History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 218

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 218

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Probably no man in the country ever endured a heavier strain of brain and muscle, of wearing thought and unresting activity, than Mr. Felton bore during the fourteen years for which he held this office. He had hardly completed his reforms in the administra- tion of the road, when he was overtaken by the cares, anxieties, responsibilities and perils forced upon him by the Civil War. Early in 1865 a stroke of paraly- sis, occasioned wholly by overwork, compelled him to resign. After a few months he recovered, to a good degree, his health and his working power, and he then became, and still is, president of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, the earliest establishment in the United States for the manufacture of steel rails. This is now one of the largest manufactories in the coun- try, and is conducted not only for the benefit of the stockholders, but with the most humane and philan- thropie regard for the improvement and well-being of the operatives.

Mr. Felton's professional reputation is shown in his appointment by Governor Andrew, in 1862, as a mem- ber of the Hoosac Tunnel Commission, and by Presi- dent Grant, in 1869, as one of the Commissioners to inspect and report upon the Pacific Railroads, then just completed. He has served as a director in sever- al important railroad corporations. The esteem in which he is held among men of liberal professions other than his own is manifested in his election, for several successive years, to the presidency of the Harvard Club, in Philadelphia.

In private life, Mr. Felton's character stands out in pure white light, without even a transient shadow. Stainless purity, unswerving integrity, large-hearted

1884

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

benevolence, and those (so-called) lesser, yet not less important, traits that are the charm and blessing of home and of social intercourse, endear him to all who know him. No man can have more or warmer friends than he, and, unless in the inevitable collisions of business, he can never have made an enemy.

Mr. Felton has been twice married,-in 1836, to Eleanor Stetson, of Charlestown, who died in 1847, and in 1850, to Maria Low Lippitt, of Providence. By his first wife he had three daughters; by his present wife he has had one daughter and three sons. He has been very happy in his family, with children devoted to his comfort and happiness, and with sons who are relieving him of such portions of his care and labor as have become onerous with his advancing years.

HON. HAYDN BROWN.1

Brown is a name that is, and well may be, familiar in this town. The first white child born in Newbury was Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary Brown, who, living to be eighty-one, died and left, as the record reads, "a good report as a maid, a wife and a widow." There were at least four men named Brown among the first settlers. Of all their descendants there is no one better known to-day in West New- bury, where he was born and has always lived, than Haydn Brown; and we call to mind no one who better knows the town itself; is more intimate with its history and traditions, or more in love with its green hills, its fertile fields, its beautiful river, skirting its whole length, with crystal waters opening their mirror-face to the trees, shrubs and all else that crowd its banks or east their shadows from the skies.

He was " self-made," as the New Englanders term it ; and, if so, does credit to his own workmanship, for he is solid, sensible, strong-armed and level-headed. His Christian name, as that of his brother llandel, indicates that he is from a musical family, and that is the fact, though his life has been too busy in ster- ling, manly work to indulge much in fine arts or mere accomplishments, though they may refine and elevate society. It has been his lot to dare destiny and snatch victory as a brave man may, when the odds are against him. Commencing life under grave disabilities, all of material wealth he has earned, and all the reputation he enjoys he has won in hard vontests. Our tates are not in our stars, but in our- selves ; not luck, but pluck conquers every time.

At fifteen, Haydn Brown, with the slightest educa- tion, was left to begin life's battle alone ; for we must always remember that the world is against the young aspirant till he has received the baptism of the con- test without their assistance, though all will cheer, as with throats of brass and tongues of iron, when he has overcome opposition, and feeling the inspiration of success, could get along very well without them.

Finding nothing to do at home, he went to New-

buryport on foot, with all his effects in the historic cotton handkerchief, to make bis fortune. Vainly seeking some employment to his taste, he drifted along the wharves, and, when his last dollar had been reached, shipped on board a fishing "smack," for less per month than one of his age would now expect per week; but it was a school of industry. At the end of the voyage, this incident occurred, which awoke the dreaming boy to a higher life. It was necessary for him to sign his name, in receiving his wages. He was confounded. Ile had looked poverty in the eye without quailing; he had faced the storm on the seas; he had worked hard to perform his duties; but now he hesitated, but finally made an unsightly scrawl. The owner of the vessel, in a sympathizing tone, said : "Young man, you ought to go to school !" This remark, in sorrow, not in anger, uttered, overpowered the lad and rings in his ears to this day. He has often said they were the most eloquent words he ever listened to, though on both sides of the Atlantic he has since heard distinguished orators. He went home to West Newbury discomforted, but not disheartened, for he had met the exigency and determined the future. That winter he went to school, and before the grass was green, or the May flowers peeped from under the snows, he had mastered Walsh's arithmetic, commit- ted every rule of the grammar to memory so thoroughly that he remembers them, verbatim, to this day ; spent his nights in reading history (he has not read his first novel yet) and was sawing wood in the spring to pay his bill. Thus heroically he started his mental train, and has kept the cars in motion ever since. Afterwards he attended the academies at Pembroke and Lebanon, N. H., and, had the means been at hand, would have entered college. Failing in that- fortunately, perhaps, for a good mechanic should never be lost in a poor preacher, or a good merchant killed in a dunce of a lawyer-he turned himself to industrial and commercial pursuits.

West Newbury is the place where comb-making commeneed in America, and where it has been continued to this time. To that he gave attention for five years, and there he started business on a small scale, for himself. Later, in 1846, he joined the tirm of S. C. Noyes & Co., and has there continued. This is the largest and most successful business firm the town has ever had. It is widely known, its principal market being New York, and thence extending to all parts of the country. Its integrity and financial ability are beyond question. Its senior member, S. C. Noyes (deceased within a few months) was deemed the richest man in the town, and now Mr. Brown occupies the same position. Fifty years have brought great changes to this industry. Those men at their start found only the rudest contrivanees called ma- chinery. Even steam did not enter into their calcu- lations. The power of the shops was in the human hand and human foot, but to-day-in this age of

1 By George J. L. Colby.

Hayan Brown

1885

WEST NEWBURY.

progress-they have all the improvements that have come to other industries, and they have some of the finest machinery in the country, nearly all of which has been of their own invention, or by persons of their own families. The factory of S. C. Noyes & Co. is the model of its kind in America. Nor has it confined its operations to horn-combs, but the inven- tion of machinery to cut the teeth of fine rubber combs was theirs, and the first combs of that variety were made by them. They have given employment to a large number of hands, and done as much for the progress of their town and the general elevation of society as any business house or firm has ever done. As they accumulated wealth not needed in their home business, they invested in shipping,-the building and owning of a large number of sea-going vessels, ships and schooners, engaged in the fisheries or coastwise and foreign commerce, sailing between Newburyport and Boston.

In local affairs Mr. Brown has never turned a deaf ear to what affected the masses of the people. Re- membering his want of early education, he has been untiring in his efforts to make the public schools all they should be; realizing how much he was indebted to the reading of books (for he has been a great reader of history and travels, works on philosophy, polities and religion), he led the way to the establish- ment of a public library. The town depending largely upon agriculture, he was one of the founders of the local agricultural society, and for many years was its president ; has delivered frequent addresses before it, and liberally aided its annual course of winter lectures for a quarter of a century. He had always dealt liberally, not withholding charities from the deserving, and never turning a hungry man away in his hunger. A worker from his very childhood, he has aided labor, scorning the distinctions of race, color or creed. Politically he belongs to the school of Sumner and Wendell Phillips, voted for James G. Birney for President in 1844, and for every Repub- lican candidate for that place from that day. In 1875 he was himself elected to the State Senate, and as an indorsement of his neighbors, received the largest vote ever cast by the town ; and in the following year he was re-elected by an increase of nearly two thousand votes in the district. In religion he believes and practices what commends itself to his reason and conscience. He is a lover of nature in all its varied forms. The sunlight on the hills gives him pleasure. The stars and the earth give him gladness. He sees fitness and wisdom in the animals, birds, fishes and insects, and studies their habits. On any one or all of these topics he is the best authority in this locality. He grows eloquent in discoursing on horticulture and floriculture, and loves his garden, its fruits and flowers. Above all things material, and without formality or display, he loves justice and mercy, charity and temperance, honesty and morality, and is a man of pure life and correct habits. He believes

in what renders man wiser and better; and what is more and above this, he wants to see and know.

HION. E. M. BOYNTON.1

He has never sought any public station, but has been identified with unpopular but successful reforms in which he was leader of a forlorn hope against the most wealthy and powerful monopolies, against press, politicians, parties and every form of ancient and in- trenched prejudice.

For fifteen years at intervals of a world-wide bus- iness, self-founded, he devoted much money, time and eloquence to reformation of the prevalent ideas as to money, regulation of railroads, immigration and the reservation of lands for the actual settlers, and is sat- isfied now to see his unpopular ideas accepted by both political parties and his monetary principles settled in his favor forever by the United States Supreme Court.

He has achieved a national reputation as a speaker, writer and inventor, and is the only one who ever represented the New York Board of Trade at the meeting of the united Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain in 1877, by them invited.

In 1876, at Philadelphia, the Emperor of Brazil call- ed twice upon Mr. Boynton. A public test of Mr. Boynton's new lightning saw was ordered by the com- missioners of all nations there represented, and a twelve-inch diameter log of gum-wood was sawed off in ten seconds by hand, by the two Boynton brothers, Alfred and Charles. These MI cutting saw-teeth were the first scientific and practical gain in the cutting points of reciprocal saw-teeth, used for cross-cutting etc., in the world, and the genuine or imitation are still sold or used in nearly every country.

Mr. Boynton was the first largely to substitute these saws for axes, and the American Agriculturalist in speaking of them declared they saved annually to the people in the United States, fifty million dollars.

They were awarded the highest prizes wherever ex- hibited, also the first awards of the World's Fairs at Philadelphia and at Sydney, Australia.

He has received some fifteen patents relating to saws and wood-working machinery. His compart- ment ship patents were arranged, using compartments instead of knees, substituting great economy, strength and safety. Six of them were used in the conveyance of eighty cars on their decks through rocky and hith- erto unnavigated rapids of the Merrimac, and no scow or car was ever lost, although frequently pierced by obstructions. A similar system of metallic construc- tion is now being applied to ocean steamers. In 1885, Mr. Boynton, after examining the shallow harbors of the Gulf of Mexico, as a paid expert, patented his jetty and harbor construction system, which Captain

1 The following sketch of Hon. E. M. Boynton has been condensed from public sources, and especially from the King's County (Brooklyn' N. Y.) Ilistory.

1886

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Eads pronounced a great improvement over his here- tofore matchless New Orleans jetties. The Eads sys- tem used six or more enormous rafts and layers of timber mattresses, framed and trenailed together with willow brush filling between them and huge artificial stones to hold these wooden embankments down firmly for a sea-wall.

This enormous expense is avoided, and the danger from the teredo worm lessened by the substitution of two very slanting rows of piles, placed snugly side by side, and leaning together, penetrating deeply into the mud and forming two slanting dams back to back, above the sea or harbor, dividing the resistance of sea, which curls at their base as upon a slanting shore. This mole, beginning at the shore, is during construction filled with willows and other brush drawn beneath the linked crest of the pile triangle by a cable chain belt, to which masses of willows and other brush are fastened. This is drawn in with sand and mud to any desired pressure and solidity, while the exterior walls of pile timber, having been soaked in tanks of petro- leum, are secure from worms.

A harbor may thus be constructed securely and cheaply at any river mouth, or upon any shallow ocean shore where no river exists.

These patents are soon to become the property of a large company for harbor work in America and Europe.

In March, 1887, Mr. Boynton began issuing the mechanical patents of his Bicycle Railway System, which has now been secured patent protection in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia.

A company of five million dollars' authorized eap- ital has been organized at No. 32 Nassau Street, New York, of which he has been elected president, be and his family being the largest owners, with many distinguished men as share-holders.

The most experienced railway and civil engineers have given their opinions that this system means as great a revolution and advance in rapid and ceo- nomic railway transportation, as the present system is over the old stage-coach and baggage-wagons or as the large bicycle over the boy's velocipede.

By placing posts at the side of existing railways and projecting rails sixteen feet above trains, nearly four feet wide, and thirteen feet deep, with the in- creased lightness and strength of a board turned edge- wise, will require but one-tenth the weight to convey the same passengers and freight, saving in power ten- fold ; freights will be conveyed at less than the cost of water transportation, while the power applied to speed for passengers will enable the doubly enlarged and rapid wheels to cross the continent, if necessary, from New York to the Pacific in a day with absolute safety, the trains being grooved below and above, with double flanged wheels moving on a single rail with bicycle spindle-wheels, rounding the sharpest curve without loss of power ; the saving in weight of | other valuable inventions are of Boynton origin.

ten to one is thus multiplied by a several fold, saving in friction over the present system.

This is to be effected without interference with the present railway system, while using jointly their tracks until substitution of the lighter and more eco- nomical trains has been completed.

Arrangements for the engine, cars, and one or more experimental roads, are in progress and will soon be completed, and it is confidently predicted it will give Mr. Boynton a name with the great invent- ors of the age, who have advanced civilization, and lightened the toil of millions.

The Boyntons in England appeared in possession of numerous strongholds at Scarboro', Rawcliffe, Shrews- bury and other places previous to the conquest, and being Normans, submitted to William the Con- queror and saved their estates. They gave endow- ments to literary and religious institutions in York and elsewhere, and at Shrewsbury their castle was the point of gathering for the English lords and gentry at the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, where so many were slain, from their indiscretion under Hot- spur in not waiting for Glendower and the Earl of Northumberland. John Boynton's castle was taken, himself, Gerald Heron and Archbishop Scrope exe- cuted, but the property and title were not confiscated and remain to this day. Later they were adherents and proteetors of Wickliffe, the Luther of England.

Strickland Boynton's ship was piloted by Sebastian Cabot in the first discovery of North America, in 1498.

Other members of the family distinguished them- selves in the Crusades, and in the wars with France were honored for services rendered at Crecy, Poictiers and Agincourt.

One of the Boynton castles entertained Queen Hen- rietta Maria with such a display of gold and silver plate that she subsequently confiscated the plate, leaving her portrait in pawn for its repayment when her husband, Charles I., should seeure peace.

Sir Matthew Boynton's two sons, William and John, came to Essex County, Mass., with the Rowley gentry, in 1636. Sir Matthew at this time owned Burton Agnes and many other valuable estates in the North of England ; commanded Scarboro' Castle and the troops of the Scottish border ; was the sheriff of Yorkshire and member of Parliament.

In 1638 John Boynton, his son, purchased from Governor Dummer two hundred aeres on the Parker River, Newbury, which continued in the family two hundred years.

From John and William, sons of Sir Matthew Boynton, all of that name in America are believed to have descended.

Some of them are distinguished in military and civil life, but in general they have been more noted as inventors and for intellectual and moral qualities.

The annealing of cast-iron, known as malleable iron, the invention of hot-air furnaces, and many

Über Allerdy / boyutin

1887

WEST NEWBURY.

Hon. Eben Moody Boynton, the subject of this sketch, was born in Harrisville, near Cleveland, Ohio, July 23, 1840, and came to Massachusetts in his child- hood. His father, Alfred Boynton, and mother were natives of Newburyport, descended from those who first landed two hundred and fifty years before,-the Boyntons at Rowley, 1636 ; the Moodys at Newbury- port, 1635,-his mother, Abigail Moody, being de- scended from William Moody, who first landed at Newburyport, whose father, Rev. William Moody, was a brother of Sir Henry Moody, of Garsden, Wiltshire, England.

The Moody family has been eminent for piety, learning, patriotism, intellectual force and public in- fluence, both in England and America. One of the family was elected president of Harvard College, was for many years pastor of the Old South Church, Bos- ton, did much to enlighten his brother-in-law, Chief Justice Sewell, as to the errors of the witchcraft de- lusion, and thus saved many lives. Another of the family was the first principal of Dummer Academy, in Newbury, the oldest founded academy in Massa- chusetts. Deacon Joshua Boynton, an ancestor, was chairman of the board of control of that institu- tion.

Another member of the Boynton family was the first teacher at Rowley, an associate preacher with Rev. John Phillips, ancestor of the Governor Phillips family, who founded the famous Phillips Academies and Andover Theological Seminaries. The last sur- viving pupil of Master Moody, of Dummer, Enoch Boynton, was famous for introducing silk culture into New England. He died some thirty-two years ago, at the age of ninety years. To this great-uncle, the subject of this sketch first came from his birth-place on the Western Reserve in Ohio. He was a great favorite with Enoch Boynton, who resided in New- bury, where the lands of his ancestors had been occu- pied by his family in unbroken succession from the first settlement of the town. The original mind and inventive genius of Enoch Boynton made a deep im- pression on the child of thirteen.

Mr. Boynton's social relations have been singularly fortunate and happy. His summer home is on Pipe- Stave Hill in West Newbury, Mass., overlooking Newburyport and the lovely valley of the Merrimac, whose tidal waters sweep the base of the eminence. His parsonage farm was once the property of that eminent patriot, Caleb Moody, who was imprisoned by Governor Andros for resisting the revocation of Massachusetts' charter. His residence tower com- mands a view of forty mountain peaks, including Mount Washington and of the ocean far and wide. The first Senator of the United States from Massa- chusetts, Senator Dalton, and his brother-in-law, Hooper, resided here and entertained many distin- guished French exiles after the French Revolution, among whom were Louis Phillippe, afterwards King of France; M. de Talleyrand, minister of Napoleon;

and the young poet Brissot, who here wrote his sketches of the beautiful scenery.

Within a half-hour's drive are the birth-places of the poet Whittier, Governor Josiah Bartlett, Hon. Caleb Cushing, William Lloyd Garrison, Caleb Moody, Major Benjamin Perley Poore, John Newell, and the homes of the ancestors of Lowell, Longfellow, Parsons and other distinguished men ; while just be- low, on a beautiful island, is the residence of Harriet Prescott Spofford. James Parton, the historian, re- sides a mile further, in Newburyport, opposite the old home of Dr. Tyng. The castellated house erected and for six years occupied by the British minister, Sir Edward Thornton, looks out from Laurel Ilill, near by the property of Captain Henry W. Moulton and his literary family.

Mr. Boynton came to his present place of residence when he was fourteen years old, to reside with Mrs. Susan Coker, a si-ter of Mrs. General Peabody, of Newburyport, who had in her household her nephew, George Peabody, the famous London banker and philanthropist, during his early manhood. The in- fluence of Mrs. Coker and her daughter Catharine was of value to young Boynton in the formative age, and when he married she gave him the Peabody clock as a souvenir of the distinguished hanker.

In 1873, on May Ist, Mr. Boynton married Anna Bartlett Gale, the only daughter of Dr. Stephen M. Gale, of Newburyport, connected through her father with Governor Josiah Bartlett, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence,-he being her great- grandfather,-and the Websters; on the side of her mother, Hannah Whittier Johnson, with the Jolin- sons and the family of J. G. Whittier, the poet. She is a lady of high literary and musical culture, uniting tbese pursuits with domestic tastes. Among their friends are numbered some of the best people in the land. Their union has been blessed with four promising daughters. That their summer home is one of rare beauty and happiness we can testify from personal knowledge.

In 1877 he purchased the side-wheel, one hundred and twenty horse-power, steam tug, the "Charles L. Mather," of New York, and ran it to Newburyport, and began experimenting to open the Merrimac River for navigation to Lawrence, Mass. He sent to Lowell the first scow-load of coal ever received there by water from the harbor of Newburyport, from the Philadelphia and Reading coal pocket ; towed it to Lawrence, and passed it through the canal to Gen. B. F. Butler, at Lowell, Mass, Mr. Boynton has since expended over fifty thousand dollars from the revenues of his saw business in opening up the navi- gation of the Merrimack, with a view to giving cheaper coal and lumber freights and water transpor- tation to the large manufacturing cities on its banks, where about five hundred thousand tons of coal are used annually, and manufactures aggregating $100,- 000,000 annually are produced. The improvements

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 218

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672