at Harvard University where he graduated in 1896. He was admitted to the Penn- sylvania Bar and practiced for two years in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Returning then to Boston, he entered the employ of a firm that later became Powers, Hall and Jones. He served as attorney for the New England Tele- phone and Telegraph Company and also as its vice president. In 1917 he was transferred to New York, where he was vice president in charge of personnel and public relations for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Though he had declined an invitation to become president of Dartmouth College, he served as trustee and after his retirement in 1930 moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, a place he had always loved, and was lecturer in the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration until his death, November 16, 1932.
He was always interested in athletics, was a "three letter man," and in 1907 was elected secretary of the National Football Rules Committee and four years later, chairman, serving in that capacity until his death. During this long service his ability and leader- ship brought about changes in the game, making it more interesting to both players and spectators. Among these changes was the drastic "opening up" of the play, greatly reducing the number of injuries to the participants. In gratitude for all this, two minutes of silence was observed by football players all over the country on the day of his funeral.
He married Sally M. Drew of Lancaster, New Hampshire, July 1, 1902. Their children were Doro- thy, now Mrs. Larry Leavitt, whose husband is headmaster at Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, Vermont ; Richard, who died suddenly in his sopho- more year at Dartmouth; and Edward K., Jr., a resident of Upper Montclair, New Jersey. In mem- ory of their son, Richard, "Dick Hall's House," an infirmary, was presented to Dartmouth College. Pres- ident Ernest M. Hopkins paid Mr. Hall the follow- ing tribute, "I have never known him to do a ques- tionable thing or to countenance a mean one." A
clipping from a New York newspaper states that, "He, probably more than any other man, has had more to do with shaping the present type of football play. Mr. Hall's attitude toward football was ex- pressed in 1930 at the annual meeting of the N.C.A.A. in New York City, when he was presented a gold football by the association in commemoration of his twenty-five years of service with the committee. He said then: 'In these soft days of movies, autos, and mushy week-ends, let us preserve in all its virility the ruggedest game we have left. We need its physi- cal contacts, its good-natured roughness, its clash of body and its test of temper. The youth of our land needs this game and the lessons that it teaches. It does them good to play it and it does them good to watch it: and it is up to the friends of the game to rally together to preserve it and all its values, for your boy and for my boy and for their boys and for genera- tions to come.'"
HUGH ELLIOTT ADAMS
Hugh E. Adams was born in Whately, Massa- chusetts, on May 29, 1873, son of Alpheus and Hattie (Gould) Adams. After education in the public schools of his native town and study at Smith Academy in Hatfield, he engaged in the study of law, both in Northampton, where he was employed, and later in Greenfield at the offices of Lamb and Lawler.
On May 1, 1897, he married Cornelia Warren of Morrisville, Vermont.
On passing the bar examination and being admitted in March 1899, he moved with his wife and son, Edwin, to Shelburne Falls. Here, he opened an office and commenced his practice of law.
During the next four years he and his family con- tinued to reside in Shelburne Falls, where, in addition to his legal duties, he became quite active in the Baptist Church, which he and his family attended.
While living in Shelburne Falls, two more children were born to the Adams family - in January of 1900 a daughter, Margaret (Lewis), now living in North- ampton, and in March 1902 a son, Phillip, now living in Greenfield.
After leaving Shelburne Falls in 1903, Hugh Adams continued the practice of law in Greenfield for many years. He was elected and served as clerk of courts for the County of Franklin for twenty-two years, until his retirement on May 29, 1943. He passed away November 26, 1943.
JOHN FARLEY MANNING
John Farley Manning was born April 15, 1880, in the town of Shelburne, the son of Joseph and Emma Farley Manning. His birthplace is situated on prop- erty which has been in his family since the Revolution, and the latter years of his life were spent here. He attended local schools and graduated from Arms Academy. After his graduation from Boston Uni- versity Law School he opened an office on Main Street
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in Shelburne Falls. In 1907 he was married to Bessie Learmont, a native of Buckland. For some years he maintained an office on Bridge Street, which was given up in the 1920's, although he continued a limited practice until his death in 1949. He took great pleasure in gardening, and was active in the Masonic Lodge and in local affairs.
HERBERT PALMER WARE
Herbert Palmer Ware was born July 29, 1882. son of Maria F. Wilcox and Palmer Ware, a descend- ant of Robert Ware of Dedham, who was one of the original settlers in Eastern Massachusetts. After grad- uating from Arms Academy, class of 1899, he at- tended Brown University for one year, later attend- ing Bliss Business College in North Adams. He held business positions in Chicopee, Massachusetts; Thomaston, Connecticut; and New Jersey, and with the F. T. Ley Co. of Springfield. In 1909 he entered Boston University Law School, graduating in 1912. and was admitted to the bar that year. After two years' experience in Boston with the firm of Adams and Blinn, he established a law office in Greenfield. For six years he was State income tax assessor. He served as assessor of the town of Shelburne for about twenty years, as moderator for about thirty years, and was trustee of the Shelburne Falls Savings Bank. He married Alice F. Merrill, daughter of George G. Merrill, on September 25, 1915.
CHARLES E. WARD
Charles E. Ward was born in Buckland, Massa- chusetts, October 17. 1849, son of Sumner Ward and Carolyn Hitchcock Ward. He received his edu- cation in the Buckland Public School and Powers Institute at Bernardston.
He worked for his father at first and later pur- chased his father's lumber and grain business.
On November 28, 1883 he was married to Har- riet Elmer of Conway. He brought her to an attrac- tive home in Buckland which he built himself. Four children were born, and although he had to educate himself, he sent his three daughters to Northfield Seminary first, and then to Cornell University, New England Conservatory of Music, and Bliss Business College, and his son to Dartmouth College.
Always much interested in his community, he served as selectman of the town of Buckland and was on the school board from 1897-1902. He was a popular public speaker and Master of Ceremonies. He also served as trustee of Amherst Agricultural College. MIr. Ward and his wife belonged to the Franklin County Harvest Club. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows.
In 1901 he decided to enter politics and was elected to the State Legislature to represent the First Franklin District. He continued in this capacity for five years, being appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, later serving as chairman of this committee.
In 1913 he was elected to the State Senate where he also was made chairman of the most important Ways and Means Committee.
At the end of his term he was mentioned as candi- date for Governor but declined to run.
He was appointed to the State Board of Mental Diseases in 1915 by the late Governor Walsh, serv- ing two years.
In 1917 he returned with Mrs. Ward, the former Harriet Elmer, to Shelburne Falls where they built an attractive home on Bridge Street. They attended Shelburne Falls Baptist Church.
In 1917 he was named an income tax deputy in Pittsfield, and held this office for three years, retiring at the age of seventy.
In 1921 he was elected town clerk and treasurer of the town of Shelburne, where he served until his death in 1940, being re-elected each year.
He served from 1902-1939 as a trustee of Arms Academy, acting as treasurer.
His great friendliness, integrity and ready wit made him beloved of young and old.
His death occurred at the age of ninety on October 2, 1940.
GEORGE EDWIN STEBBINS
George Edwin Stebbins was born January 27, 1882, the son of Dr. Edwin A. Stebbins and Anna Adella Smith Stebbins. He graduated from Arms Academy in 1899, and from Bates College in 1903. His early experiences were as assistant in the Physics Depart- ment at Bates for one year, then working summers at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York, while he was studying for a doctorate in physics at Clark University. He went to Washington, D. C., as an employee in the Patent Office and pursued, also, a law course at the University of Washington. This work prepared him for a position in Boston with a firm of patent attorneys, Fish, Van Everen and Fish. During this period he finished his law work, receiv- ing his degree at Northeastern, married Miriam Ten- ney, and lived in Swampscott. Two daughters - Dr. Margaret Smith and Mrs. Ruth Woade - and one adopted son, David A. Stebbins, made up his family. He went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was associated with the firm, Bynes and Palmalee. Later, he became head of the firm, Stebbins, Blenko and Webb. He died in July 1947, having become nation- ally known as a patent attorney. His sister, Annette, became the wife of Rev. W. A. Bacon, pastor of the local Congregational Church.
SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES
Records from State Library, compiled by Caleb Benjamin Tillinghast, former State Librarian, of members of Massachusetts General Court and Con- stitutional Conventions from 1790 to 1908. Later records taken from lists on file in office of Sergeant- at-Arms, State House.
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yet unknown. He was married to Esther Haws on September 14, 1775. He returned to this town after each military campaign, and there is evidence that he was commissioned a Captain on June 19, 1780. In the possession of the Gordon Longs on the old Long farm in Shelburne is a Revolutionary War sword which has been handed down as an heirloom, and is presumed to have been Dr. Long's, as he was the only one in the family to have been an officer.
Dr. Long entered into the community activities still further, being a selectman in 1778, 1779, 1780, 1783, and 1786, and being a Representative to the General Court. He and Dr. Ebenezer Childs, who came in 1780, also taught apprentices (which included seven other Doctors Long and Dr. Ebenezer Childs, Jr.) to make pills, powders, and solutions from the two hundred seventy-five locally grown herbs, to set frac- tures with homemade splints, and to extract teeth, bullets, and blood. Dr. Long was also the first mas- ter of Republican Lodge of Masons in Greenfield when it was constituted in 1795, and he was the first to be given Masonic burial honors when he died January 28, 1805 at the age of fifty-eight.
He and Mrs. Long had been blessed with six chil- dren. Lewis, the oldest son, one of the earliest native sons of the town to have a Bachelor of Arts degree, died at the age of twenty-one in 1800.
Dr. Long closed his earthly accounts with a meticu- lous will which bequeathed "his soul to God and his body to the Earth in Christian burial." He left pro- tection to his wife, not with cash, but with a modest home and furniture plus "one horse to ride, two cows and six sheep to use." When Mrs. Long died May 3, 1844, at the age of ninety-one, she had not only been one of the earliest settlers in the town but was the oldest resident at the time of her death.
Dr. Ebenezer Childs was located in the Shelburne area in February 1780 and practiced here until his death November 13, 1813 at the age of fifty-seven years. He was married January 22, 1778 in Hat- field to Miss Elizabeth Frary, who survived him.
His son, Ebenezer, Jr., practiced in Goshen, Mas- sachusetts until the death of his father. He then returned to Shelburne, where he remained until 1834. He then joined the westward movement, and went to Mount Morris, New York; in 1847 he moved again to Mitchell County, North Carolina, where he died during the Civil War. Mrs. Childs, the former Alvira Long, lived to be ninety-two years of age.
Dr. Silas Long, the second son of Dr. John Long, commenced the study and practice of medicine with his father in 1802 at the age of twenty-two. He practiced in Shelburne Center until the end of 1816. He was then a partner in the drugstore of Long & Lyman in Greenfield, from which Theodore Lyman resigned in June, 1818. Although Dr. Long had announced his re-entry into the practice of medicine in September 1817, he concentrated more upon the
store, expanding it into a general store. He and Dr. Robert B. Severance were made honorary members of the Vermont Second Medical Society in 1818. By 1825 he and Dr. Seth Washburn were the practicing physicians in Greenfield. In 1830 he returned to Shelburne, and in 1840 he moved to Oak Park, Illinois, where he died in 1857 at the age of seventy- seven.
He was married to Miss Matilda Stratton in Shel- burne in June 1806. She died in Jefferson, Illinois, July 25, 1845 at the age of sixty-eight.
In 1778 John P. Bull owned real estate in Deer- field Northwest (now Shelburne), and moved his family there from Deerfield Village in 1790. His son, William, born in 1762, was graduated from Yale College in 1777 and was a Revolutionary soldier in 1780. He studied medicine and practiced in Shel- burne. He was much interested in music and published a volume with some of his own compositions. His fondness for music and singing remained with him until his death in 1842 at the age of seventy-nine.
He and his wife, the former Elizabeth Hager, had four children, all boys, and the third one was George. This lad was eager for knowledge, but his father frowned upon his going to college. In spite of a brief interruption for service in the War of 1812, George completed his preparatory studies, mostly by his own efforts. He was associated with the class of 1822 at Williams College, putting himself through by teach- ing, blacksmithing, and other labors, but it took him over six years to complete the requirements. He then studied medicine with Dr. Robert B. Severance of Shelburne Falls, and followed this with twenty years of practice at the Center.
After his father died, Dr. George Bull became more interested in farming, and after the age of fifty he devoted himself exclusively to the raising of Durham cattle and some sixty-five varieties of apple trees. He married Miss Lucy E. Carter of Warwick in 1838, and they had two girls, whose company he could enjoy greatly when he was at the farm. He enjoyed arranging community improvements, meet- ing with the veterans of the War of 1812, and being Vice President of the Shelburne Centennial. He died in 1885 at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.
Dr. Robert B. Severance, the first of the three Drs. Severance to practice in town, was born October 1, 1786. He studied medicine with Dr. John Long and married his youngest daughter, Diana, on Thanks- giving Day, November 27, 1810. He practiced at the Center until the first of 1819, and was given an honorary membership in the Vermont Second Med- ical Society with Dr. Silas Long in February 1818. He gave considerable time to his store, and then his son joined him in the management. Dr. and Mrs. Severance died within five months of each other in 1830 of tuberculosis, and only one of their four chil- dren failed to succumb to the same disease.
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