USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 16
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Mr. Pomeroy married in 1836 Frances, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel Bacon, and a sister of Mrs. Henry Colt. Mr. Bacon was a member of Congress and chairman of the committee of ways and means when war was declared in 1812, and afterward chief justice of the Massachusetts Common Pleas, and a judge in Utica, New York, where he removed. Mrs. Pomeroy died in 1851.
In 1852 Mr. Pomeroy married Mary, daughter of Col. Silas Harris, of Pine Plains, New York, who died in 1863, leaving one son, S. Harris Pomeroy, and three daughters. In 1866 he married Miss Laura Knapp. daughter of Joel White. Esq., of New York, who survives him with one son, Theodore.
For several years previous to 1880 Mr. Pomeroy suffered extreme distress from a complication of diseases for which he sought help in the Hot Springs of Arkansas and similar resorts, but with only temporary re. lief. In the early part of 1881 it became but too evident that his disease
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was beyond control and that the end could be but a few months away, and might come at any moment. Still he worked on tranquilly, giving his directions from his chair and then from his bed until insensibility overtook him. When the bells began tolling for the funeral of President Garfield. it was supposed that he had for some days been unconscions of all that was passing, but after a few solemn tones had struck upon his ear he exclaimed, " Is the President dead ?" and almost immediately expired.
The news of his death spread through the crowded streets, and it was hard to decide for which the more tears were shed, for Mr. Pomeroy was a man to be loved as well as respected by those who knew him.
The editor of the Evening Journal, Rev. I. C. Smart, now pastor of the South Congregational Church, wrote thus :
" Upon the solemn background of the nation's awful grief the shadow of all private and local sorrow is projected more feebly than truth requires. Death does not leave the same impression as in ordinary times. And yet when the bells of Pitts- field tolled out so sadly last Monday and the life of Theodore Pomeroy had just passed away, to many hearts the mournful tones had a double significance. While we mourned the nation's dead in common with all the world, there were many who could not forget that here also at home had quietly passed away one who had long held to the same principles which had governed the life of the martyred president. In our midst it was no common man who had passed from us. It was no chance comer, no man who would have been the same had he been born or lived elsewhere who had left a place which any other might as well fill. It was Theodore Pomeroy, one who had not only greatly helped to make Pittsfield what it is, but whose charac- ter had been chiefly moulded under Pittsfield influences. There were some who re- membered the whole course of his life, from his boyhood's play under the old elm to the last weary months of pain which have peacefully ended. In all these years all who have met him have recognized a strong man, powerful in business and powerful in community. Up to the very last we think of him as a strong man, both in intel- lect and in person, firm in will and with clear well-defined purposes. He has suffered much bodily in the few years past, but above all suffering these qualities have re- mained triumphant."
The funeral of Mr. Pomeroy was held Thursday afternoon, Septem- ber 20th, at the First Church, which was deeply draped. It was filled by the Berkshire manufacturers who attended in a body, and the citizens of every class, who gave every evidence of sincere mourning. The pall- bearers were : Hon. William C. Plunkett, of Adams ; Hon. Elizur Smith, of Lee ; William Turnbull, of New York ; N. Sullivan, of New York ; Senator Henry L. Dawes. Pittsfield ; John V. Barker, and Henry W. Taft, Esqrs., of Pittsfield.
Prayer was offered by Rev. J. L. Jenkins, and a funeral address de- livered by Judge Julius Rockwell, who was Mr. Pomeroy's friend and associate from youth. We have made extracts freely from the address and allowed it often to guide us when we have not made formal quo- tations.
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We will, however, quote one more paragraph :
"Young men of Pittsfield, the history of your town should be carefully perused by you. It presents examples for your imitation. I would speak especially to those in the first flush of youth, for then is often the first turning point in life. Mark this in the life of this respected man in whom you have lost a kind and power- ful friend. His evenings were always passed in his father's home. He was never ashamed of being guided by his mother ; and so he came along over the threshold of life temperate and pure ; and was, therefore, in after life respected and successful."
Having by his will made proper provision for his wife and daughters he left the residue of his property to be divided equally between his two sons when the younger should reach his majority : with the hope that they would carry on the manufacturing at least harmoniously as partners.
JOHN C. HOADLEY.
John C. Hoadley was the son of Lester Hoadley and the grandson of Philemon Hoadley, the fourth in descent from William Hoadley, who was a resident of Saybrook, Conn., in 1663, and in 1664 became one of the founders of the town of Bradford. John C. Hoadley was born in Martinsburg, Lewis county, N. Y .. in December, 1818. He learned to read at his mother's knee, and had read the New Testament through be- fore his fourth birthday. His subsequent education was eclectic : being partly gathered at the academies at Potsdam and Utica, but chiefly wherever he could find a teacher in men, books, or nature. In 1835 he was employed as chainman and rodman in the preliminary survey of the railway from Utica to Binghamton. In May, 1836. he entered the ser- vice of the State of New York, on the surveys for the enlargement of the Erie Canal. This work being completed in 1842. he was retained in the employ of the canal board. But in December, 1844. he took charge of the mills at Leominster, Mass., then erecting by H. N. & E. B. Bigelow. where he remainod until 1848. when he removed to Pittsfield and became a partner of Gordon Mckay, in his machine works. Here he was en- thusiastically devoted to all the interests of the town. In 1852, together with Mr. Mckay, he removed to the city of Lawrence, where he became interested in a series of manufactures. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1858, and presidential elector in 1872. He married in 1847, a daughter of Rev. Daniel Kimball. of Needham, who died June 12th, 184S. On the 15th of September. 1853, he married Catherine Gansevoort, daughter of Allan Melville and Catherine Gansevoort.
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ABRAHAM BURBANK.
A sketch of the life of Abraham Burbank will show from what small beginnings and through what a series of misfortunes industry, honesty, and cheerful courage have carried the largest real estate owner and most extensive builder in Pittsfield to his present position.
Abraham Burbank was born June 13th, 1813, in the Fourth Parish of the town of West Springfield, Mass. His father, Arthur Burbank, was a farmer, but of frail health, and had a family of two sons and five daughters, so that Abraham, at the age of eight, went to live with his maternal grandfather. Eleazer Bates. Mr. Bates had been a soldier for five years in the Revolutionary war, and afterward became a thriving farmer. He held to the old proverb, " Honesty is the best policy, the world over." and taught his grandson to adopt it as his motto. He appears in this and other respects to have moulded Abraham Burbank's character, teach - ing him industry, economy, and perseverance. Mr. Burbank cherishes his memory with grateful fondness, and says that he shall do so " while life lasts and he has his reason."
While he resided with his grandfather an incident occurred which is illustrative of the times, and also of Mr. Burbank's character. When he was eleven years old his cousin, Harrison Bates, came to visit them. The workmen, as was the custom of the day. had their cider brandy, and his cousin. of about the same age as himself, said to him, "Can't we drink as much as the men ?" Boylike, they turned out the brandy and drank it off. It was probably not so much as the men drank. but he knew nothing until the following morning. When he came down to breakfast he was well laughed at for " getting tight." and. ever since that boyish experience. he has " kept his head." His grandfather died at the age of seventy-seven, when Abraham was less than twelve years old. His last words to his grandson were, "Take good care of the stock." "A merciful man is merciful to his beast," says Holy Writ, and the man who can think on his deathbed of the comfort of the animals which he loved when in health has surely a kind and healthy heart. The stock consisted of thirty sheep and one yoke of oxen, be- sides young animals. Young Burbank took the whole charge of them until the following spring, when they were sold. He then worked on his unele's farm for a year, receiving 83 a month and board during the six months of spring, fall, and summer farm work : board alone in win- tér, when he attended school.
Three years passed in this way on several farms; but his grandfather Bates was a builder as well as a farmer, and Mr. Burbank seems to have acquired a greater taste for carpenter work and building than for farm- ing, although for many years he has shown a great deal of zest as a farmer, and exhibited a great deal of skill and judicious liberality of ex- penditure in carrying on his farms. At the age of fifteen he went to East Springfield, now the city of Springfield, to learn the trade of carpenter
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and joiner with William Bliss, who was carrying on an extensive busi- ness in thet line with his brother . Talcott Bliss. In the winter he went home to attend school. During his absence the firm failed and William Bliss removed to Utica, N. Y.
He next went as an apprentice to Simon Smith. of Springfield, a manufacturer of sash, doors, and blinds. This situation did not please him, as he was required to spend more of his time than was agreeable to him in helping Mrs. Smith do her washing and otherwise waiting upon her; he being the youngest apprentice. He much preferred Mi. Bliss, and went home without leave, hoping to earn a few dollars in farmer's work to enable him to get to Utica. Smith followed him. He had a legal right to take him back but Budget took to the thea woods, where he could watch him until he returned. Smith. however, captured some shirts. which had been made by Abralaun's mother of cloth which he had fur. nished, and went away in a rage.
The anxious mother urged him to go back and serve out his time with Smith. He, however, refused, and having earned money enough to replace bis clothing and pay his travelling expenses, he went to Utica, taking a canal boat at Troy. At Utica he found his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, glad to receive him. Mr. Bliss was not carrying on business for himself, or as a carpenter, but for the firm of Stocking & Hunt, hatters ; and as foreman he gave work to young Burbank. The senior partner. Sammel Stocking, was a native of Pittsfield and a relative of his young workman, as his maternal grandmother was a Stocking. But Samuel Stocking was a rich and influential business man, rode in a carriage drawn by superb black horses, and was attended by servants in livery, and Abraham Burbank, thinking of himself only as a poor boy, had not the courage to claim relationship to him. Had he done so it might have changed his career in life, but whether for the better or the worse may be doubted. It may be stated as well here as elsewhere that his grand- mother on his paternal side was a Pomeroy, of Southampton, which makes him closely akin to the Pomeroy family of Pittsfield.
In the spring of 1832, for good reasons. Mr. Burbank left Utica and with Charles Kingsbury joined a party which laid three and a half miles of rails between Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, on the Albany & Saratoga Springs Railroad.
After an absence of 18 months Mr. Burbank then visited his friends at West Springfield, passing through Pittsfield over the Pontonsne Turn- pike. He had " grown a head in height and changed from a boy to a man."
At Pittsfield business seemed prosperous. Many buildings were be ing erected: among them St. Stephen's Church. the block now owned by William G. Backus, and the Pittsfield Cotton Factory. Mr. Burbank engaged with Thomas D. Thompson to work on the church at Sis a month, his first work in Pittsfield. His friend. William Macartney, who had come with him from Utica, was employed in the same way at the
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same price. This lasted from Jidy to Bocomber, when the church was finished, and they began to work for Frank Collins at 81 a month: When he settled with Mr. Collins in the spring he found only $5.com ing to him and he had brought $10 with him to Pittsfield. He did not think this very encouraging in a business point of view, but, adhering to the principles which have governed him through life. he did not let it dis- hearten him. He engaged with Avery Carey, [D .. ] Willard Clough. Bray & Co. for work at Se0 per month. These ontleen were greeting building very celitable for their time. Mr. Burbank received his $20 regularly for the first two months in Agricultural Bank bills, which he changed at once into silver imit dollars. His friend; Macartney, left Pints- field in July, and urged Mr. Burbank strongly to go with him. After- ward he wrote him from Brookline, near Boston, where he was getting much better wages than he could have at Pittsfield, bu. Mr. Burbank had made up his mind to stay where he was ; and when Abraham Bur- bank has made up his mind, after due deliberation, to pursue a certain course, the power which can induce him to change it naist be very strong: and with him no power could have been stronger than that youthink friendship. Shortly after this he heard from his friend for the last time. near New Orleans, Imagination, with the aid of what we know of the climate and other peculiarities of that region, leaves ns no doubt that he died young, and that Mr. Burbank acted wisely in staying in a northen home.
In the meantime Mr. Burbank kept busily at work and in the fall made his first purchase of real estate, a lot which is now No. co Fon street. It had the frame of a house raised on it, which Mr. Burbank afterward finished as a home for himself, but it required more time for him to do it than he now takes to build a hundred such houses. At this time his only brother, James, came to live with him, wishing to learn the carpenter's trade. They had a hard winter, with no money. and no work to earn any. They lived in the chamber of Mr. Carey's shop, and did what they could to get a few rooms in his house " fit to live in."
In the spring, by the kind aid of Mr. Carey, he sent his brother, who was too slender and frail for the carpenter's business, to Boston, where he had quite as hard experience in a store.
When his brother left him he was 8550 in debt and felt poor. But he also felt lonely, and strong in hope and confident in his ability, in April. 1834, he married Miss Julia M. Brown, and ovenpied the rooms which he had prepared in his house on Fenn street. It was challenging fate, but never was confidence better placed. It was a wise remark of one of Pittsfield's wise men that "a young man can have no better all- chor than a good wife," and if Mr. Burbank needed one he found it. No man could find a more helpful wife than Mr. Burbank did. In all his life he never did a wiser aet than when he married. Yet, working from sunrise to sunset, he could earn no more than one dollar a day in summer and in winter only fifty cents by going to the mountain tops to chop wood.
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The times were hard in Pittsfield, and very little money was in circulation. Mr. Burbank concluded to go west. and sold his house, pay- ment to be made in October. October came, but not the money. He took back his house and again occupied it. The next month. however, he sold it to another party, taking a note to be paid by persons resident in Whitesford, Mich. "The West" was then, as it still is, " the Land of Promise." Mr. Burbank went to Michigan, and the parties who had given the note promised to pay him in June. He passed the winter with his wife in a log cabin at Plymouth, Mich. June came, but with it the finan- cial crash of 1837, and there was no money to meet that note. When he came back from Whitesford with that note unpaid he very naturally ** felt sad" and told his wife that he believed he had made a mistake in going west before he was ready for it-a mistake that many men have made who have not had the ability of Abraham Burbank to rectify it. He added that he was going back to Pittsfield to collect the note of the endorser, who was the person in possession of his house. His wife said, "If you are going, I am going too."
In two days they were on their way back and reached Pittsfield in the June following the determination of the directors of the Western Railroad that it should run through that town. It was in the depth of the worst financial depression which the country has known since the adoption of the federal constitution. Many persons failed in business at Pittsfield in 1837, but the decision in regard to the railroad caused hope- fulness in regard to business, which did not extend far beyond it. Mr. Burbank, to save cost of freight, had sold or given away most of his household goods before leaving Michigan and reached Pittsfield unex pected by anybody, having only five dollars with which to commence housekeeping. His wife's brother loaned him fifteen dollars, and he hired rooms and began gathering something to keep house with. He asked Mr. Elijah Peck, who had a great quantity of firewood, to trust him ten days for half a cord, but was refused. He had better luck with Rev. Lemmel Greer, the well remembered Methodist local preacher, who kept a store opposite to what is now "Grey Tower," the Pollock mansion. So much for the early trials of a snecessful man.
Mr. Edward Goodrich, who was the purchaser of Mr. Burbank's house on Fenn street, finding it difficult or impossible to pay the note which had been given for it in those disastrous business days offered to give back the house in exchange for it. Mr. Burbank accepted the proposition and reoccupied his house and lived in it until he sold it to Edson Bon- ney, in 1839. With the proceeds of the sale he purchased some building lots of Lemuel Pomeroy, and then commenced his successful life work. interrupted by occasional misfortunes. It should be premised, however, that from time to time he built by contract for other parties, among them in 1843 the first parsonage of the First Congregational Church, and the wooden buildings connected with the Clapp carriage factory.
In 1847 he bought of Hon. E. H. Kellogg, a lot on the west side of
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the lower part of North street, and erected a brick block 142 feet long and 62 feet deep. and three stories high. The upper story was occupied by the Eagle newspaper office, and by a hall which would seat at least a thousand people. This hall was for years the only one in town which could hold those audiences who desired to hear Wendell Phillips, George William Curtis. Anson Burlingame, and other great platform speakers of the day. It was also occupied by the First Congregational Parish, while its stone church was building, and by the Berkshire Agricultural Society for its fairs, and for many kindred purposes. It was the one great hall of the town. The building has since its erection been greatly extended in size. The lower story is occupied by six stores, in the best business loca- tion in town.
In 1860 Mr Burbank bought the Parker L. Hall estate, occupying the greater portion of the space now bounded by North, Railroad. and Union streets and Francis avenue. Through this he cut Summer and Union streets, sold off many lots and built a considerable number of houses. What is now the American House was included in the purchase, but he sold it soon. The Parker L. Hall mansion was also included in it, and this he enlarged and made the Berkshire Hotel, which he kept as landlord. At the supper with which it was opened, Hon. Ensign H. Kel- logg said : " While we have been talking about building a first class hotel in Pittsfield, Mr. Burbank has quietly gone and done it."
He purchased the Thomas B. Strong farm, north of the village, a lo- cation commanding a superb view, and built a house which he intended to occupy as his own residence. On it were situated the springs from which the first water works of Pittsfield derived their supply. The house, with others added, became the Springside school for boys, under the charge successively of Professors Charles E. Abbott and William C. Richards. It is now a popular summer hotel. On the same estate is located the sum- mer residence of the Davol family of New York. Burbank street, now a populous avenue, was part of the same purchase. In 1863 he bought the Durant property and cut Second street through it. The county jail ocen- pies five acres of this lot. The rest has been sold and built up. In 1872 he bought the George W. Goodrich farm, east of the Wahconah mills, and has there built up the village of Evening Side.
In 1857 Mr. Burbank bought of Theodore Pomeroy a large lot lying south of the Boston & Albany Railroad, and to which, by successive pur- chases he has added until he now owns all the land bounded by North street on the east. the railroad on the west, Morton Place and the railroad on the north, and Depot street on the south, with a very slight exception in the southwest corner. All this area he has covered with brick build- ings, the last rising while this work is printing.
When the location of the depot was changed. it left the Berkshire House practically three quarters of a mile from it, and he had moreover built a block of stores between it and the street. As soon as the decision as to the depot was made known, he therefore lost no time before he se-
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cured the nearest site to it and had a very large hotel-the Burbank House-ready for ocenpation as soon as the depot was. This he has ever since conducted himself, with the aid of one or more of his sons. He has been the absolute head of the business and. in spite of all obstacles, it has been successful. To "know how to keep a hotel" is proverbially the test of business abillty, and Mr. Burbank has borne the test and re- ceived a verdiet of full approval from the travelling public. In connection with the hotel he built a block of stores, and over it a very large hall in which the town meetings which require a general attendance of the voters are held, as well as other great public gatherings.
Mr. Burbank has had losses to the amount of more than $100,000 by fires and other misfortunes. He thinks he has engaged in too many kinds of business, having, besides his principal business of building, run a market and hardware store for five years and a hotel for sixteen, besides farming, which he thinks he had better have let alone, as well as all the rest, except his building. Nevertheless. at the age of 72, from the earli- est morning until late at night he still does whatever his hands find to do. The writer of this sketch, having occasion to ask him for informa- tion in the early morning of July 15th, 1885. found him in the hay mow of his hotel stable at 6 o'clock in the morning, stowing away hay as fast as two young men could pitch it in, and for the previous day and several afterward he labored in the hay field and in work connected with it more than twelve hours daily.
Mr. Burbank's father died at the age of 5S and his mother at 83. He seems to have inherited his mother's longevity, for at 72, he exhibits all the vigor of a man of 30, and much more than many of that age.
Mr. Burbank has great faith in principles which may be resolved into proverbs like the familiar one that " Honesty is the best Policy." We will attempt to give his ideas in this form. "Before a young man gets married all he wants is a wife; afterward he wants everything on God's earth." " No two men think alike. One must have a mind of his own or he will amount to nothing." " We cannot all be millionaires ; the mis- fortunes of life are necessary to keep us to its duties ; we do not live for ourselves alone, but for the generations which shall come after us." " It is well to get advice from others, but always act upon your own judg- ment. I have learned that from experience. When I have made up my mind after mature deliberation and change it upon the advice of other people, I am generally sorry for it." " Keep your own counsel until you are reasonably sure that it is safe to publish it." " It is of no use to dwell upon past misfortunes."
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