History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894, Part 82

Author: Kingman, Bradford, 1831-1903. 4n
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Brockton > History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894 > Part 82

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While engaged in the above named business in 1850 he erected the first brick build- ing in the town, on the lot where the center school house was formerly located south of the hotel, and known as " Kingman's block," and now occupied by the firm of Howard & Caldwell, as an extensive clothing establishment.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Shortly after Mr. Kingman's retirement from the store there was a demand for bank - ing accommodations and Mr. K. was selected as the cashier. Into this position he brought a peculiar fitness and adaptability to handle the business of banking, and soon took high rank among those with whom he was brought into business relations, and the bank became a success, and only gave up the same upon the establishment of the United States banking laws.

At a meeting of the directors held to see if they would change into a National bank it was voted not to do so, and the same was closed in 1866. The town was without banking facilities at home till 1874, when there seemed to be pressing need of accom- modations by the increased number of manufacturers and merchants, and a new bank was chartered by the name of "The Home National Bank," and Mr. Kingman was elected unanimously to take the office of president of the same, which position he has held with signal ability, with honor to himself and a wise manager for the stockholders, from that time to the present, a period of twenty years. While Mr. Kingman was cashier of the first bank, the town elected him as their treasurer, an office he filled with fidelity to their interests for nine successive years. In 1872 he was chosen an assessor and was re-elected in 1873 and '74. In 1881 he was a member of the retiring Board of Selectmen, it being the last year of the town government as North Bridgewater.

When the North Bridgewater Savings Bank was closed in 1876, Mr. Kingman and Ellis Ames, Esq., of Canton, were appointed by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, as trustees to close the affairs of the same, and they performed their duties in a most faithful and judicious manner, and was able to pay to the depositors 94 46-100 per cent.

In 1881 when the town was about to give up the 'old municipal town government and enter upon a city form of government, Mr. Kingman had much to do in arranging the affairs preparatory to the inauguration of the new city of Brockton and was elected from Ward two on the Board of Alderman, and upon the organization of the same was made chairman of that body, and his having been re-elected without opposition three times is sufficient appreciation of faithful services to that board.

Upon the death of his father, who had been agent of the Hingham Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company, of Hingham, Mass., Mr. Kingman was chosen as his successor, and after- ward, in 1871, elected a director of the same.

Upon the establishment of the North Bridgewater Board of Trade, Mr. Kingman was elected director, and in 1874 he was one of the corporate members of Brockton Agricul- tural Society, and was chosen one of the first directors, and for two years treasurer of the society, and was afterward vice-president of the same.

At the organization of the Commercial Club, in January, 1883, he was elected its president.

As a man, Mr. Kingman was plain of speech, honest, straightforward, firm, and de- cided when decision was needed; a person of excellent judgment in all matters of busi- ness, and his large experience in financial affairs in which he has been so successful for himself has shown him to be the right kind of a man to be in the councils of the city government. He had no ambition for public honor or notoriety, and was never active in the strifes of political life, although he was ever ready by his vote to promote the public good. In politics he had been a firm Whig as well as Republican, and belonged

HISTORY OF BROCKTON.

to a family well known for their prominence in all affairs of a local nature. Mr. King- man was often entrusted with matters of great importance, where honesty and integrity was needed, and never was found wanting.

In his private life he was most genial and interesting, fond of company, and possessed no small share of wit, always cheerful and buoyant, and was quick at repartce ; naturally fond of home he was the life of the social circle, tender and affectionate.

He never was robust, but he accomplished more than many stronger people. He was not only a successful business man but a patriotic one, and took a great deal of in- terest in what was going on around him, and being a person of rare financial ability he was often consulted on matters of finance, and his advice was freely and honestly given.

When the Brockton City Hospital Company was organized in 1890, he was elected vice president of the same During the mayoralty of Hon. William L. Douglas, he ap- pointed Mr. Kingman chairman of the Board of Sewerage, established for the better drainage of the city, May 31, 1890, which position he held at the time of his death, rendering to the city of Brockton valuable service.

Mr. Kingman took great delight in looking 'over the personal history of the King- mans, and when the " Kingman Memorial Association " was organized he took a promi- nent part and was elected treasurer of the same, which position he held as long as he lived. He also caused an elegant monument to be erected at his own expense to the memory of the ancestors of the Kingman family in America, and which may be seen in Union Cemetery, Brockton, and his death only prevented his carrying out further plans with reference to the association.

Mr. Kingman died Tuesday, February 20, 1894; the funeral services were held on Saturday, February 24, from the late residence of the deceased, at the corner of Main and Belmont streets ; a large attendance of representative men from the various walks of life being in attendance. The floral offerings were profuse and elegant, and the services interesting. Eulogistic remarks were made by the pastor of the family, Rev. Henry E. Goddard of the New Jerusalem church, assisted by Rev. S. S. Seward of New York, a former pastor and resident of the town many years previous and a friend of the family.

Mr. Kingman united in marriage with Abby, only child of Capt. Winthrop Sears and Sally (Hawes) Baker of Yarmouth, Mass., August 30, 1852.

ALBERT KEITH.

THE subject of this sketch is descended from Rev. James Keith, the first ordained minister of Bridgewater, the line of descent being as follows: Timothy1, Timothy2, Levi3, Benj4, Arza5, Albert6.

He is the son of Arza and Marcia (Kingman) Keith, and grandson of Benjamin and Patty (Cary) Keith, of North Bridgewater, now Brockton. His mother was a daugh- ter of Hon. Abel Kingman, a prominent resident of the old town. The father of Mr.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Keith was one of the early shoe manufacturers, and also at one time a cabinet furniture maker. The son worked at shoemaking in his early days, and upon arriving to the age of seventeen in 1840 he went to Foxboro, Mass., to become clerk in the store of Hon. Otis Cary, who was a native of North Bridgewater, and was also engaged in the iron business. He remained with Mr. Cary for five years when he removed to Attleboro, Mass., and engaged in the dry goods business on his own account, which he continued till 1851, when he sold his interests in the trade and removed to his native village of Campello, where he has since resided. While engaged in the mercantile trade in Fox- boro he married Charlotte, daughter of Stephen M. and Rebecca (Wheeler) Pierce of Attleboro April 1, 1847. Upon his return to Campello Mr. Keith entered into co- partnership with his brother, Arza Benjamin Keith, and became the leading manufac- turers of shoes in the town, now the city of Brockton. The firm of A. & A. B. Keith, at one time was as familiar and as well known as any in the commonwealth. Their factory stood at the corner of Main and Market streets, Campello. Mr. Keith con- tinued in shoe manufacturing for nearly twenty years or until 1871, when he disposed of his interest to his brother and engaged in the grain and coal trade, succeeding Mr. Nelson J. Foss. He has been successful in his business pursuits by close application as the condition of his somewhat feeble health would permit, industry, perseverance and determination being among his leading characteristics. He has a strong individuality, calm in judgment, and when his mind is made up as to anything presented to him he is inflexible, the question of right and wrong entering largely into his conclusions. He is not an office seeker, but his services have often been called into requisitions by the town as may be seen by reference to the records of the same. In 1871 he was one of the Selectmen. In 1870, '71, '72 he was on the School Board, assessor in 1880. He represented the town in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1879 and 1880. In politics Mr. Keith is a Republican. In 1873 he was appointed postmaster at Campello, which office he held for several years. In 1874 Gov. William B. Washburn appointed him justice of the peace. Upon the organization of the Co-operative Bank at Campello, in 1877, Mr. Keith was chosen its president, and continued in that capacity until 1883.

In his religious belief he is affiliated with the Trinitarian Congregationalists, and has been a member of the South Congregational Church in Campello since 1842, a period of over one-half a century. He has also served on the committee of the parish, twelve years on the church committee, superintendent of the Sunday School ten years. On the eighteenth day of April, 1884, a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Keith for thirty years of faithful service as clerk of the society.

CHILDREN :

I .-- Marcia Adelaide, born October 18, 1848 Died August 20, 1850.

II .- Alice Maria, born October 19, 1850, graduated at the High School in Brockton, class of 1867; attended at Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass., two years; went abroad for fourteen months in 1870, visiting England, Scotland, France, Switzer- land, Italy, Germany and Belgium, the ruins of Pompei and Mt. Vesuvius. Owing to the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war left Paris for Switzer- land, where she remained about five months in Lausanne and one month in H

HISTORY OF BROCKTON.

Geneva, studying the French language. In 1879 went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she taught in Salt Lake Academy. In 1882 she made a second European trip, sailing by the Netherland Steamship Line from New York and landing in Rotterdam, Holland, visiting all the important cities in Holland, including a trip up the Rhine from Bonn to Binge, visited Frankfort .on- the-Main and making Dresden her home for one year, studying German. June 4, 1884, she married Capt. Alexander Whelden, of South Dartmouth. Mass. He died June 11, 1855. Visited the islands of St. Thomas, Barbadocs, St. Lucia, and Martinique, West Indies, in company with her father, mother and sister in 1890.

III .-- Herbert, born August 29, 1852. Died August 25, 1859.

IV .-- Charlotte Ray, born January 14, 1865, graduated at the High School, Brockton, in 1883, Wellesley College in 1887. Taught school in Kingston, Stoneham and Concord, N. H. In 1890 she- visited the West India islands, St. Thomas, Bar- badoes, St. Lucia and Martinique, in company with her father and others.

V .-- Lillian May (twin sister to preceding), born January 14, 1865, graduated at the High School of Brockton in 1883, married Elijah Austin Keith, of West Bridge- water, January 18, 1888, and have one son, Donald McLeod Keith, born Octo- ber 10, 1889. Mr. Keith is manager of the extensive house of A. G. Spalding & Brothers, dealers in athletic and sporting goods in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Charlotte P. Keith, the mother, died May 29, 1874. Mr. Keith married (2d) Cynthia Bonney, of Hadley, Mass., July 14, 1875. She died February 12, 1876. He married (3d) Mrs. Susan J. Allen, of Springville, N. Y.

JOHN WASHBURN KINGMAN.

JOHN WASHBURN KINGMAN was born in that portion of the old North Parish of Bridgewater, afterwards known as North Bridgewater-now the city of Brockton -- July 24, 1804. He was the son of Seth and Judith (Washburn) Kingman. His father being a farmer, he was early taught to work upon the farm and assist in the labors in- cident to a farmer's life. When he arrived at a proper age to learn a trade he was placed under the care and apprenticeship of his brother, Abiel Kingman, who was a manufacturer of cabinet furniture in the Kingman neighborhood, near the place of his birth, on Summer street. In the spring of 1831 he removed to Reading, Mass., to take the management of his brother Henry's business, who was also a manufacturer of cab- inet furniture in that town. There he remained for two years, when he returned to his native town. About that time Marcus Shaw commenced the manufacture of roll- ing machines for the purpose of hardening leather, thus superscding the old method of using the hammer and lap-stone in the making of boots and shoes. Mr. Kingman pur- chased his interest in that business, and after making several improvements he contin- ued making these machines and supplying the shoemakers throughout Plymouth county. In this business he continued successfully for several years, when he sold the same to his son-in-law, Welcome H. Wales, Esq., who continued the same for a few years, and then sold to Gustavus H. Farrar,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Mr. Kingman was appointed ensign in the militia of Massachusetts July 15, 1825; eaptain, July 24, 1828. During the latter part of his life he was engaged in the care of his real estate.

He became an active member of the First Congregational Church at an early age, and was often called to advise and assist in its management, in which he took a deep in- terest.

In the days when the subject of the abolition of slavery was nnpopular, he was one of the most active and strongest sustainers of the principles advocated by Garrison, Phillips, Douglass and others, for the emancipation of the eolored raee, and lived to see four millions of slaves liberated from the thraldom of slavery. As a promoter of good morals and an advocate of all social reforms of the times, he has left no uneertain record. He died January 30, 1876. Of the estimation in which he was held by the church of which he was a meniber, we find the following reeord :

"Our Heavenly Father having taken from our midst Brother John W. Kingman, we desire to place upon record some expression of our feeling of loss. We shall miss him from liis seat in the sanctuary, from his place in our social meetings and Sabbath sehool and in his earnest endeavors to promote the interest of this ehureh and society in every department of his work. For many years he has stood as a leader, devoting a full share of that energy for which he was marked to the defense of the truth as held by this church. Devoutly would we thank our Heavenly Father for the long consistent life of our brother in the midst of this people, for his bold advoeaey of every true re- form, and the pleasant inemories which remain of his social intereourse with us, while to us his death seems only loss. We know to him it was gain, having lived his three- seore and ten years here, and finished the work given him to do, he has entered upon the life eternal, and commeneed the service of heaven. Emulating his example, let us, as followers of Christ, be active and earnest, that when the time for our departure comes we be found ready, so may this affliction work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We also desire to express our sympathy with the afflieted family, and eonmmend them to the God of all consolation, He who has styled himself the widow's God, and the Father of the fatherless, in whom is all blessing.

"F. B. GARDNER, Clerk."

Mr. Kingman married Almira, daughter of Caleb and Sally (Byram) Copeland, of West Bridgewater, Mass., November 26, 1826.

CHILDREN.

I .-- Lois Kingman, born October 16, 1827, married Welcome H. Wales, October 16, 1845. [See Biographieal Sketehes.]

1I .- Martin Kingman, born March 9, 1835, married Helen Hathaway, daughter of Leon- ard Kelley, of New Bedford, Mass., September 1, 1859.

The mother died April 25, 1868. Mr. Kingman then married Mrs. Eliza Emma Allen, July 26, 1870.

CHILDREN.

1 .-- Carrie Maria, born April 9, 1861.

2 .- George Martin, born June 10, 1865. Died Mareh 15, 1888.

3, -- Snsie Wales, born February 28, 1867, married Otho Allen Hayward, son of Zina Hayward, of Campello, Mass., June 14, 1892.

HISTORY OF BROCKTON.

BRADFORD ELLIOT JONES.

BRADFORD ELLIOT JONES, son of Rosseter and Hannah (Marshall) Jones, was born in North Bridgewater, Plymouth county, September 22, 1840. He was educated in the public schools of his native town and in North Bridgewater Academy.

When seventeen years of age he entered the dry goods store of Charles Curtis and · remained there nearly four years. In 1864 he started in business for himself in Prov- incetown where he remained until 1867, then he returned to North Bridgewater and bought out the long established business of Brett Bros, and organized the house of Jones, Lovell & Sanford. This copartnership continued about three years, when Mr. Sanford retired and the business was continued under the firm name of Jones & Lovell until May, 1878. In that year Mr. Jones purchased the dry goods business of Henry HI. Packard in Clark's block, and this business he still carries on with Robert Cook, under the firm name of B. E. Jones & Co.

Mr. Jones was married in Provincetown September 21, 1862, to Kate Marie, dangh- ter of Dr. Stephen A. and Catherine M. W. (Bracket) Paine. He has two children, Kitty Payne, who graduated at Wellesley College in 1884, and Stephen Rosseter, who graduated at Amherst College in 1889, and at the Law School of Boston University in 1892.

Mr. Jones is president of the Security Co-Operative Bank, vice-president and a mem- ber of the investment committee of the Brockton Savings Bank, and one of the direc- tors of the Home 'National Bank. He has been treasurer of Paul Revere Lodge of Masons since 1875, is also treasurer of the Brockton Masonic Benefit Association and occupies various other positions of trust.

Mr. Jones, though never an active politician, has always taken a deep interest in the public welfare, and had identified himself with every public movement which tended to promote the growth, moral and material of his city. In 1882, the first year of the city government, he represented Ward Seven in the Board of Aldermen, and has twice since, in the years 1890 and 1891, been elected to the same board.

Mr. Jones is a large holder of Brockton real estate and is a firm believer in the con- tinued prosperity of the city. With Embert Howard he built Satucket block, Bay State block and the Arcade.

FRED MORTON BIXBY

Is the second son of Charles Chancy and Alice (Crocker) Bixby, of Brockton, born December, 1863, married Lillie, daughter of Captain William A. and Mercy (Parker) Hallett, of Hyannis, Mass., November, 1887. Children one, Alice Parker Bixby, born September 20, 1889. After the usual attendance in the common schools of the old town of North Bridgewater, and not forgetting that his A, B and C's were learned at the private school of Mrs. Jones, as well as the multiplication table, young Bixby attended the High School, where he graduated in the class of 1881. During that year he

Bradford E. Jones

BIOGRAPHICAL.

entered the office of Charles W. Summer, Esq., then in active practice of law. In the fall of that year he entered the law department of Boston University, where he re- mained three years. He was the youngest member of his class, and was appointed by the faculty as class orator for scholarship. He graduated in the summer of 1884. He then visited England and the continent of Europe, and soon after his return began the active practice of law with Mr. Sumner, remaining two years. Upon the death of Judge Sumner he formed a partnership with Herbert H. Chase in 1890, and succeeded Sumner & Chase in the general practice of law, with an office in Bixby's block, Main street, Brockton.

When C. W. Sumner was appointed district attorney, for the southeastern district of Massachusetts, Mr. Bixby became an assistant to Mr. Sumner. April 16, 1884, he was appointed justice of the peace for Massachusetts, a notary public February 29, 1888, in 1886 represented the city in the common council, and is now a justice of the police court of Brockton.

Judge Bixby has been for eight years well known in Masonic circles and is popular. February 2, 1881, he was elected a commissioner of insolvency. He was also a charter member of the " Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks" and held the office of "Exalted Ruler" of that order in 1893-1894.

MARTIN WILD.

MARTIN WILD was the son of Martin and Susan (Williams) Wild, and grandson of Richard and Rhoda (Cary) Wild, and the grandson also of Thomas and Rebecca (Keith) Williams. The lineage of the Wild family is traced to John Wild, who came from England and settled in Braintree in the seventeenth century ; his mother's lineage being traced to Richard Williams, one of the earliest English settlers of Taunton, Mass.

On the father's side he reckoned among his ancestry Col. Simeon Cary of what is now Brockton, of Revolutionary memory ; and on the maternal side Rev. James Keith, the first minister of Bridgewater.

He was born in Easton, February 2, 1838, where he passed the first twenty-one years of his life. His youth was spent in performing the lighter duties incident to the life of a farmer's son, attending summer and winter the common schools of his native town, leaving his home but for a single year to attend the academy of Mr. S. D. Hant in North Bridgewater. After he was twenty-one years of age he came with his parents to North Bridgewater, now Brockton. He was not robust, he was still a boy in stature, with little strength, no trade, and not the least business experience. He had still to choose some occupation and "begin life." Everything was to be learned, everything but those traits of promptness, order and system, which were hereditary with him, and which were strong elements of his later business success.

It was not expected that he could endure mueh physical exertion. Should he prepare himself to become a teacher or seek employment in an office or a store ? These occupa- tions were distasteful to him on account of a certain taciturnity hereditary from his

HISTORY OF BROCKTON.

inother. He objected to any business that required talking. After mature deliberation he decided to go into a shoe shop, to ascertain by actual experiment whether he could earn his living by manual labor.

Practicing the strictest regularity of habit and a rigid economy of his strength he be- came so far innred to labor as to give his employers satisfactory results, and became a quiet enthusiast in the work and business. For the first half year his wages were four dollars per week. If these were small, they were his first earnings, and he was content.

His friends still remember the quiet pleasure with whichi, at twenty-two years of age, he spoke of having laid by fifty dollars in the savings bank. In this course of steady industry he continued for about ten years, when having accumulated a small capital he surprised his friends by announcing his intention to go into the shoe business. "I have decided," he said, "to learn the shoe business, and I can best learn it by engaging in it. It will probably take me a long time. I may meet with dis- couragement and possibly failure. In the end I expect to learn and carry on the business."

It is not known that he asked anybody's advice. After he had fairly and carefully weighed any project he was one of the most self-reliant of men. Within two years after beginning business he met with a loss which wiped out his entire original capital. To a friend who inquired whether he would 'go an, he replied: "Certainly, I have been learning something about the business. I have my lasts, machines, and a few hundred dollars left, I have all the credit I need and more than I shall use, I have no notion of giving up."

He continued in business seventeen years, making a modest but substantial contri- bution to the town's shoe business.

Mr. Wild made few professions, but he aimed at being a useful man, and that principle became more and more a controlling principle of his life. His specialty was the manu- facture of the cheap shoe known at that time to the trade as the Brockton shoe. He aimed, however, always to put as much value into the product as the trade would pay for, and took much satisfaction during his later years in the fact that the trade would pay for a good cheap shoe.

About 1885-6 he became apprehensive that the labor organizations, by grading up the prices of labor, might render it impossible, as they had already rendered it difficult to make cheap shoes in Brockton; and he visited other localities both in and out of the State with a view of transferring his business. Eventually, however, while continuing his Brockton business, he began the manufacture of fine shoes, operating for that pur- pose a factory near his birthplace in North Easton. He became much interested in this experiment of making a more expensive and for some consumers a more useful shoe; and continued the experiment for a year, establishing it upon a paying basis.

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History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894, Part 82

Author: Kingman, Bradford, 1831-1903. 4n Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Kingman, Bradford, 1831-1903. 4n
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1170