History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 183

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 183

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In closing this sketch of Somerville it may not be improper to allade to the probable future of this enterprising and rapidly-growing town. Had it not been detached from Charlestown it woukl of course have been long before this a part of Boston. So far as the cause of its being is concerned, and the inspi- ration of its life it is really a part of Boston now. Upon the business of Boston, and its prosperity and growth, the future increase and prosperity of Som- erville depend. So many of its people, both male and female, are engaged in enterprises and seek em- ployment in that city, that the welfare and good gov- ernment of the metropolis are almost as much matters of interest to them as their own. The time, there- fore, may not be far distant when the city which its people have nourished in its infancy and youth, will hecome in its full manhood a part of that great muni- cipality which, with Somerville, Cambridge, Med- ford, Malden, Everett, Chelsea, Brockline and Water- town embraced within its limits, will, at the end of another decade, include nearly nine hundred thousand inhabitants within its borders.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HON. JAMES M. SHUTE.

Mr. Shute is descended from Richard Shute, who appeared in Medford in 1642, and had a wife, Eliza- beth, and a son, Richard. The son, Richard, had a wife, Lydia, and a son, John, born in Malden, March 26, 1699. John had a son, Ebenezer, who was one of twelve children, and was born in Malden, Sept. 28, 1740. Ebenezer had a son, Ebenezer, born in Malden, who married Susanna Beal, of Hingham, and had six children. The last Ebenezer was a carpenter and builder, and removed to Boston, where the subject of this sketch, one of his children, was born, May 5, 1812.

Mr. Shute attended the public schools of Bostou and graduated at the Boston English High School. lle learned the trade of printer, and soon after so- cured employment with the Boston Type and Stereo- type Foundry. This foundry was established in Charlestown, in 1817, by Elisha White, as a branch of his foundry in New York. In 1818 the property

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

was bought by Charles Ewer and Timothy Bedling- ton, who appointed Samuel Haskell superintendent, and finally removed the establishment to Boston, where it was conducted for several years, on Wash- ington Street, in the rear of the store of Samuel T. Armstrong, between Court Street and Cornhill. Up to that time the method prevailed of moulding and casting type by hand. The process was of course a slow one, and made the daily product of type small and its cost high. About the year 1826 the first machines were invented for casting type, and their use was attempted by the company. In 1829 the foundry company was incorporated as the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry.

Mr. Shute, after some years of faithful service as an employee of the company, was appointed, while still a young man, its agent and treasurer, and with bis assumption of its management may be dated the birth of that prosperity which has since marked its career. He continned in the management until 1852, when the establishment was sold to John K. Rogers and David Watson, and carried on in the name of John K. Rogers & Company until in 1865, it was incorporated as the Boston Type Foundry, the name the company now bears.

When Mr. Shute assumed the management of af- fairs the experiments with the type-machines had not proved successful. The type produced by them were pressed in the form with a want of uniformity, and thus here and there a letter failed to make its proper impression on the printed page. Mr. Shute after further trial abandoned their use and ordered them destroyed. At this juncture David Brnce, of New York, appeared at the foundry with a machine which he claimed remedied all the defects of the old machines, and offered it for sale to the company. Its merits were at once detected by Mr. Shute, and its detects also ; but, believing that the defects could be remedied, he bought the right to use it in the manu- facture of type for general sale, and to manufacture the machines for the New England market. Mr. Leonard, an intelligent artisan, was at once engaged to make a new machine, heavier in all its parts, with some alterations suggested by Mr. Shute. The result was a successful one, and until the patent on the ma- chine expired the company held the market at its own price. The process of electrotyping fancy types and borders was also introduced by Mr. Shute, and added largely to the profits of the company's business. During his connection with the foundry company he laid the foundation for wealth on which, in later years, by shrewd business management he has been steadily building.

In 1848 Mr. Shute removed to Somerville, then a town in the sixth year of its municipal life, and at once won the confidence and esteem of his fellow- citizens. From 1853 to 1859, inclusive, after his retirement from active business in Boston, he served as chairman of the Board of Selectmen of his adopt-

ed town, and on declining further service, the town, at its annual meeting held on the 5th of March, 1860, voted "that the thanks of the town be presented to the Hon. James M. Shute, for the able, energetic and faithful manner in which he has for several years performed the arduous duties of chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and that they be entered upon the books of the town."

From 1861 to 1864, inclusive, he was a member of the Executive Council, and no member of the board during those years held more confidential relations with Governor Andrew, or was held by him in higher esteem. During the busiest and most exacting years of the war he was chairman of the Finance Committee of the Council, and the admirable finan- cial condition of the Commonwealth at the close of the struggle is a sufficient commentary on his service.

As chairman of the Hoosac Tunnel Commission for several years, he rendered valuable service to the State. On the resignation, in 1866, of John M. Brooks, a member of the commission he was anxious to have ex-Governor Andrew appointed in his place, and proposed to surrender to him the position of chairman. Governor Bullock, of course, was ready to make the appointment, and Mr. Andrew gave a hesitating consent to accept it. This consent, however, he afterwards withdrew in the following letter to Mr. Shute which is included in this sketch for the purpose of showing both the relations exist- ing between him and Mr. Shute, and the conscien- tionsness which he carried with him into the perform- ance of public duties :

"96 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, Oct. 16, 18GG. " My dear Mr. Shute :- I have again reconsidered the subject of which we talked yesterday, and with every desire to help you, and to aid the grand design of another through route to the Lakes, I am still wholly unable to perceive how I could be of substantial advantage without 80 far neglecting ' The Law' as to jujure mie pecuniarily very much more than aoy compensation I should receive would repay. For I could never be satisfied without trying to master every problem, nor without doing my utmost to couquer soccess, on whatever line of action we might uuder- take to ' fight it ont.' Thus I should svou find myself in over head and eare, to this work, neglecting all other things, working at a trade other thau my own, and losing sight of the only trude which is my own ; and wheo I know so many men whom I think to be better fitted at the moment than I am to take a leading part on your Board, I do not feel that, in declining it, I omit any duty. I am very grateful for your kind aud generone appreciation of me, as well as for the cordial and friendly way io which you have always treated mne during ao acquaintance both intimate aud confidential, in which we have shared together the cares of office.

" Nor do I fail to recognize the Governor's good will and consideration towards me iu consenting to entertain my name when presented and to give it precedence. I owe, both to the Governor and yourself, my hearty thauke, and hope always to remain,

" Your sincere friend & servant,

" JOHN A. ANDREW."

Mr. Shute married, November 25, 1835, Mary Eaton, daughter of Thomas Robinson, of Boston, at that time engaged in business in Chili, and has had thirteen children. Of these, two died in infancy, one, a girl, at four years of age, and two sons at full age. Of these two sons, Thomas Robinson died in the Feejee Islands, and the other, James M., Jr., married Helen

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Damon, of Holden, and died in Somerville. The re- maining children, five daughters and three sons, are all married. Walter, the oldest son, is engaged in the lumber business in Charlestown ; Frank, the second son, carries on the hardware business in Boston ; and Arthur, the third son, is in the lumber business in Ellsworth, Maine. Two of the daughters live in Cam- bridge, two in Somerville, and one in Boston.

About 1870 Mr. Shute suffered a severe fracture of a thigh-bone, from the effects of which he was for a long time confined to his house in Somerville. After a partial recovery he removed to Boston about twelve years ago, purchasing the house No. 137 Newbury Street, where, with his wife and the children of his deceased son James, he still lives. The writer of this sketch has known him for many years, both in public and private life, and has had occasion to know the esteem in which he has been held, both as a private citizen and a servant of the State.

KNOWLTON SAMPSON CHAFFEE.

Matthew Chaffee lived in Boston as early as 1636, and was a ship carpenter by trade. He was made a freeman May 17, 1637, and was a member of the Artil- lery Company in 1642, and removed to Newbury in 1649, where he bought a large farm of Dr. John Clark. Thomas Chaffee was in Hingham in 1636, and removed to Swansey before 1660. From one of these the sub- ject of this sketch is descended.

He was born in Becket, Massachusetts, July 11, 1814. His father and grandfather, both named Thomas, lived in Becket and carried on the business of farming. Thomas Chaffee, the father, born in Becket, March 15, 1768, married at Ashford, Conn., November 21, 1791, Abigail, daughter of Colonel Abraham Knowlton, of Lee, and had the following children : Sampson Knowlton, born Angust 4, 1792; Frederick, November 25, 1793 ; Wolcott, May 3, 1795; Numan H., December 15, 1796; Alma, February 9, 1801; Anna II., February 4, 1803 ; Thomas S., March 24, 1805 ; Lucinda, January 12, 1807 ; Prentiss, Jan- uary 1, 1809; Abigail H., April 12, 1811, and Knowl- ton Sampson, the subject of this sketch, July 11, 1814.

Mr. Chaffee attended the public schools of his native town and the Lenox Academy, leaving the latter institution at the age of eighteen. As his father's means were small he was obliged at this age to earn his own living and assist if possible in the maintenance of the family home. His first occupa- tion was that of driving a peddler's wagon, which in the days before railroads were built, when small traders found it difficult to travel to central points for purchasers, and drummers were unknown, was an important one, and was carried on in New England to an extent almost equaling in magnitude in some instances, by especially enterprising men, the busi- ness of many well-known wholesale merchants of our

own day. In this line of business the late James Fiske began his career, and the highly finished car- riages and well-groomed horses of the various owners and drivers rattled into the villages of Massachusetts with as much flourish and excitement as attended the arrivals of coaches on the different important lines of travel. It was not long before Mr. Chatl'ee owned and drove his own team, and by unusual enterprise and activity laid the foundations of the wealth which in later years he has been able to accumulate.

With a mind and resources outgrowing one after another the limited opportunities which such a man would naturally find in the kinds of business first sought by him in earning a livelihood, after a few years of peddling he engaged in the stage business on the great through route from Springfield to Albany. First as driver and afterwards as a proprietor, he con- tinued in this business until the establishment of rail- road lines drove the stages off the road. While acting as driver his day's work was in summer and winter, in all weathers from Springfield to West Stockbridge and back. By the exposure attending these early oc- cupations he secured a rugged constitution which has served him well in the responsible enterprises with which he has since been connected. While still a young man he removed to Somerville, in the earliest years of that town, and established himself in the coal business at tide-water in East Cambridge. After liv- ing in Somerville three or four years he removed to East Cambridge and has since that time made that part of Cambridge his home.

In the coal business his means permitted him to start only in the humblest way. By economy, thrift, thorough integrity and the exercise of a shrewd judgment in the general management of his trade, the business, however, grew to large proportions, and the savings of his earlier years began to swell into rapidly accumulating wealth. So thoroughly were his business qualities appreciated by those with whom he came in contact, that he was early made a director in the Lechmere National Bank at East Cambridge, and finally president of the Union Horse Railway Com- pany. He was also for many years the treasurer of the Union Glass Company in Somerville, of which his son was until his death business manager. His position in these two companies finally demanded the use of all his time and the coal business was abandoned. His position in the railroad company was especially an ardous and responsible one. The Union Company owned and ran all the Cambridge lines, and the Everett and Watertown and Newton lines, and, under his watchful eye and incessant scrutiny, grew into that great corporation which became finally the property of the West End Company, and the nucleus of that organization, which is doing so much towards the solution of the problem of rapid-transit in the city of Boston.

Mr. Chaffee married in Lee, January 27, 1836, Amelia Shaylor, daughter of Pliny Shaylor, of that

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

town, and has had one son, Charles S. Chaffee, who died in 1878, at the age of thirty-nine years, an active, enterprising man, who at the time of his death, as has already been mentioned, was the business manager of the Union Glass Company in Somerville.

Mr. Chaffee was brought up in the Baptist faith, and still belongs to the Baptist organization. In politics he was reared a Whig, but became a Democrat on the dissolution of the Whig party, and is an earnest and conscientious opponent of the policy of the Republicans. IIe was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Charleston in 1860, and at that time a supporter of Douglas for the Presidency. He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1863, and of the Senate in 1868, and in various other capacities he has faithfully served confiding con- stituencies. After a long life of active labor, he now lives in East Cambridge, in feeble health, and since the death of his wife, in 1889, has depended for the comforts which an old man needs, on the faithful and loving care of an adopted danghter, who anticipates every want and alleviates the burdens of his declining years.

CHARLES II. NORTH.

The subject of this sketch was born in Thomas- ville, Georgia, April 8, 1832, and is the son of Charles P. and Lydia (Kendall) North, of West Winsor, Vermont. Heis descended from John North, who came to Boston in the "Susan and Ellen" in 1635, at the age of twenty, and settled in the same year in Farm- ington, Conn. His father, Charles P. North, was born in West Winsor, and his grandfather Aaron North, who became a permanent resident in West Winsor, was born in Farmington, Conn. Charles P. North, the father, was in business a number of years in the Soutli, but when the war of 1861 broke out he was living in Covington, Kentucky. Early in the war he enlisted in an Ohio regiment, and while serving with the rank of captain, was killed at the battle of Shiloh.

At the age of four years Charles H. North, the subject of this sketch, went to West Winsor, and was brought up in the family of his grandfather Kendall, the father of his mother. Until he was fourteen years of age he attended the common schools of that town, and from fourteen to eighteen was employed in farming. At the age of eighteen, he went to Waltham, Mass., where, after a year's service in a bakery, he entered French's Academy, and there received an ad- ditional year's education. At the age of nineteen he entered the employ of Sewall Blood, a Waltham baker, and was engaged two years driving his customers' wagon. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Boston, and was employed in the Quincy Market by John P. Squire, at twelve dollars a month. lle had already, before going to Waltham, a short experience in the same market.

At the age of twenty-two he leased stall No. 29, in

Quincy Market, and there established himself on his own account in the business of selling pork. The energy and fidelity to business which he displayed had already borne their fruit in result unusual for so young a man, and gave promise of a career of enterprise and success. His enlarging business re- quired more room than a single stall could furnish, and not long after he established himself in No. 29, he bought out the lessee of No. 27, and occupied an entire square. Not long afterwards, he added the store now occupied by him in North Market Street to the needed accommodations of his business.

Until 1867, Mr. North continued alone in business, but in that year he formed a partnership with John N. Merriam, S. Henry Skilton and Newman E. Conant. Under the new partnership the business of killing hogs was added to their previous enterprise, and a killing and packing-house was established in Somerville. In 1872, Mr. North bought out the share of Mr. Merriam in the business, and that gentleman retired from the firm. At the end of ten years more he bought out Mr. Conant, and until the present year the firm has since continued with only Mr. North and Mr. Skilton as members.

In January, 1890, a corporation was formed with a capital of twelve hundred thousand dollars, and the partnership ceased to exist. Of this corporation en- titled the " North Packing Company," G. F. Swift, of Chicago, is president; E. C. Swift, of Boston, treas- urer; Charles H. North, general manager, and S. IIenry Skilton, assistant manager.

In June, 1878, the packing-house of the firm of C. H. North & Co., in Somerville, was burned and a loss was sustained over and above insurance of eight hun- dred thousand dollars. Another packing-house was se- cured before the fire was extinguished, and prepara - tions were at once made, not only to resume, but to largely increase the former business. With present accommodations the company is killing two thousand hogs daily, and arrangements are soon to be com- pleted for the transaction of double that amount of business. At the present time the pay-roll of the company contains the names of thirteen hundred men, receiving thirteen thousand dollars per week. Probably the name of no man in the world is better known throughout the various channels of the special trade in which he is engaged than that of Mr. North. lle finds his market in every nation of the globe, and it is not an exaggerated statement that the product of his establishment would furnish an abundance of food for a half a million of persons every day in the year.

Mr. North has discovered several remedies which are sold on their merits and which he believes are a great relief to suffering humanity. These remedies are : North's pure white pepsin, North's rheumatic cure, kidney cure, eure for heart disease and liver cure.

Mr. North after removing to Boston made that city

R. B Stickney.

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his place of residence until 1876, when he removed to Prospect Hill, Somerville, where he now lives. He married, September 24, 1856, Jane, daughter of Micah N. Lincoln, of West Winsor, Vermont, and has eight children now living : Wayne H., Charles L., Jennie, Mark N., George, Onata, Frederick K. and Harry J.

Mr. North is in theology orthodox, and in politics Republican, having departed from the Democratic faith in the transformation scenes immediately be- fore and after the secession of the States of the South. It is only necessary to read the record of his career, to form a true estimate of the predominant traits in his character. To have created and controlled the great enterprise in which he has for so many years been engaged, required peculiar and strong natural powers, both physical and mental. These Mr. North possesses to an eminent degree. Good intellectual capacity, a readiness to plan and promptitude to ex- ecute, a devotion and concentratedness in his work, an indomitable resolution and a courage almost heroic, and withal a hopeful spirit not easily quenched, are the elements which have given their possessor power, and made his career a success. lle illustrates well the true American, who with health, strength, industry and integrity, under the elevating influences of a free government, cannot fail to win both reputation and wealth.

RUFUS BARRUS STICKNEY.I

The subject of this sketch is descended from Robert Stickney of Frampton, in Lincolnshire, England. William Stickney, son of Robert, was baptized December 30, 1558, and married, June 16, 1585, Mar- garet Pierson. William, son of the last William, was baptized in St. Mary's Church in Frampton, Septem- ber 6, 1592. He came from ITull to New England in 1637 with his wife Elizabeth and three children, Samuel, Amos and Mary, and landed at Boston from whence he went with his family to Rowley, of which place he was one of the first settlers. Samuel Stick- ney, one of his three children, was born in England in 1633 and married, first, in Rowley, April 18, 1653, Julia Swan, and second, in Bradford, April 6, 1674, Prudence (Leaven) Gage. William, one of the chil- dren of Samuel, was born in Bradford, January 27, 1674, and married in that town, September 14, 1701, Anne Hazeltine. He died in Bradford, February 21, 1706, leaving three children. William, one of the children was born in Bradford, October 14, 1705, and married in Billerica, in June, 1729, Anne Whiting, who died in Billerica 'March 25, 1749, at the age of forty-four years. He married second, November 23, 1749, Hannah (Ballard) widow of Jeremiah Abbot, of Billerica. His second wife died February 17, 1789, at the age of seventy-five. Eleaser Stickney, one of the fourteen children of the last William, was born in

Billerica, August 30, 1740, and married there, January 25, 1762, Martha, daughter of Samuel Brown, who died May 21, 1818. On the 24th of April, 1775, he enlisted from the town of Wilmington, as second lieutenant in Captain John Harnden's company in Colonel Ebenezer Bridge's regiment. IIe was after- wards ensign in Captain Ebenezer Harnden's company in the same regiment, and was with that company at the battle of Bunker Hill. In 1776 he enlisted as private in Captain Jonathan Brown's company, in Colonel David Green's regiment, and served in one or another station three years. After the war he removed to Tewksbury, and there died, January 5, 1824. William Stickney, one of the fourteen children of Eleazer, was born in Billerica, June 22, 1783, and removed to Boston in 1805, where he married, March 22, 1809, Lucy, daughter of Micah and Lucy (llowe) Drury, who was born in Framingham October 3, 1787, and died June 21, 1812. He married, second, in Boston, December 29, 1814, Margaret Nowell, who was born in Boston, July 30, 1792, and died December 15, 1840. He married, third, in Boston, July 10, 1842, Catherine P., widow of Artemas Hyde, and daughter of Joshua llardy, of Boston. He at various times after leaving Boston lived at Medford and Charlestown and Somer- ville, and died in Somerville, January 12, 1868.

Rufus Barrus Stickney is the son of the last-men- tioned William, and was born in Medford, Octo- ber 1, 1824. His father was engaged as a retail grocer in Salem Street, in Boston, many years, and while in that business, began to prepare mustard for table use, and carry it ahout for sale. He finally abandoned his grocery business, and, removing to Medford in 1822, built in that town a small factory for the manufacture of mustard, the sale of which had so largely increased as to warrant the enterprise. In 1825. when Rufus was nine months old, he remov- ed to Charlestown, and there erected a larger factory for his still increasing business. Rufus attended the public schools of Charlestown until he was thirteen years of age, when he entered his father's establish- ment, and began a business carcer, which has been eminently prosperous.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 183

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278