USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 11
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Hon. E. H. Kellogg was born at Sheffield in 1812, his father being Elisha Kellogg. He graduated at Amherst College in 1836. He moved to Pittsfield in 1838, andl commence l the practice of law, but after a few years abandoned it for manufacturing. In 1841 he married Miss Caro- line L., daughter of David Campbell. During his residence in Pittsfield he became prominent in public affairs, and many times represented the town in the Legislature, commencing in 1843, and being twice speaker. He died January 23d. ISS2.
Hon. Thomas Colt was born at Pittsfield, June 28th, 1523, being the youngest son of Ezekiel R. Colt. He graduated at Williams College in
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1842. In 1856 he was chosen member of the Executive Council and presi- dential elector-at-large. In 1855 he married Catherine M., daughter of William B. Cooley, of Pittsfield, and granddaughter of Rev. Timothy M. Cooley, D. D .. of Granville.
Nathaniel Fairfield was born in Boston in 1730 ; and his father, who had a large family, having suffered severe peenniary losses, he was adopted by a Mr. Dickinson, of Westfield. In 1848, at the age of eigh- teen, becoming impatient to seek his own fortune, he went with Dan Cadwell to examine the settling lots at Poontoosuck, and probably other land in that vicinity. Before they were satisfied with their explora- tions their provisions gave out, and Mr. Cadwell returned to Westfield for a fresh supply, leaving young Fairfield for three nights alone in the forest, as regarded white companions, but with a disagreeable co-tenantry of savages, whose unmusical voices he heard plainly on every side as he lay in the hollow log which served him for a nightly lodging, and hiding place by day .*
He purchased lot No. 1S south, on the southwest corner of Wendell Square. Having built there his log cabin and opened his clearing, he re- visited Westfield, and returned in 1752, with his wife, to their new home. He had three sons: John, Enoch, and Nathan, who lived and died in Pittsfield. The last named died in 1837, in his seventieth year. His wife, Martha Wells, was born in Wethersfield Four of their five chil- dren grew to maturity. William Wells resides in Rockford, IN .: Na- thaniel was killed by a falling tree on the old homestead in Pittsfield ; Ebenezer died in Adrian, Mich., where he was engaged in the practice of law (He was a candidate for lieutenant governor at the time of his death); Almira Jeannette (Mrs. William Tefft, jr.) resides in Syracuse. N. Y.
William Wells Fairfield was born in Pittsfield, in March, 1800. He has in his possession the bell which his grandfather hung on his oxen when he fled from Indians who sought to drive away the settlers. His wife rode forty miles on horseback, alone, to escape, while the husband joined other settlers in contesting the ground with its red claimants.
HON. CALVIN MARTIN.
The subject of this sketch was born at Hancock, Berkshire county, Mass., August 7th, 1787, being the only son of Gideon Martin, Esq .. of that town. He received his early education in the schools of Hancock and in the Lenox Academy, then one of the most noted institutions of the State, and in which he was afterward a tutor. He studied law with the Hon. Chandler Williams, of Pittsfield, a gentleman as much distin- guished for his incorruptible integrity as for his high professional attain- ments, and was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1814.
In 1816 he married Mary, daughter of Captain David Campbell. and became a permanent and soon a conspicuous citizen of that town. In his profession he was distinguished for sound judgment and thorough
* Family tradition.
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learning and had a special reputation as a real estate lawyer, both among his professional brethren and a large circle of clients.
Like his distinguished preceptor in the law. he was serupulously honorable, even in matters which to most men would seem trivial, and whatever success he had as a man in business he achieved without a single deceit or any thought of guile, and he won, wherever he was known, the name of an honest lawyer.
Much of his success in life was due to his methodical habits, and the knowledge of this, as well as of his serupulous honesty and reliable judg- ment, caused him to be often intrusted with matters pertaining to the ni- nancial interests of the town. In 1849 one of the later instances of this kind occurred. The town, having purchased the fine farin which has since become its beautiful cemetery, intrusted it to a corporation, to be prepared for its purposes as a burial place, and for perpetual manage- ment.
Of this corporation Mr. Martin was made the first president, and con- tinued so until his death, covering the formation period of the institu- tion. An early friend of religion and always deeply interested in the welfare of the community in which he lived, he contributed cheerfully to all objects of Christian benevolence which claimed his aid, and to what- ever, in his judgment, was calculated to advance the good of the town. Influenced perhaps by his early experience as a teacher, he was specially interested in all departments of popular education, and gave throughont his life his cordial support to the public schools in particular. He long contemplated doing something more definitely to advance the cause of general intelligence, and a few years before his death a project being originated for an athenaeum, including a free public library, he entered into an agreement with two other gentlemen, Hon. Messrs. Thomas Allen and Thomas F. Plunkett, by which Mr. Martin promised to give $5,000, and each of the others $1,900, whenever the project was ripe for exeen- tion. This was not till 1811-Mr. Martin having died in the inter- val. His promised donation was, however, paid by his executor, and with it and other promised gifts a fine building on an excellent site was pur- chased and the Athenaeum was established. This has since developed into the Berkshire Athenaeum, which, by the subsequent munificent gifts of Messrs. Thomas and Phinehas Allen, the large liberality of the town, and from other sources, has become a wealthy corporation, with one of the finest buildings of the kind in the commonwealth and a handsome income.
Mr. Martin died September 6th, 1867, aged 80.
Mrs. Mary M. Clapp, widow of the late Edwin Clapp, and Sarah Martin, owning and occupying the old homestead on South street, are his only living children. His sons, Calvin Gideon and George Campbell, both graduates of Williams College, are deceased.
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HON. THOMAS F. PLUNKETT.
Thomas F. Plunkett. youngest son of Patrick and Mary (Robinson) Plunkett, was born at Lenox in 1804. His education as far as schools went, was simply what could be obtained from that excellent institution, the Lenox Academy.
"At the age of eighteen, after two years of vain endeavor to like a mechanical handicraft, he entered the broad field of the world; traveling from town to town through eastern New York; conducting a trade with householders and country- dealers, which, in those days of infrequent communication, rose to considerable pro- portions; meeting at the country-inns the more social spirits of each village, and listening with the hungry eagerness of youth to discussions of questions of the day, often viewed from stand-points novel to him.
"It was during these five years of sharp apprenticeship to life that Mr. Plunkett gained a shrewd knowledge of men, a keen tact in influencing them, and a small moneyed capital. He always declared that this was the great labor of his life. With it he went to Chester, Mass., and commenced the manufacture of siat window-shades. When these passed out of fashion, he purchased a small cotton-factory; and, in it, in eight years, accumulated a moderate fortune, with which he felt that he was free to choose a home from the wide world. And he came to Pittsfield in 1836. A landed domain had always been one of his dreams, and he purchased the farm on Unkamet street, next east of the railroad."
But he soon wearied of the slow processes of agriculture, and. in 1839, commenced the cotton manufacture, as we have related in the proper connection. In 1866, he closed his business in Pittsfield as a manufacturer. But he had previously become senior partner in the firm of Plunkett, Wyllys & Co., cotton manufacturers at South Glastonbury, Conn., of which his son, Major Charles T. Plunkett, is business manager. Without removing from Pittsfield, he continued this business until his death ; and also invested largely in the Union Manufacturing Company of North Manchester, Conn., of which his son, Thomas F., is treasurer and agent, and of which Mr. Plunkett was president at the time of his death.
As a financier, Mr. Phinkett held many honorable positions. For twenty-seven years he was a director of the Agricultural Bank, and for five its president. From the first organization of the Berkshire Life In- surance Company, he was among its most influential officers : and, upon the death of Governor Briggs, in 1861, he succeeded him as president. His business talent contributed essentially to the remarkable success of the company. His services to the town in connection with the gas and water works, Housatonic and Boston & Albany Railroads, the removal of the county seat. and in other particulars, have been of great value.
In political life, Mr. Plunkett would doubtless have been more forti- nate had his convictions permitted him to choose a side more popular in Massachusetts. But, as it was, his success was honorable. He repre- sented Chester in the Legislatures of 1834 and 1835, and Pittsfield! in those of 1868, 1869, and 1875. He was senator from Berkshire in 1842,
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1843, and 1863. He was twice nominated by the democratic party for lieutenant governor. and once for representative in Congress. These positions were, however, but fait indications of the esteem in which he was held. Official place sometimes offered him opportunity to effect cherished objects : but, as a rule, his influence did not depend upon it.
In April. 1830, Mr. Plunkett married Miss Hannah S. Taylor of Chester, who died in 1844. In October. 1847, he married Miss Harriet Merrick Hodge of Hadley. He died October 31st. 1875.
Mr. Plunkett was a man of original and energetic thought, uniquely fitted for the places which he filled. He was a close observer of men and things, with a happy faculty of adapting all he learned to whatever pur- pose he had in hand. His sympathies were quick, and nothing which pertained to the welfare of the community, or of the country, was foreign to them. For forty years he was fully identified with the public affairs of Pittsfield, and during all that time there was hardly a project for pub- lic improvement in whose discussion he did not take part, and few which he was not concerned in carrying out.
WILLIAM POLLOCK.
William Pollock, late a leading manufacturer of Pittsfield, Mass., was born at Neilston, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1808. He learned in his youth the trade of a cotton spinner, and became an adept in it. Har- ing saved some money, he came to Canada in 1835. and purchased a farm of about 150 acres. He spent some six months in labor on it, and then decided to seek employment at his trade. For this purpose he went to Brainard's Bridge. near Troy. N. Y., where he entered into the employ of Gershom Turner, the proprietor of a small cotton mill. He here evinced so much capacity and industry that he was so im appointed su- perintendent of the mill. He was also employed by JJames Turner, son of Gershom, to start another factory at East Nassau. N. Y. Having re- mained in these two places about four years, he removed, in 1840. to South Adams, Mass., and hired a small mill on the premises now occu- pied by the Adams Paper Company, then owned by George C. Rider. and previously by David Anthony. Mr. Pollock entered into partner- ship with Nathaniel G. Hathaway, the firm style being Pollock & Hatha- way. Their business was so successful that, on February 23d, 1842. they were able to purchase the mill. In 1845 they purchased the mill privi- lege next below their factory. and early the next year erected what was known as the Stone Mill, now owned by the Renfrew Manufacturing Company. Since the death of Mr. Pollock it has been partially burned. and, in rebuilding, the two upper stories of brick have been added to the original structure.
In these early years of business on his own account. Mr. Pollock used to go to the mill two hours before the operatives, and usually him self started the wheel and spinning machinery.
Mr. Hathaway sold his interest in the business in ISIS, to Hiram H.
Am Pollock
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Clark, and the style of the firm was changed to William Pollock & Co. The business was thus continued until July 28th, 1855, when Mr. Pol- lock purchased his partner's interest, and changed the style of the busi- ness to William Pollock
In 1865 he received into partnership his nephews, James Renfrew. jr., and James C. Chalmers, who had been in his employ for about ten years, and the firm style became William Pollock & Co.
The next year the mill privileges and land now occupied by the large brick mill of the Renfrew Manufacturing Company were purchased from Alvan Anthony; and early in the following spring the foundations of the mill were laid.
Mr. Pollock removed in 1855 to Pittsfield, where he livedl the rest of his life. In addition to his interest in the South Adams mills, which was yearly increasing in value, he invested in other manufacturing interests, becoming a large owner in the Taconic Woolen Company and the Pitts- field Woolen Company. of Pittsfield ; the Washburn Iron Company, of Worcester : and the Toronto Rolling Mill, in Canada.
He was for several years a director in the Pittsfield Bank, one of the trustees of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, a director in the Western Massachusetts Fire Insurance Company, and a State director of the Western, now Boston & Albany Railroad.
On the organization of the Forty-ninth regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, in 1861, Mr. Pollock equipped. at his own expense. one of its companies, which was known as the Pollock Guards. In 1866 he went to Europe to visit the scenes of his childhood, and for the benefit of his health. Shortly after his return he diel. at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, on the 9th of December, 1856, in his fifty ninth year.
Mr. Pollock, by his untiring industry and great executive ability, achieved a distinguished reputation as a manufacturer and man of bisi- ness, and accumulated a fortune which was dispensed with a generous liberality.
" Grey Tower," the family home, in Pittsfield, with its fine oll na- tive woods, its broad grounds, closely shaven lawns, its grapery and ex- tensive greenhouses, is one of the most charming country seats in all Massachusetts. Mr. Pollock purchased the property, which he greatly improved, in 1855, of Gaius Burnap.
His first wife, whom he married in Scotland, died before his rem wal to this country. She left a daughter who became the wife of Benjamin Snow, of Fitchburg, Mass. He married, the second time, Lucy Jillson, of South Adams, by whom he had one daughter who died in chillibod. He married as his third wife, October 17th, 1855, Miss Susan M. Learne 1. sister of Hon. Edward Learned and George Y. Learned, Esq. prominent citizens of Pittsfield, and daughter of Elward Learnel, contractorof the Boston Water Works. The children by the latter marriage are : George Edward, born August 30th, 15:56 : Sarah, born November 10th. 1857 wife of Edward Livingston, of New York, born in that city December
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16th, 1856, married November 15th, 1882: William, born April 21. 1860. married Fannie D. Greenough, daughter of James Dawson, of Wilming- ton, North Carolina, one child, Margaret ; Edward Learned, born Decent- ber 1st, 1862 ; and Charles Manice, born July 29th, 1864.
THADDEUS CLAPP.
Thaddeus Clapp was born in Pittsfield, Mass .. November 4th, 1821, the eldest in a family of seven children of Thaddeus and Elizabeth (Colt) Clapp. He is the descendant, in the eighth generation. from Captain Roger Clapp, who was born in Salcombe Regis, Devonshire, England, April 6th, 1609 ; sailed from Plymouth for New England, March 20th, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket. May 30th, 1630. He came in the ship Mary and John, Captain Squeb. He settled, with other passengers of the ship, in Dorchester, and filled many important offices. At the age of 28 he was chosen selectman of the town, and fourteen times afterward he was elected to that office. He was several times chosen deputy from Dor- chester to the General Court. He was first lieutenant of the Dorchester company, and afterward its captain. August 10th, 1665, he was ap- pointed by the General Court captain of the Castle (now Fort Independ- ence). in Boston Harbor, and held the office twenty one years. until he was 77 years old. After his resignation from this position the remainder of his life was spent in Boston, where he died February 2d, 1691.
Ilis wife was Johanna, daughter of Thomas Ford, of Dorchester, England, who were passengers in the same vessel with Captain Clapp. She survived her husband between four and five years. She died in Bos- ton June 29th, 1695, aged 78 years.
Of Capt. Roger Clapp it is recorded that he was a remarkably in- dustrions man, and continually engaged in some useful employment ; idleness he detested. He was a man of good judgment, and the frequency with which he was called to be overseer of wills, and other weighty busi- ness matters, show that he stood high among his friends and neighbors. Fourteen children were born to Captain Roger and Johanna Clapp. of whom Preserved Clapp was the sixth: born in Dorchester November 23d, 1643, moved from there when twenty years old, and settled in Northamp- ton, then a far distant settlement in the western limits of the colony, and, with Springfield, comprising the whole inhabited portion of Western Massachusetts. Blake says of him, " He was a good instrument and a great blessing to the town of Northampton. He was a captain of the town, and their Representative in the General Court, and Ruling Elder in the Church."
He married June 4th. 1668. Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Newbury, of Windsor, Conn., who went from Dorchester to that place. He died at Northampton September 20th. 1720, aged 77. His wife died October 13th, 1716. They had eight children. all but one of whom lived to adult age.
Roger Clapp, born May 24th. 1684, was their seventh child. He
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married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Bartlett. They had eight sons and one daughter, all of whom were married and raised families. He was captain in the military company, and a representative to the Gen- eral Court. He died in 1762. aged 78, and his widow died August 9th, 1767.
Jonathan Clapp was their third child, born in Northampton, 1713 ; removed to Easthampton, being one of the first settlers of the town. He had a large family of children. all of whom married and lived to be over sixty years of age. "He was a man of great energy of character. and was prominent in all matters connected with the early settlement of Easthampton." He was a major in the militia.
Of his eleven children Joseph was the second ; born in Easthampton, November 3d, 1736. He was a military captain, and was active in all church and town affairs. The first meeting for the election of officers after the town was incorporated took place at his house, and the church was also organized there. He married Hannah Lyman. They had sev- enteen children, of whom Thaddeus, born March 31st, 1770, was the seventh. He kept the tavern which was first opened by his grandfather, Major Jonathan, and kept successively by his uncle, Jonathan, his father, Joseph, and brother. Luther, extending over a period of nearly or quite a hundred years, being the only public house in Easthampton, and pat- ronized by most of the travel from Hartford and New Haven to the north. He also, in connection with his father, carried on a fulling mill. He was the first justice of the peace in the town, and its treasurer for twenty years ; was representative to the General Court for twelve years. and delegate to the Constitutional Convention of the State ; was also postmaster of the town. " All of his public duties were efficiently and acceptably performed." He married Achsah Parsons. They had seven children, of whom Thaddeus, born in Easthampton March 20th, 1792. was the second. In 1816 he came to Pittsfield, where he became super- intendent and manager of the "Pittsfield Woolen & Cotton Factory." now ". L. Pomeroy's Sons."
In 1825, at its first organization, he became the superintendent of the Pontoosuc Woolen Manufacturing Company, which position he held till 1860. The ability and experience which he brought to his position is well set forth in the following from Smith's History of Pittsfield :
" Mr. Clapp was bred to the clothier's trade in his native town, and afterward perfected himself so far as was then possible in America, in all the details of the woolen manufacture, in the factories at Middletown, Conn., and Germantown. Pa. He was the first American born citizen of Pittsfield who, by his native talent, thor- ough knowledge of his art, and general business qualities, was competent to manage a woolen factory. Indeed, he was the first of any nationality who was so qualified."
He was always on the alert for any improvements, and was never satisfied with his present attainments. He kept an eye to any prospect- ive demands in the trade in woolen fabrics, and was sure to be first in the market with the desired article. Under his supervision Pontooste goods early obtained a reputation which has constantly increased.
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Col. Thaddeus Clapp married. in 1820, Elizabeth, daughter of James D. and Sarah (Root) Colt. Their children were : Thaddeus, James C., Elizabeth, Theodore, Thomas W., Helen, and Margaret. Helen died at the age of ten : Margaret at the age of nine. James C .. Elizabeth. Theo- dore, and Thomas W. were married, and, with the exception of the lat- ter, raised families. Colonel Clapp died April Ist. 1865.
Thaddeus Clapp. the subject of this sketch, is the only one of the children now living. He received his education in the public schools of Pittsfield, where he prepared for college : but entered the Pontoosne Woolen Mill instead, a diversion which, in this case at least, gave Pitts- field one of her most snecessful manufacturers, and one less to fill the ranks of the crowded professions.
Under the eye of his father he enjoyed superior advantages of becom- ing skilled in all that pertains to the manufacture of woolen fabrics, and was well qualified to enter upon his duties, first as assistant superintend ent under his father in 1855, and as superintendent in 1869. In 1865 he became its general agent and superintendent, and upon the death of its president. Ensign H. Kellogg, in 1882, was chosen to that position, which he still (1885) holds.
Since his first connection with the Pontoosne factory. Mr. Clapp has devoted most of his time to its interests, and will be remembered longest as the successful manager of a factory which. under the auspices of him- self and his father, stands among the institutions of its kind second to none in the country. California wool is used exclusively in the goods manufactured at the Pontoosne factory, and Mr. Clapp has made seven- teen visits to that State to make the purchases. The wool is shipped around the Horn. The high standing which the Pontoosne factory has in the country is well set forth in the following, taken from the report of the committee of award at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia :
" The Pontoosuc Factory is one of the most enterprising concerns of which the United States can boast; and which in its rise and progress, the skill it exhibits in its manufactures, and the high reputation it has in making first quality goods, is an honor to the country. During its long and prosperous business career it has sold its goods in every trade center in the country; and they have gone into thousands of homes, missionaries for the expulsion of foreign goods, which they have had a large share in accomplishing. The judges at the Centennial were highly pleased with their display, and awarded it the first prize, besides making special mention of its merits in their report."
In his earlier years Mr. Clapp took an active part in the political questions of the day. In company with a brother. in 1837, he published a campaign paper, entitled " The Herald." a sheet of four pages, font by three inches in size: and afterward. in 1840, a paper which bore the euphonions title of " old Tip :" both of which are real curiosi- ties, when compared with the enormous size of political papers of the present day. He was identified with the whig party, and has voted
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