History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 36

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818


USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 36


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JOSEPII ARTIIUR BEAUVAIS.


Joseph Arthur Beauvais, son of Andrew and Pa- tience (Ricketson) Beauvais, was born in South Dart- mouth, Mass., Jan. 21, 1824. His mother was a daughter of Clark and Mary (Wood) Ricketson, of that town. His father was a native of Bordeaux, France. The family having been reduced by the French Revolution, and to avoid conscription into Napoleon's army, which was then taking boys of twelve years of age, he was sent while quite young by his widowed mother to this country, whither his sister, wife of Capt. James Rider, of Dartmouth, had preceded him. He commanded for many years packet-ships from New York in the New Orleans trade, and later in the South American trade, chiefly with Buenos Ayres. His uncle, James Rider, was also a successful shipmaster, sailing from New York in the New Orleans and European trade. In child- hood his father and uncle, with their families, re- moved to New York, and afterwards to Astoria, Long Island, where his mother died. After her decease, Capt. Rider having retired from his seafaring life in 1832, the families returned to South Dartmouth, and he became an inmate of his uncle's family. He was tenderly reared and educated by his uncle and aunt, to whose sterling characters, excellent precepts, and careful training he feels what success he has met with in life is largely due. Capt. Rider engaged quite ex- tensively in the whaling business in South Dartmouth, and subsequently in New Bedford, where he died, and where his wife now survives him.


His early education was obtained in the public and private schools of Dartmouth. In 1840 he came to New Bedford and attended for a short time the Bush Street Grammar School, and was admitted to the High School, John F. Emerson, principal. After graduating in 1842, he entered the counting-room of Barton Ricketson, his uncle, then extensively engaged as managing owner of whaling and merchant vessels, and also of the New Bedford Iron-Foundry. In 1843 he became his uncle's book-keeper and confidential clerk, where he remained until November, 1851, when he assumed a like position in the counting-room of J. B. Wood & Co., then largely engaged in the whal- ing business. Here he became interested with the firm as an owner in their ships, and was at times managing owner of several merchant and coasting vessels, and also did some business as a broker.


In 1860 he was chosen treasurer of the New Bed- ford Tannery Company, which built the tannery- works on Court Street. This enterprise not proving remunerative, after a few years the property changed


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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.


hands and the corporation was dissolved. In 1867 he was chosen treasurer of the American Tack Com- pany, of Fairhaven, and subsequently its president, which positions he still retains.


In February, 1872, he severed a most pleasant and harmonious connection of more than twenty-one years with J. B. Wood & Co., and formed the firm of Bean- vais & Co. (T. B. Fuller, late book-keeper of the American Tack Company, as partner), and engaged in private banking. In 1874, assisted by H. A. Blood, of Fitchburg, Henry W. Phelps, of Springfield, and others, he organized the Fall River Railroad Company, of which corporation he was president. This corpo- ration contracted with Mr. Phelps to build the rail- road from New Bedford to Fall River. It was opened for travel December, 1875. Within two years after the completion of the road he resigned the position of : the office of collector, in company with Mr. William president, but is still a director in the corporation.


In May, 1875, in connection with his partner and others, he organized the Citizens' National Bank, of which he was chosen president and Mr. Fuller cash- ier. To this bank the banking business of Beauvais & Co. was transferred. This bank was organized with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which has been increased to five hundred thousand dollars. He was one of the original corporators and for some time a trustee of the New Bedford Five Cents' Savings-Bank, which position he resigned after a few years. In 1878 he became interested in the organization of the New England Mutual Aid Society for life insurance upon the assessment plan. Of this society he was president until the removal of its office to Boston rendered the discharge of the duties incompatible with his other engagements.


Mr. Beauvais was originally a Whig, and identified himself with the Republican party on its formation. In religion he is a Congregationalist. For some time he was clerk of the Trinitarian Church, and during eight years was superintendent of its Sabbath-school. At present he is a member of the North Congrega- tional Church.


Mr. Beauvais has ever been an active business man, and at present is president and treasurer of the American Tack Company, president of the Citizens' National Bank, director in the Fall River Railroad, Grinnell Manufacturing Company of New Bedford, Fall River Bleachery, Sagamore Manufacturing Company, Border City Manufacturing Company, and Globe Street Railway Company of Fall River.


In May, 1848, he was united in marriage with Hannah Cotton Parker, daughter of Ward M. and Hepzabeth (Davis) Parker, and their family consisted of one child, Louise Cecile, who married Max Ritter von Schmaedel, an artist of Munich, and died, leaving a son, Harold Parker von Schmaedel. Mrs. Beauvais died in January, 1879, and in June, 1881, he married Mary Stetson Mendell, daughter of Ellis and Catha- rine (Allen) Mendell.


CHARLES B. H. FESSENDEN.


Charles B. H. Fessenden was born in Sandwich, Barnstable Co., July 17, 1813. He was educated at the Sandwich and Amherst Academies and at Am- herst College, graduating from that institution in the class of 1833. After completing his law studies at the Dane Law School and in law offices he went to Michigan in 1838, commencing practice in the village of Utica, Macomb Co. In 1839 he was a elerk in the Michigan Senate, and in 1842 was a member of its House. The latter year he returned to his native place, where he opened an office and continued his practice until 1853, when, having been appointed collector of the port of New Bedford, he removed to that city. He held that position until the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration. Soon after leaving


G. Baker, he purchased the New Bedford Daily Mer- cury, which was published and edited by them for many years. In 1862 he was elected sheriff of Bris- tol County, and was re-elected in 1865 and 1868. In 1869 he resigned the sheriffalty, having been ap- pointed United States assessor of internal revenue for the First Massachusetts District. This office he held until by statute its duties were merged in those of collector, when he was appointed to the latter office and retained it until 1876, when the number ot revenue districts in the State was reduced to three. Since that time he has held the position of deputy collector in the Third District, his division being nearly coterminous with the boundaries of his old district.


Mr. Fessenden is one of the trustees of the Swaim Free School, and senior warden of Grace Church.


No one who for the last thirty years has been familiar with the business, political, and social life of New Bedford, can fail to have noticed the value which such a citizen as Col. Fessenden is to a com- munity. His activity in all good works, his genial, winning, and elegant manners, his culture, the keen- ness of his mind, and the brilliancy of his conversa- tion have all conspired to render him a positive force in the development of the city of his adoption. As collector of customs and internal revenue he has watched over the interests of the government with scrupulous care, while at the same time he has won and preserved the respect and esteem of those with whom he has been called upon to deal. As editor, his varied culture and the brightness and elegance of his style and sparkling wit held his paper up to a standard which dignified the profession of journalism in the community, and exerted a powerful influence upon the manners and conduct of this community, while in his whole career as sheriff of the county, he maintained the ancient dignity of the office and gave to the courts an impressiveness, the loss of which can only result in great injury to the orderly administra- tion of justice. Certainly no history of the bench and bar of Bristol would be complete which failed to


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NEW BEDFORD.


record and call to mind the days when Col. Fessenden, with his paraphernalia of office, graced the sheriff's seat, with the incomparable crier opposite, whose "Hear ye ! Hear ye! Hear ye!" was more truly a clarion blast than that blown on the trumpets by the heralds of old, while the "good men and true" of the genial clerk seemed to realize in their tone and man- ner the ideal utterances of a court of justice. No one ·who was accustomed to practice in that court will ever forget the impression there received, and the tradition of them will be kept forever.


J. GEORGE HARRIS.


Mr. Harris, who is mentioned on page 96 as editor of a paper in New Bedford, became a journalist as soon as he was of age, beginning his career as associ- ate editor of the Political Observer at New London in 1830; afterwards editor of the New Bedford Daily . Gazette, and then acquiring celebrity at Boston as a political writer, he was invited in 1838 by distin- guished men of Washington City to go to Tennessee, where he established the Nashville Union, which re- flected the influential political opinions of Gen. An- drew Jackson, and represented the rising fortunes of James K. Polk from Congressman to Governor and President.


It is well said by a leading journal that in this connection it is not uninteresting to the people of New London County, Conn., to recall the fact that nearly half a century ago, when the two great politi- cal parties of the country were almost as equally di- vided as they are now, with Henry Clay, of Ken- tucky, in the lead of the Whigs, and Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, in the lead of the Democrats, two young men, natives of New London County, were invited from the North to conduct the two leading journals of the West and shadow forth to the country the ruling opinions and policy of those two distin- guislied leaders of men, as emanating from them in their retiracy at " Ashland" and the " Hermitage."


George D. Prentice, of Jewett City, had been called to Louisville, Ky., to conduct the Journal as the voice of Mr. Clay, and J. George Harris, of Groton, was invited to Nashville, Tenn., as editor of the Union. It was at a time when Jackson and Clay were re- garded, in the language of the day, as "the embodi- ment of the principles of their parties" respectively, and the Journal and Union became perfectly oracular in politics. From their exposed position at the front when Kentucky and Tennessee were frontier States, where the people were to a great extent a law unto themselves, these New London boys had repeatedly to stand fire with the wild elements of Western poli- ties. Of course they were wide as the poles asunder as the representatives of their respective parties in the political arena, but their own personal relations, established here at an early day, were never dis- turbed, although, for the amusement of the public,


they did a good deal of sharpshooting at each other .between Louisville and Nashville with their quills, which had a tendency rather to strengthen than to weaken friendship. The early prestige of the Journal as the voice of Mr. Clay and of the Union as that of Gen. Jackson established their influence on a founda- tion so firm that it is still maintained by them in the Southwest, and in all public affairs they now have wider influence beyond the mountains than any other political newspapers.


Mr. Harris was commissioned in 1843 by Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, as a commercial agent for Europe, and went abroad in that capacity. If we may judge from his voluminous reports to the State Department, of which so large a number of extra copies were printed by the United States Senate, his services were highly appreciated.


After Mr. Polk's election to the Presidency he in- vited Mr. Harris to conduct the official paper at Washington, which he declined, as he had before de- clined the editorship of the Madisonian, the official paper of Mr. Tyler's administration. Preferring a life service in the navy to temporary civil service, Mr. Harris accepted in 1845 a commission as disbursing officer of the navy, which commission, with promo- tions to the highest rank of his grade, he still holds on the list of officers retired for long and faithful services.


The official and personal relations of Mr. Harris in the naval service have ever been exceedingly happy. In Hamersly's " Records of Living Naval Officers" it is stated that Pay Director J. George Harris was attached to the Gulf squadron in 1846-47, and during the Mexican war he was a member of Commodore M. G. Perry's staff on all his shore expeditions; that he was at the capture of Tuxpan, Tabasco, and Vera Cruz, receiving from the commodore special letters of thanks for services rendered afloat and ashore; that from 1850 to 1854, inclusive, he was attached to the Asiatic fleet, and again with Commodore Perry when the empire of Japan was opened to the commerce of the world.


In his introductory report of the Japan expedition Commodore Perry makes special mention of the aid he had received from Mr. Harris in preparing his volumes for the use of Congress.


Mr. Harris spent two years on the coast of Africa, in the fleet appointed to suppress the slave trade, and his journals, made while on the shores of Liberia and Guinea, were copiously used by Mr. Gurley, the gov- ernment agent at Liberia, in his reports to Congress. For two years he was attached to the Mediterranean squadron. On that cruise be sent home to public institutions some rare and curious antiquities, which are considered the very best specimens of their kind. During the civil war he held some of the most respon- sible positions of trust in the navy, both ashore and afloat, disbursing several millions of public money without the slightest deficit or loss to the government.


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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.


At the organization of the Groton Heights (Conn.) Centennial Committee, in 1879, he was elected presi- dent of the Centennial Commission, and his admin- istration of its affairs, that resulted in such perfect success on the 6th and 7th of September, 1881, was characterized by good judgment and executive ability.


CAPT. HENRY TABER.


Among those who took the " oath of fidelity" in the old township of Dartmouth in 1684 was Thomas Taber, and among the proprietors of Dartmouth in Novem- ber, 1694, we find Joseph Taber, Thomas Taber, and Thomas Taber, Jr. Among the early settlers men- tioned in the old records we note eleven of the name, viz. : Jacob, Jacob, Jr., John, Jonathan, Joseph, Philip, Philip, Jr., Stephen, Thomas, Thomas, Jr., and William. Thus for two hundred years has this good family of Friends been resident in New Bedford and neighborhood, and connected with its growth and prosperity.


Capt. Henry Taber, son of Benjamin3 and Rhobe (Aikin) Taber, was born in New Bedford, Mass., March 29, 1795. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Taber, and Susannah, his wife, had thirteen children, -Elizabeth, Joseph, Benjamin2, John, Archclaus, Joshua, Mary, Jeduthan, Rebecca, Thomas, Jeremiah, Lewis, and Seth. Benjamin2, born Oct. 10, 1733, died Feb. 5, 1820, was twice married : (1) to Hannah, daughter of Barnabas and Mary Gardner, of Nan- tucket. She died Feb. 16, 1766. Their children were Barnabas, Daniel. Benjamin3. (2) to Eunice, widow of Joseph Gardner, and daughter of Richard and Lydia Worth, of Nantucket. She was born in 1731, and died in 1814. Their children were Barnabas, Su- sannah, and Frances. He was the builder of the first whale-boat built in New Bedford. Benjamin Taber3, born Feb. 2, 1766, married Rhobe, daughter of Thomas Aikin, born Jan. 30, 1768, by whom he had eight children,-Hannah, Philip A., James, James2, Henry, Thomas, Shubael, and Rhobe. She died May 11, 1801, aged thirty-three. He then married Merab Coffin, by whom he had six children, -- Benjamin C., Sarah C. and Ann F. (twins), Rhobe A., John W., and Avis F. He was a block-maker, and a very inventive genius. He received or owned a patent for boring logs for aqueducts, which business he followed so long as he remained in New Bedford. The last part of his life was passed in Victoria, Ill., where he died, aged eighty years. He was a man of sterling integrity, and highly esteemed for his numerous good qualities.


.


Thomas Aikin, father of Rhobe, came to New Bed- ford from Canada. He was a man of limited means, also of the Society of Friends, and a blacksmith by trade. He had three sons and three daughters, -- Abial, Charles, Timothy, Rhobe, Abigail, and Luramy. Henry Taber remained with the home circle, receiving a limited school education and assisting his father until he was fourteen. At that age he went to sea as cabin-


boy with his uncle, John Wood, master of the "George and Susan," a ship now owned by Aikin & Swift, and doing good service. (His mother died when he was but six years of age, and the care of his youth was given by his Aunt Luramy, wife of Capt. John Wood. She kept house for his father, and was almost a mother to the family.) This first voyage took him to Virginia, from whence they took a lading of tobacco to Liverpool. His second trip was to Port Glasgow. His third was to Hamburgh as second mate. His last voyage was in the brig " Nancy," Capt. Packard, after the war of 1812, from New York to Dublin. He then for one year was chief mate under Capt. John Wood, on a packet running from New Bedford to New York. The fifteen subsequent years he was captain on the same line, and commanded four different vessels, " Orbit," "Boston," "Experiment," and "Helen," owning a one-fourth interest in the last two. In 1832, Capt. Taber engaged in trade in New Bedford as a grocer and ship-chandler in company with David Sherman, as Taber & Sherman, on Centre Street, near the wharf. Mr. Sherman soon left for Pough- keepsie, N. Y., to look after whaling interests there. After two or three years Capt. Taber formed a part- nership with his son, William G., and son-in-law, John Hunt, under firm-title of Henry Taber & Co. This firm continued in successful and prosperous ex- istence until March 1, 1866, when Capt. Taber retired, and the firm-name changed to Taber, Gordon & Co.


About 1834, Capt. Taber became quite largely in- terested in whaling, and amassed considerable wealth from this source. He is now largely interested in the various enterprises of New Bedford. He was presi- dent of the Mutual Marine Insurance Company, now suspended, is a director in the National Bank of Com- merce, and is a stockholder in three different banks. He has been twice married : (1) to Nabby, daughter of William and Nabby Gordon, Dec. 16, 1819. She was born in New Bedford, March 10, 1800, and died Nov. 9, 1831. The children of this marriage were William G., born Aug. 20, 1821; Abby (Mrs. John Hunt), born Aug. 16, 1824; and Robert, born Oct. 4, 1831. (2) to Sally, sister of first wife, Dec. 9, 1832. She was born July 20, 1802. They had one son, Henry A. (de- ceased). (William Gordon died June 26, 1835, aged eighty years. His wife, Nabby Gordon, died Nov. 16, 1831, aged seventy years.)


In politics, Capt. Taber has ever been a Whig and a Republican. Believing in the principles of these parties he was strong in their support, and, with the exception of two years, served in the State Legisla- ture from 1838 to 1844. Many years Capt. Taber has been one of New Bedford's representative and most successful business men. He has been industrious, cautious, and conservative, showing great financial ability in the many diversified and complicated in- terests in which he has been engaged. Of strict in- tegrity and frank courtesy, his manly qualities and sterling worth have given him stanch friends all


Henry Jaber


prophillips,


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along the path of life, and never was a friend betrayed who trusted his interests in his hands. Those who have known him longest are to-day his warmest admirers.


WILLIAM PHILLIPS.


The firm of William Phillips & Son, for years one of the well-known commercial houses of New Bed- ford, is a copartnership consisting of William Phillips and George R. Phillips, father and son. The busi- ness of the firm is that of ship agents and commission- merchants, having had considerable interests in the whale fisheries and the buying and selling of its prod- ucts from the formation of the copartnership to the present time.


The senior member of this house, Mr. William Phillips, who is the subject of this short sketch, was born at Westport, in the county of Bristol, Jan. 3, 1801, and is, consequently, at the present time nearly eighty-two years of age. His father, Capt. Edward Phillips, was born in Dartmouth, in the same county, April 5, 1779, and died in Westport Jan. 28, 1831. He was married to a lady named Amy Tripp, and made his home in that part of Westport known as Tripp's wharf, being near Hix's bridge. William was the oldest son of a family which consisted of eight children, of whom but two sisters and himself are now living.


The age of fourteen found him at work as clerk in a store at the head of Westport River. In this occu- pation he remained until January, 1820, when he came to New Bedford, where he was employed as clerk by Levi Standish, of that place. Since that time he has lived in New Bedford continuously up to the present time. For five years he was engaged in that or kindred occupations, and in 1825 entered the office of John Avery Parker, of New Bedford, as clerk and book-keeper. After remaining with him about three years he formed a copartnership with Mr. George Russell, and engaged in the business of a ship- chandlery and commission-house, under the firm- name of Phillips & Russell.


In 1832 this firm, together with John A. Parker, erected the brick building known as Parker's Block, at the foot of Middle Street. A few years later, in 1836, he again entered the office of Mr. Parker, at that time being a firm under the name of John A. Parker & Son, as book-keeper and confidential clerk. He re- mained in this position until the death of John A. Parker, in December, 1853, the firm having been dis- solved some time previous by the withdrawal of the son, Frederick Parker, in 1848.


Mr. John A. Parker, upon his death, left a large estate to be administered upon, and by the terms of his will appointed Mr. Phillips accounting executor and trustee, with his son, Frederick Parker, and Hon. John H. Clifford, the two last of whom died before the final settlement of the estate. The final settle- ment of this estate was effected in 1880, that being the


time when the last entries were made and the books of the trust closed, although the bulk of the estate had long before been distributed.


The account-books of this trust cover a period of twenty-seven years, and being in the handwriting of Mr. Phillips they are, among other things, interesting as showing the gradual change that years make, " the sensible yet imperceptible growth of age." It was after the death of Mr. Parker that the firm of William Phillips & Son was formed. In the business of the last thirty years Mr. Phillips has often been called upon to perform duties where integrity and a sound knowledge of business were necessary. The offices of executor, administrator, and trustee for various parties and estates, director in insurance, banking, and manufacturing concerns are among the many offices of trust and honor that he has been called to fill, and has filled acceptably in every instance.


His life has been almost entirely one of private business,-a life whose lack of opportunity for dis- play has certainly not created in him any desire for it. He is to-day one of the sound practical business men, a class of people who are by no means the least efficient in helping along good deeds and good morals, and now, at the advanced age of eighty-two, he may justly feel proud of the reputation for honesty and integrity he enjoys, which is one of the results of his long life's work. Habits of industry formed and practiced through long years become second nature. Length of years may impair bodily vigor, but in this case there is no indication of any loss of mental vigor.


Daily at his place of business, he presents the ex- ample-an example by no means of frequent occur- rence-of a man of great age who still has no idea of retiring from business. The life of a private business man whose promises are kept and whose credit is good is apt to be uneventful as far as the purposes of a biographical sketch are concerned. Such a life is so because good credit accompanies or follows correct business habits, and such habits mean the smooth running of affairs ; while affairs run smoothly, when each day, though it bring its work and obligations, leaves its obligations complied with and its labor performed. Such a life has been that of the subject of this sketch.




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