History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 13

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Mr. Mack gained the confidence of the community not only as an honorable business man, but as a citi- zen who could be intrusted with important responsi- bilities in conducting municipal affairs. In 1843 and 1846 he was a member of the Common Council, and in 1847 he served in the Board of Aldermen. In 1853 and 1854 he was mayor of the city. In 1862 he was a member of the Legislature. With this last ser- vice his political career was closed, and he retired to the more congenial sphere of business life, That may be said of him which can be said of very few who engage in trade, that he pursued the same business and almost in the same place for about forty-six years.

About three years since he withdrew from active business life, but he still finds, at the age of seventy- six years, much to occupy and interest his mind. He is president of the Lowell Gas Company, and also president of the Five Cents Savings Bank, and has long been a director of the Railroad Bank, and of the Stony Brook Railroad. Besides these there are many other positions of trust which are wont to be bestowed upon a man so long and so well-known as he for his fidelity, ability and knowledge of business. Add to these also the care of his own large estate. Probably in his declining years no labors are more congenial to him than those which pertain to the welfare of Kirk Street Congregational Church, in which he has long held the office of deacon, and of which he is one of the most liberal supporters.

DR. AMBROSE LAWRENCE was born in Boscawen, N. H., May 2, 1816. His early years were spent upon a farm, and he had not the advantage of a lib- eral education. He came to Lowell when twenty-one years of age and worked as a machinist for the Suf- folk Corporation. Soon, however, turning his mind to the study of dentistry, hc opened a dentist's office in 1839 in a building on or near the site of the pres- ent post-office, where he remained for about thirteen years. In 1852 he erected for his residence the house on John Street, which is now known as " Young Women's Home." He was in the City Council in 1849, and in the Board of Aldermen in 1851 and 1859. In 1855 he was mayor of the city, having been the candidate of the American or "Know-Nothing " party in its most prosperous days.

Dr. Lawrence took an active part in re-organizing the Fire Department, in the introduction of pure water into the city and in making Central Bridge frec. He possesses an active and inventive mind and through the success of the Amalgam Filling invented by him, and extensively used by dentists, ho has made himself wealthy. He is a man of mirthful

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spirit and it has been said of him that he loves a joke better than a good dinner. He is not a partisan in politics, though he was wont to take part with the Whigs. For more than twenty years he has resided in Cambridge and Boston, his present residence being Boston Highlands.

STEPHEN MANSUR was born in Temple, N. H., Angust 25, 1798. At the age of sixteen years he began to serve as a hired man upon a farm. His am- bition, however, did not allow him long to occupy an inferior position. When only twenty-one years of age he became the proprietor of a hotel and stables in Boston. Having had some experience in working upon a eanal during a short residence in the State of New York, he came to Lowell in 1822, when the work of widening the Pawtucket Canal was begun, and was appointed as an assistant superintendent of that undertaking. In 1830 he commenced (with a partner) the hardware and crockery business. In this business he continued almost to the end of his life, occupying for many of his last years a store on or near the site of the Boston & Maine Depot, on Central Street.

He gained the confidenee of his fellow-eitizens, and was elected in 1836, and again in 1850, a member of the State Legislature. He was twice in the Com- mon Council and three times in the Board of Alder- men. He was mayor of the eity in 1857. After this he stood aloof from publie office.

Mr. Mansur was a religious man and was elosely allied to the interests of the First Baptist Church, of which he was a deaeon. In his church relations he was highly esteemed. He was a man of good busi- ness qualities and of sterling common sense. He died April 1, 1863, at the age of nearly sixty-four years.

JAMES COOK was born in Preston, Conn., October 4, 1784. His father was the proprietor of a fulling- mill, and it was while employed in his youth in his father's mill that the son gained that knowledge of the manufacture of woolens for which he was after- wards distinguished, and in which he spent his early manhood. In those early days the New England farmers raised their own wool, and made it into cloth in their own families. Cloth thus made was sent to the clothier's mill to be fulled, eolored and dressed. Mr. Cook was the oldest of a family of seven sons, and it devolved upon him to learn the clothier's trade in his boyhood. After the War of 1812 the three oldest brothers commenced the business of manufacturing broadcloth in Northampton, Mass. But Lowell at that time presented advantages for manufacturing woolens so much superior to those at Northampton, that in 1828 the brothers sold out.

Mr. Cook was employed as the first agent of the Middlesex Company in Lowell in 1830, and under his management this company inaugurated the manufac- ture of woolens on a large scale. Mr. Cook's experi- ence and skill were exhibited in many valuable im-

provements, especially in adapting the Crompton loom in making woolen as well as cotton fabrics. So successful were these operations, that in the third year a dividend of thirty-three per eent. was declared. For six years, beginning with 1846, he had charge of the Wiuooski Mills at Burlington, Vt., during which he received the gold medal of the American Institute for his manufactures. He subse- quently had charge of the Uncas Woolen-Mills of Norwich, Conn.

After the disaster brought upon the Middlesex Mills in Lowell by the gross mismanagement of Lawrence, Stone & Co., Mr. Cook was a second time made the agent of these mills, and held the position one year, leaving the property greatly improved.

Giving up the business of a manufacturer, he spent his last years in the insuranee business. Though not a politician, he was twice a member of the Common Couneil, and was elected by the American party as mayor of the eity for 1859. My limited space will not allow me to rehearse his history as a military man in the War of 1812, in which he skillfully captured a British barge. He died April 10, 1884, at the ad- vanced age of nearly ninety years.

BENJAMIN C. SARGEANT was born in Unity, New Hampshire, February 11, 1823. From Unity he re- moved in his boyhood to Windsor, Vermont. When sixteen years of age lie eame to Lowell and entered, as clerk, the book-store of Abijah Watson, his brother- in-law. About 1842 he went to New York, where he found employment in a hook-store for about three years. In 1845 he opened a store on Central Street, on or near the site of the Central Block. Subse- quently he established a book-store in the City Gov- ernment Building, in which he continued throughout his life.

Mr. Sargeant was five times a member of the Common Council and was three times elected presi- dent of that body. He was mayor of the city in 1860 and 1861, and proved himself to be an efficient offieer. He was known as a religious man and was a vestry- man of St. Anne's Parish. His manners were cour- teous and his bearing dignified. He made an excel- lent presiding officer, and Lowell had a worthy repre- sentative in him on public occasions. His popular- ity is indicated by the fact that the Sargeant Light Guard received its name from him.

He left no children. After a long and painful ill- ness he died on March 2, 1870, at the age of forty- seven years.

HOCUM HOSFORD was born in Charlotte, Ver- mont, November 8, 1825. He worked upon his father's farm until his twentieth year, during the last three of which he had its entire management. Though his means for educating himself were limited, he was appointed teacher of a distriet school when only eighteen years of age. When twenty years old he came to Lowell and found employment in Gardner & Wilson's dry-goods store at a salary of $150. After a

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

serviee of a few years as clerk, he succeeded Danicl West, one of his former employers, as proprictor of a store on Merrimack Strcet, and continued in the dry- goods business on this street during the remainder of his life.

With his partner, Arthur G. Pollard, he erected on Merrimack Street in 1874-75, the spacious and elegant building known so well to the citizens of Lowell as the store of " Hosford & Co." It is a model building fitted with every convenience adapted to the trade. . Mr. Hosford was a member of the Common Council in 1860, and of the Board of Aldermen in 1861 and 1867. He served as mayor of the city in 1862, being the youngest person who had ever served in this office. He was re-elected as mayor for the years 1863 and 1864. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1866. His capacity for business gained for him ap- pointments to places of high responsibility. He was a director of the Boston & Lowell, and the Lowell & Lawrence Railroads, and in 1875 he succeeded General Stark as manager of the Boston & Lowell Railroad. In the latter position he served during the rest of his life, being at the same time treasurer of the Lowell Hosiery Company, and of the Vassalborough Woolen- Mills.

. In 1864 he was chosen president of the Merehants' National Bank. In the above and many other posi- tions, too numerous to be mentioned, Mr. Hosford exhibited a capacity for business, a soundness of judgment and a clearness of perception which have given him a high rank among the first citizens of Lowell.

His most distinguished honor is that attained as mayor in the years of the Rebellion. In those years of sorest trial he served his city nobly and gained the title of " War Mayor."

He died April 5, 1881, at the age of fifty-five years.

JOSIAH G. PEABODY was born in Portsmouth, N. H., December 21, 1808. In 1824, after having for four years worked upon a farm in Haverhill, Mass., he came to Lowell, in order to learn the trade of earpen- ter and house-builder. Here he engaged in the ser- viee of Captain John Bassett, then a well-known builder. He seems to have finished his somewhat limited education at Atkinson Academy, N. H. In 1833, when only twenty-five years of age, he entered upon the business of contractor and builder. Among the buildings erected by him are the bank building on Shattuck Street, the Kirk Street Church, the Lee Street. Church, the lunatic hospital at Taunton, and the Custom-House at Gloucester. From 1858 to the present time he has been engaged in the manufacture of doors, sashes and blinds at the Wamesit Stcam- Mills in this city:

In the Lowell Fire Department Captain Peabody has seen long and arduous service, and for eleven years he was in the Board of Engineers. He was eleeted eaptain of the Mechanic Phalanx in 1843.

He was in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1837

and in 1855, and was in 1856 a member of the Gov- crnor's Couneil under Governor Gardner. He was twice in the Common Couneil and once in the Board of Aldermen. In 1865, 1866 and 1872 he was mayor of the city. In this office lie served the city most faitl- fully. He is a man of affairs, a true Yankee, abound- ing in energy, force and courage. The cause of tem- perance has no firmer friend or a more constant and consistent worker. His presence is still familiar in our streets, and he bears with ease and grace the bur- den of more than eighty years.

GEORGE FRANCIS RICHARDSON .- (For biography see Beneh and Bar chapter.)

JONATHAN P. FOLSOM was born in Tamworth, N. H., October 9, 1820. At the age of five years lie re- moved to Great Falls, where he remained twelve years. Having afterwards served two or three years as clerk in a store at Rochester, N. H., he came to Lowell in 1840, when twenty years of age. Here he became a elerk with the firm of Dinsmore & Read, on Merrimack Street. After two years he went South and entered as clerk into the service of James Brazer, in Benson, Alabama, where he was appointed postmaster of the town. Having spent about six years in the South, he returned to Lowell and entered the service of David West, having as a fellow-clerk Mr. Hosford, who af- terwards became mayor of the city.

After two years in the store of Mr. West he went into trade for himself on Merrimack Street. Sinee that time, in different capacities, he has, down to the present year, been engaged in the dry-goods business.

Mr. Folsom was a member of the Common Council in 1856 and 1867 ; a member of the Board of Alder- men in 1859-61-62 and 1873, and mayor of the city in 1869-70. In 1871-72 he represented Lowell in the State Legislature. He has also been a trustee of the Central Savings Bank and a director in the Old Lowell National Bank.

Mr. Folsom has always been known as a man of agreeable presence and affable manners. At his second election to the mayoralty he received every vote cast but two,-a nearer approximation to unan- imity than any other mayor has ever attained.

EDWARD F. SHERMAN was born in Acton, Mass., Feb. 10, 1821. He came to Lowell when a ehild and attended sehool under Master Bassett in the sehool- house built and owned by the Merrimack Company. This building stood upon the site of the Green School- house, and is the same in which Dr. Edson first preached on coming to Lowell. Mr. Sherman once publicly read an amusing account of Master Bassett's school, the substance. of whieli is found in this volume under the head of "Sehools."

Mr. Sherman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1843, and had the honor in a subsequent year of giv- ing an oration before the college upon taking his de- gree of Master of Arts. He was for some time en- gaged in teaching, having been elected preceptor of the academy in Canaan, N. H., and that in Pittsfield,

LOWELL.

Mass. He commenced the study of law abont 1846 in the office of Hon. Tappan Wentworth, and subse- quently became Mr. Wentworth's partner. In 1855 he was elected to the office of secretary of the Traders' and Mechanics' Insurance Company,-an office which he held during the rest of his life.

In 1861 and 1866 he served as member of the Legisla- ture of Massachusetts, and in 1870 was in the Board of Aldermen, For several years he served on the School Committee. In 1871 he was mayor of the city, having been nominated by the Citizens' party. Though well qualified for the place, he did not seek it. He had in previous years been affected with pulmonary disease, and could ill afford to incur the labors and excitement attending the performance of his duties in the mayor- alty. Most unfortunately the small-pox prevailed in the city in an epidemie form, and from every side his ad- ministration was severely and, doubtless, often un- justly, charged with inefficiency in checking it. The strain was too severe for his sensitive nature. He went to the sick-bed upon quitting the mayor's chair, and died in six short weeks. His death was on his birthday. His age was fifty-one years. He was a man of kind heart, of very pleasing address, of scholarly tastes and of superior intellectual powers.

FRANCIS JEWETT was born in Nelson, N. H., Sept. 19, 1820. His father, who was a farmer, suffered so severely from a serious lameness, that his son in his early years was compelled to assume, in conducting the farm, the responsibilities of a man. Mayor Jew- ett is by no means the first man whose misfortunes in youth have laid the foundations of fntnre success and made them leaders of men. He seems to have finished his education at the Baptist Seminary in Hancock.

Young Jewett possessed a robust and powerful frame, and a mind to match. He early learned to grapple with the labors and hardships of life with courage and buoyant energy. His townsmen recog- nized his merit, and before he was twenty eight years of age he was twice elected to the Board of Selectmen. Before finally quitting his farm he had, in the winter monthe, found employment as a butcher in Middlesex Village, now a part of Lowell. In 1850, with a cash capital of $200, he started business as a butcher in that village. Twenty years later he established him- self in business in the place on Middlesex Street where he now resides. His place of business is now on Dutton Street.

Mr. Jewett has always been a favorite among the voters. His sturdy manliness, his thorough honesty, his kindly bearing and his sound common sense win the confidence of the common people, and they like to give him offices of trust. He has been twice elected to the Common Council and twice to the Board of Aldermen. In 1873, 1874 and 1875 he was mayor of the city, and in 1877 and 1879 he was State Senator. He was chosen elector in the Garfield cam- paign in 1880, and in 1887-88-89 he was on the Gov- ernor's Council. He has filled every office well.

CHARLES A. STOTT was born in Centralville while it was yet a part of the town of Dracut, August 18, 1835. The annexation of Centralville to Lowell oc- curred in 1851. No other mayor of the city had been born within its limits. He passed through all the grades of our public schools, and has spent his whole life within the city. His father, Mr. Charles Stott, was a man of marked individuality, who came when a young man from England almost penniless, and by persistent industry and great energy and strict economy acquired wealth and an honored name. He was superintendent of the Belvidere Woolen Mann- facturing Company, which was established by him, and was known as a skillful and very successful mannfacturer.

Major Charles A. Stott, the son, npon leaving the High School, became a clerk under his father, and several years after his father's death he has become agent and president of the company,-a company which has long enjoyed very great success.

Major Stott, in the early part of the Rebellion, took an active and patriotic part in raising troops, and served as major in the Sixth Regiment of nine months' men. This regiment, which was in the ser- vice from August, 1862, to June, 1863, was stationed at Suffolk, Va., and was under the command of A. S. Follansbee as colonel, and O. F. Terry as general.

After leaving the service, he built a flannel-mill on Lawrence Street, which was for a time operated by him. Bnt this property lie sold, and became, as stated above, the agent and president of the mills established by his father. He occupies an elegant private residence on Nesmith Street.

Major Stott holds a high position in the Masonic order. In 1859 and 1860 he was a member of the Common Council, and was in the Board of Aldermen in 1869 and 1870. He was mayor of the city in 1876 and 1877. He enjoys the esteem of his fellow-citi- zens, and, what is very highly to his honor, he has the affection and respect of those who are in his employ.

JOHN A. G. RICHARDSON was born in Lowell, October 13, 1840, and was educated in the public schools of the city. On leaving the High School, he formed a partnership with his brother in the pro- vision business in Lowell. When thirty-four years of age (1874), he was elected by Ward 4 a represent- ative to the General Court of Massachusetts. That a young Democrat should thus be selected by a Re- publican ward, which had always put Republicans in office, is a very pleasing indication of the personal popularity of the man. In 1878 and 1879 he was mayor of the city. Lowell had elected no Demo- cratic mayor for twenty-eight years. The very flat- tering majority received by Mayor Richardson at his second election is ample testimony to the acceptable manner in which he had fulfilled the dnties of his office in his first year.

In the Rebellion he belonged to Company C of the

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Sixth Regiment, and three times went with his regi- ment on its southern campaigns.

Mr. Richardson is not a politician. His tastes lead him to the pursuits of business life. Since re- tiring from his position as mayor, he has engaged in the provision business in Lowell, and since 1882 in the wholesale beef trade in Minneapolis, Minn.

He is a gentleman of cordial address and pleasing manners, and readily wins the respect and favor of his fellow-citizens.

FREDERIC T. GREENHALGE was born in Clitheroe, a parliamentary borough of England, in the county of Lancaster, on July 19, 1842. His father, William Greenhalge, who had been an engraver in the famous Primrose Print Works at Clitheroe, came to Lowell about 1854, and was employed at the Merrimack Print Works to take charge of the copper roller en- graving. Young Greenhalge was then about twelve years of age. He passed through all the grades of the Lowell public schools, in which he was known as a boy of superior talent. At the examination for ad- mission to the High School he received the highest rank of all the candidates, and, upon graduating from the High School, he received a Carney medal, and was acknowledged as the first boy in his class. Especially did he excel as a declaimer upon the stage thus early giving promise of that ability as an orator, which he has exhibited in recent years. He entered Harvard College in 1859, but the death of his father compelled him to relinquish the hope of completing his course, and to return to the serious responsibili- ties which were placed upon him as an only son.

After teaching school and engaging in other labors for self-support, he entered upon the study of law in the office of Brown & Alger. In 1863 he engaged in the war, and was employed in the commissary de- partment in Newbern, N. C. While at Newbern he was seized with malarial fever, which compelled him, after months of sickness, to return home. Again he devoted himself to the study of the law, and was ad- initted to the bar in June, 1865. His talents brought him early success, and made him the object of popu- lar favor. He served in the Common Council in 1868 and 1869, and in the School Board in 1871. In the years 1880 and 1881 he was mayor of the city. I have not the space to mention all the minor offices which lie has held. He is everywhere recognized as a man of high promise. He was elected to Congress in November, 1888, and his many friends confidently believe that in the arena of political debate he will gain a high rank among our ablest orators.

GEORGE RUNELS was born in Warner, N. H., Feb- ruary 3, 1823. During his first sixteen years he worked upon the farm or in the blacksmith shop of his father or his brother. In his seventeenth year he came to Lowell, and for one season engaged in the work of stone-cutting with Gardner K. Eastman. He then went to sea in a whaling vessel. His vessel suf- fered shipwreck near the Fiji Islands, in the South

Pacific Ocean. He escaped in a boat, and after three days upon the water lie was rescued by a passing ves- sel. He next found employment on a trading vessel, and was engaged in the South seas in selling tortoise- shells and beche de mer, a species of slug used as a delicacy by the Chinese in making soup. At length, on board an English vessel, he traded in the Indies, and while in Calcutta was attacked with the cholera, and was confined to a hospital for six weeks. In 1844, having followed the seas for four years, he re- turned to his work of stone-cutting in the service of Mr. Eastman.

April 1, 1846, he engaged in the business of stone- cutting for himself on Middlesex Street. Four years after this he spent a few months in California. In 1851 he purchased a farm in Waterbury, Vt. Re- maining upon his farm about three years, he returned to his business of stone-cutting in Lowell, which he followed for more than twenty years. For the last ten years he has been engaged in erecting buildings and caring for his estate.

In 1862 he was a member of the Common Council, and in 1864 and 1873 he was in the Board of Alder- men. He served as mayor of the city in 1882.

Mr. Runels is a man of modest merit, sound judg- ment and strict integrity. . Though not a politician, he is everywhere known as a worthy, upright man, who in his mayoralty served the city most faithfully.

JOHN J. DONOVAN was born in Yonkers, N. Y., July 28, 1843. He came to Lowell when three years of age, and was educated in the public schools of the city. On leaving the High School he entered as clerk into the employment of Mr. Gove, proprietor of the Chapel Hill Grocery. Upon attaining his major- ity, he was received as partner in the business, and so continued until the death of Mr. Gove, in 1869. The firm, known as Donovan & Co., was then estab- lished. This firm still continues to do business as grocers at 266 and 267 Central Street, and is consid- ered one of the best-established firms in the city. Its commodious building is well adapted to the exten- sive business of the firm. The firm deals largely in powder, dualin and explosives, and has a store-house in Tewksbury, in which its explosives are kept. In 1884 Mr. Donovan projected and constructed all the lines of the Atlantic Telegraph Company east of Boston. For many years he has been a prominent public man.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226