History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 65

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 65

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old " general stores," and the future outlook is one of growth and prosperity,-how prosperous may be gleaned from the record of growth since 1866. At that time the inhabitants numbered about 1800; in 1890, about 5000 ; the valuation in 1866 was $805,- 277 ; in 1890, $2,490,115. The increase from May, 1888, to May, 1889, was $68,428; from May, 1889, to May, 1890, it was 8208,345. These figures indicate a vigorous, healthy, growing town, which will soon become prominent in the county.

It has been the effort of the writers of this sketch to avoid all appearance of exaggeration. They realize that there is little that is exceptional in what has been told in these pages. It is the story of the foundation and growth of a New England manufac- turing town owing its progress to the efforts of typical Massachusetts men. They believe, however, that even in this account there is much that may be learned by those who would themselves succeed, and have an honest desire to promote the future advancement of Hudson. We are too apt to hurry over the achieve- ments of our predecessors and to hold their labors in too slight estimation. It is well occasionally to step aside from the rush of business life to gather recol- lections of the past, to learn something from " the days of small things," and pay a meed of honor and respect to those whose work is done and often for the most part forgotten. Many things of historical in- terest have necessarily been omitted, many persons, living and dead, are entitled to much greater recog- nition than it has been possible to give them, and many inaccuracies of statement may be found in spite of our efforts to be correct. Hudson is in its infancy, and its history, its real history, is before it. A full and complete account of it must be deferred to a later time and under other circumstances.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JEDEDIAH WOOD.

Jedediah Wood was born in Marlborough, May 16, 1777, and moved to the " Mills " when he was twenty years old. Que of the earliest citizens of the place, he has descendants still occupying the property, and conducting a business in which he was engaged, thoughi now, of course, adapted to modern require- ments. Hle married Betsey Wilkins, September 6, 1801; they had seven children, of whom Col. William H. Wood was prominently connected with the growth of the town. The story of Mr. Wood's pros- perity is this. While still in his teens he was sent by his father to get a bushel of corn from a neighbor- ing trader. As he wanted it on credit, it was refused. Cut to the quick, he then and there decided that the time should come when his credit would be good.

In time he bought the " Mills" on credit, and car- ried on cloth-dressing. The farmers wove this cloth

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Stephen Tepe

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and it was brought to him from all the surrounding country, even from Boylston. His work was of such good quality that some broad-cloth of his dress- ing received the first premium at the Concord Fair. His machinery was in the basement of the " Old Red Shop," which stood on the spot afterwards occupied by the " Brick Shop." On the north side of the road below the Caleb Haskell house, he had his field of teasels, the ripened flower-heads of which were used in raising the nap of woolen cloths.

In this same building he opened a general store. At that time there was no wagon at the " Mills," but he would ride his horse to Marlborough, borrow a wagon, drive to Boston and buy his goods, and then return the vehicle. For the first seven years this business did not pay its expenses, but the cloth-dressing and a little farming kept the balance on the right side of the ledger. Cool and moderate in his manner and habits, he shrewdly conducted affairs, until he estab- lished the business which passed to his son, Col. William H. Wood, and is now in the hands of his grandson, Solon Wood. He became a large bnyer of real estate, owning all from the river to the present Brigham place on the south side, all east of Maple Street, and several buildings. He and Squire Pope were the large land-owners half a century ago. He lived in the house now known as the " Wood Place," at the junction of Park and Washington Streets. He was a selectman of Marlborough, and was captain of a military company. During the War of 1812 he was on duty for a while at Fort Warren. He died in 1867, nearly ninety years of age.

STEPHEN POPE.

Mr. Stephen Pope was one of the pioneers of the town. He was born January 11, 1786, and moved to this place from Bolton in 1816. He was then a Quaker, and every Monday morning he took his two oldest children to the Quaker school, and every Thursday and Sunday attended the Quaker services, then held in the school-house. He engaged in tan- ning, his yard being on the spot where the Methodist Church now stands. His tanning was all done in the primitive way, aud the old white horse which turned the bark-mill was a very familiar object. Whenever sufficient skins were tanned the horse made the jour- ney to Boston to find a market.

Mr. Pope's first residence was where R. B. Lewis' house now stands. He soon desired to own a farm and bargained for the land from the Bolton line over what are now Felton and Pope Streets. At the time he mortgaged it heavily, and has since stated that he could not get credit for seven pounds of flour. Work, early and late, prudent habits and care in time cleared the farm, added other lands until he became the largest land-owner in this section. What is now Felton Street was his apple orchard; Summer, Win- ter and Spring Streets now cross what was his "mis-

sionary " land. He drove each year regularly to Salem to pay the interest on his debt, and he always took one of the children with him. In 1825 he be- came interested in the Methodist services held in the village, and as they found difficulty in obtaining a place in which to hold their meetings, he fitted up a room in one of his tan-yard buildings for their use. When the Baptist Church was built he gave them the land and bought the first pew, though he never affiliated with them. When the Fitchburg Brauch was built he gave the land for the depot site. He occupied various town offices, was selectman of Marl- borough and one of the overseers of the poor for many years. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate when the Senators were elected from counties. He died in 1870, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, in the brick house which was removed when the town-house was built.

JOSEPH S. BRADLEY.

Joseph Stevens Bradley traces his genealogy on his mother's side to one of the earliest settlers in Felton- ville-Robert Bernard. It will be remembered that Bernard was the purchaser of about three hundred and fifty acres of land from one Barstow, in 1723, a copy of the deed being given in the early pages of this history.

The family line runs as follows : Robert Bernard married for his second wife Elizabeth Bailey, of Lan- caster, and the result of this union was six children, among them a son by the name of Joel, who married Lucy Stevens, July 16, 1756. One of their children was Lavinia Bernard, who married Daniel Stevens as his third wife. Their daughter married William Trowbridge, December 11, 1814, and was the mother of the subject of this sketch. William Trowbridge was a son of Joseph Trowbridge and a machinist by trade, moving from one town to another, more or less frequently, as his business necessitated. 1t thus hap- pened that Mr. Bradley was born in Worcester, Mass., May 20, 1823.

When three years of age he was taken to Marl- borough to live, and at the age of seven came to live with an aunt, in the honse now located near the en- trance to the grounds of the late Captain Francis Brigham, that property having been a portion of his mother's estate. While living here he obtained what little schooling he ever enjoyed in the small school- house then located on what is now Washington Street, which has been spoken of before in these pages. With the exception of the very short time devoted to acquiring a knowledge of the three " R's," Mr. Bradley's boyhood was passed in earning what he could to pay for his living. Farther down the street was the factory of Lorenzo Stratton, and here, before he was twelve years of age, he learned to make a whole shoe. Later on he worked in Stephen Pope's tannery, splitting leather, and, for a diversion, driving

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the old white horse. Thus, without being aware of the immense value which this knowledge was to be to him in the future, he learned to know leather thor- oughly, and became a practical shoemaker.

At sixteen he worked a while for Captain Francis Brigham, who at that time was manufacturing shoes in a brick shop on the site of Holden's grocery store, on the north side of Wood Square. At seventeen he was seized with a desire to see something of the world, and resolved to go to New Orleans. On reach- ing New York State, however, he learned that yellow fever was rampant in the South, and turned his steps northward, landing, as much by chance as anything, in Saratoga Springs, in the summer of 1841. Here a new world was opened before him; for even at that time what was known as Congress Spring was discov- ered, and its water valued for its medicinal proper- ties. During that summer about five thousand guests visited the place, bringing with them the stir and bustle of a pleasure resort. Mr. Bradley worked at his trade as a shoemaker upon the opposite side of the street from where the present Grand Union Hotel stands. At that time there was a hotel there of the same name, but much smaller, which has since been destroyed by fire. During this summer he had the good fortune to hear Ole Bull, who was on his first visit to America, and was revealing to astonished and delighted Americans new realms in the musical world with his violin. While there, also, the first omnibus ever seen at the Springs was driven into town by a young man who is much better known to the present generation of readers by the name of the Rev. George S. Ball, at that time a driver in the employ of Massa- chusetts parties. The 'bus was all the "go," and Mr. Bradley recalls, with a good deal of pleasure, of riding from the lake back to the Springs in it, on one occa- sion, when ex-President Martin Van Buren was a fel- low-passenger.

Mr. Bradley remained here from June to Decem- ber, and these months must have been among the most memorable of his life. He went as far north as the present city of Ottawa, and the River St. Lawrence freezing up the next day, he was obliged, much against his will, to remain there during that winter. After a decidedly dreary winter here he took the first boat back to the States in the spring. He tired, how- ever, of a nomadic life, and returned to Feltonville, working at the shoemaking trade here, in Worcester, Woburn and other places until 1850.

On October 1st of that year he began business on his own account in company with Captain Francis Brigham and Mr. William F. Trowbridge, his brother, under the firm-name of "F. Brigham & Co." It will be remembered that the general outline of this firm's history has been given elsewhere. At the outset, however, all was not smoothi sailing, and, as Mr. Bradley has stated, at the end of the first three years it could not be said that the firm had made a dollar. Better days followed, and in 1858 the firm moved into

the brick shop which has since been burned. Mr Trowbridge withdrew from the firm in 1866, and Messrs. W. F. and W. B. Brigham came in. This firm continued until April 1, 1880, when Mr. Bradley withdrew to enter into a co-partnership with Henry R. Sayward, of Cambridge, Mass. The firm-name is Bradley & Sayward, and occupies the F. S. Dawes factory in Hudson and a somewhat smaller one in Dover, New Hampshire. This firm is one of the strongest and most active concerns in Massachusetts. Their business averages half a million dollars annnally, while the average output at the Hudson fac- tory monthly is nine hundred and sixty-pair cases. The Dover factory has about one-half this capacity. No manufactory in Hudson runs more steadily or with less friction. The firm's goods are sold mostly in the South and Southwest, and their customers are found in twenty-eight States of the Union. From Portland to Galveston, and from Minnesota to Florida their shoes may be found.

Mr. Bradley's time has not been given entirely to his own business. Prior to the incorporation of the town he served upon several committees seeking to accomplish the desired change; was a member of the committee of five on the part of Hudson to make a final separation from Bolton. He was the first Repre- sentative sent to the House from Hudson in 1867, and during that year had the most important matter to handle that has ever been before the Legislature in which Hudson interests were solely concerned. In 1870 he was elected town treasurer, and served con- tinuously in that position until the election iu 1890, when he declined longer to hold the office. When he entered upon the duties of this office he found that the business had not been done in a systematic man- ner and used his best endeavors to have the town's finances put in proper shape. It had been the custom up to that time to borrow money in a hap-hazard manner of any one who had a hundred or a thousand dollars to lend and wished a safe investment at a high rate of interest. Mr. Bradley funded the debt then existing by means of longer time notes at a much less rate of interest. The town incurred large obligations in the purchase of Massachusetts Central Railroad stock, in building a town-house, new roads and school- houses, and it is a most fortunate thing that she had so skilled a financier in charge of this office for so many years. In 1877 he was elected a member of the Board of Selectmen, but declined a re-election the follow- ing year. He has always been connected with the banking institutions of the place, having declined an election as president of the National Bank, although a member of its directorate. He has been for many years a vice-president and one of the board of invest- ment of Hudson Savings Bank, and in other organ- izations at home and abroad he has occupied promi- nent places. He has always been a believer in the Unitarian faith and a steady supporter of its church. He has long enjoyed a reputation for business ability

Danilo tratton

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and strict integrity. He is a lover of standard books and has not lost his liking for travel. The surviving members of his family are his wife and one daughter, the wife of Fred S. Dawes, of Hudson.

DANIEL WILBUR STRATTON.

Daniel Wilbur Stratton, boru April 24, 1848, is the eldest son of Daniel and Tryphena Rice (Holman) Stratton. He is of the fourth generation bearing the name Daniel. His great-grandfather was born at Weston, May 20, 1749. His grandfather was born April 22, 1777, and married Cally Smith, of Needham (born December 20, 1778), April 22, 1800. Cally Smith was the daughter of Captain Aaron Smith, who commanded a military company in the War of the Revolution. With his company he participated in the repulse of the British forces which advanced to Concord, April 19, 1775, and as a result of that day's engagement his command suffered a loss of five men killed and two others wounded. Daniel Stratton, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born Septem- ber 7, 1817, in the north part of the town of Marlbor- ough (now Hudson). When about four years of age the family moved to the farm just across the line in Bolton, upon territory which became a part of Hndson by the annexation of 1868. Daniel Stratton grew to manhood and afterwards became the owner of his father's estate together with much additional property which he acquired by purchase. In 1865, when the movement was made to incorporate a new town from territory of the towns of Marlborough, Stow, Bolton and Berlin, Daniel Stratton was the leading petitioner from the Bolton territory, and was selected as the rep- resentative from that part of Bolton to serve on the standing committee of five to prosecute the move- ment for an incorporation. He entered on this en- terprise with the zeal and determination which he ex- hibited in all the affairs which engaged his support. Thenndertaking was consummated, and the " Stratton Homestead" was included within the new town of Hudson. When twenty-two years of age Daniel mar- ried, December 31, 1839, Tryphena Rice Holman, of Sterling, and this union continued fifty years and one day. A "Golden Wedding" was celebrated by this couple and their numerous friends December 31, 1889, and on the day following, soon after his retire- ment for the night, without hardly a premonition, the messenger of death summoned the head of this happy and prosperous household to that better land which is " fairer than day." Although a farmer his life long, he was every whit a man. Intelligent, pro- gressive, fearless for the right, independent in his opinions, the cause of religion, temperance, educa- tion, good citizenship had no stancher champion or firmer ally than Daniel Stratton. He held various town offices.

From such ancestry descends a worthy son. Daniel W. was reared on the farm under wholesome infin-

ences and amid surroundings the best fitted to develop the latent aspirations of boyhood and yonth. From the common school he was sent to the high school of the town, afterward to Wilbraham Academy. Sup- plementing this for special training, a course in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was taken.

In early manhood he was thus prepared to enter upon his calling of a civil engineer, in which he soon became skilled and efficient. As opportunity offered in the growing town of his birth, and his abilities be- came recognized, he was early summoned by his towns- men to official trusts. Widening and enlarging the scope of his private enterprises, by engaging in the insurance business, conveyancing and the settlement of estates, he was elected town clerk in 1878, which office he has since held ; in 1887 he was elected to the Board of Water Commissioners and afterward registrar and superintendent of the Hudson Water Works ; in 1881 he was made treasurer of Hudson Savings Bank, and one of its trustees, which trusts he still holds. He is in the prime of life, with golden opportunities ahead.

June 9, 1880, he married Annie Scott Webster, daughter of Richard Webster, of Haverhill. The children of this marriage are Mary Edith Stratton, Walter Daniel Stratton and Helen Inez Stratton.

GEORGE HOUGHTON.

The subject of this sketch assumed and had legal- ized in 1844 this name in lien of Earl H. Southwick. He was the oldest child of Elisha and Lydia ( Hongh- ton) Southwick, there being a brother and a sister yonnger.

Elisha Southwick was a descendant, in the sixth generation, from Lawrence Southwick, whose name appears on the records of Salem as early as 1639. Lawrence and his wife, Cassandra, were Quakers, and suffered much from the persecntion of people claim- ing the name Christian. James Savage's " Genealogi- cal Dictionary of First Settlers of New England " con- tains the following : " 1658 and 1659. In the dark days of delusion against the Quakers, the whole family of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick suffer much from fines and imprisonment. When the fines of Daniel and Provided were unpaid, the tender-hearted General Court, with intent to magnify the glory of God, ordered them to be sold for slaves to any Christian in Virginia or Barbadoes." This infamous act was attempted, but to the glory of God, and the credit of Massachusetts, no one was found vile enough to bid at the sale and the maiden, Provided Southwick, was released by the sheriff.

Elisha Southwick was a Quaker, and was trained and educated as a teacher and preacher to the faith- ful. Although nearly a century and a half had elapsed since the perpetration of the outrage on his ancestor above referred to, yet the first quarter of the nineteenth century even, found this sect of believers

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in Massachusetts subject to many restrictions and social ostracism. So much was this the case that a movement was undertaken to settle a Quaker colony in the valley of the St. Lawrence. A tract of land comprising about 15,000 acres was secured, and the settlement was commenced. The church and the school must be planted with the felling of the forest. The missionary, pioneer and prophet selected for this important and arduous duty was Elisha South- wick. In the strength of opening manhood he accepted the mission and went to the field of duty. The undertaking prospered, and in the course of a few years the young teacher yearned for a help-meet. He returned to Bolton and found Lydia Houghton, a young woman of character and resolution, willing to join her fortune with his, and in due time they were married. The wedded couple departed for the new home beyond the limit of State, and under the pro- tection of the British flag. Earl H. was born on Canadian soil, July 23, 1822. The trials and hard- ships of parents were great, and after a few years the fact appeared that the mind of the father was becom- ing unsettled, and verging on insanity. Friends interested themselves, and the family, consisting then of father, mother and three children, returned to the town of Bolton. The father was placed in an asylum where he died August 13, 1830, at the age of thirty- five. Earl H. was then eight years old; his mother a widow with two younger children, in a state of penury. Poverty, however, is not the greatest mis- fortune. Lydia, the mother, was a woman of spirit and courage. She was a woman of action likewise. Earl H. was provided with a home where, for the time being, he could earn a living. In due time he was apprenticed to learn the trade of making shoes. The mother cared for the others as best she could. Soon Earl H. lent a helping hand to mother and brother and sister. Thus the children grew to manhood and womanhood, and the mother remained true to her charge. All have now passed to the "silent major- ity," save the subject of this sketch, who survives.

Earl H. inherited a good constitution and mental faculties of no ordinary kind. In stature he is moulded a Southwick; in mental and humane traits he takes largely the mother's endowments. When a youth he was advised to take his mother's surname. He was told that it would be advantageous. That Quakerism was odious. That his father had lived and died in error. This by Christians. Had he then known the history of his race, and the mark they have left impressed on the ages, this advice would probably have never been heeded. In 1881 the South- wick geneaology was published, and therein is dis- closed the sufferings, perseentious and indignities en- dured by his Quaker ancestry ; how they remained steadfast for truth and conscience sake and finally triumphed. Ere this revelation came, however, Earl H., now only known as George Houghton, had vindi- cated the record and had added another illustrious

example to the list already extended. From humble beginnings, by industry and perseverance, from mak- ing shoes in a part of his dwelling-house with a team of four men, he occupied a new shop, sixty hy twenty- five feet, four stories in height, equipped with mod- ern machinery ; in a few years this shop is increased to 112 feet in length ; a few years later, by still vaster strides, he becomes the owner and possessor of the largest manufactory in the town of Hudson, with a capacity of anywhere from 2000 to 6000 pairs of shoes per day, as the demands of the trade required. Not content with this, he finally owned and equipped the finest tannery and currying establishment in the State. Willing and determined to help on the grow- ing industries of the town, he virtually engineered the erection of a piano-forte manufactory, into which he put $16,000 of his capital.

A man of indomitable will-power, obstacles to men of less zeal and determination were brushed aside or made to serve his purpose, and hence he came to be regarded a leader, as most emphatically he was, in the manufactures in which he engaged. From this fact, when the Japanese Embassy visited America to in- spect our industries, it was to his establishments that Boston merchants took their guests to see the wonder- ful improvements in the manufacture of leather and shoes. To show the characteristics of the man a sin- gle example must suffice. At the centennial indus- trial display, in Boston, in 1875, his exhibit astonished the world. It was deemed impossible by the best ar- tisans to establish a manufactory with steam power and fixed machinery, on wheels. The difficulties were virtually decided to be insuperable. To most men it would have been impossible. Mr. Houghton grappled with the problem and made it a perfect suc- cess. In fact, he put into that procession a shoe fac- tory on wheels with all the necessary paraphernalia, drawn by eight powerful horses, and made shoes en- tire from the beginning to the close of the procession, and never a belt left its pulley nor a mishap occurred. To do this required great mechanical skill. What deterred others but stimulated him. What others said could not be done he asserted could be done, and he made good the assertion. His has been a master- spirit, and to his matchless energy the town is largely indebted for her present beauty, thrift and enterprise.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 65

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