USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > New Bedford > History of New Bedford, Volume III > Part 27
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is a son of William Cunniff, born in New Bedford, a merchant, and his wife, Sarah E. Gannon, born in England.
Thomas A. Cunniff was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, May 27. 1885. His education, begun in St. Mary's Parochial School, was continued in the public schools of the city, his high school course termi- nating with graduation with class of 1905. In choosing a profession he decided upon the law, entered the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and received his degree of Bachelor of Laws from that institution, class of 1908. He at once began practice in New Bedford, and is firmly established in the good opinions of a large clientele, his offices in the Masonic building. He is a member of the local and State Bar Associations, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of his brethren of the bar to an unusual degree. In politics he is a Democrat, and from 1908 until 1912 was secretary of the Democratic City Committee. He is a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church, and of the Knights of Columbus, holding the office of advocate. His club is the Plymouth.
Mr. Cunniff married, June 26, 1916, in New Bedford, Gertrude A. Cunningham, daughter of John W. and Annie Cunningham, her father retired.
ALFRED WILSON.
A man of unusually strong character in which love of justice, firm- ness, determination and industry were pervading characteristics, Alfred Wilson was one of the adopted sons of New Bedford, whose life was spent in the public eye from his coming in 1851 until his death in 1912. Thirty-seven of those years, 1851-1888, were devoted to governmental service as post office clerk and assistant postmaster, and twenty-four years, 1888-1912, as proprietor of the Wilson Inn at the corner of now Purchase and Walnut streets. He was a man of rare intelligence, widely read, a lover of nature and of bird life, a lover of poetry, and a deep thinker, although not a graduate of any educational institution, on the contrary, never attended aught but the public schools. The keynote of his life, however, was industry ; the world to him was a place to work in, and not only did he apply his doctrine to himself, but all those of his household. Most generous by nature, he was tenderness itself toward all in want or distress of any kind, but his nature was unforgiving, and he literally followed the Scriptural reading : "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." He did not harbor malice, however, but when the score was evened to his satisfaction, he was content to forget. His long connection with the post office covered a period in which new customs and methods were being introduced, which are so common that the fact that their beginning was so recent comes as a surprise. He went into the post office under Simeon Bailey, in 1851, served under his successors, Thomas Coggeshall, appointed December 30, 1852; Joseph C. Kent, June 8, 1853 ; John Fraser, April 6, 1857; Cyrus W. Chapman, April 16, 1861 ; Edmund
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Anthony, February 3, 1870; Thomas Coggeshall, March 1, 1876, reap- pointed March 17, 1880, and Albert H. W. Carpenter, April 9, 1887, the latter soon removing him to make room for one of his own political faith. Under Postmaster Coggeshall he was assistant postmaster, and under the others named filled about every clerical post in the office. Although in darkness during the last dozen years of his life, he continued the management of the inn, a son, Alfred B., acting as his assistant, and who still continues the old home as a place of public entertainment. A man of wonderful memory, he could recall with accuracy names, places and events connected with his early home, Newport, even to minute detail. He was always a reader, and when darkness overtook him dur- ing the last of his years, eighty-six, he as eagerly absorbed the news from the public journals through the eyes of others. He fulfilled many trusts, cared for many estates, was for many years a justice of the peace, and few there were who did not know "Squire" Wilson, and none who did not honor and respect him. His memory is green around the inn, where for a quarter of a century he ministered to the comfort of patrons, for the inn was largely a boarding house where guests were permanent and transients the exception. There his spirit yet lingers, and not a day passes but the name of the founder of the inn is brought into the con- versation by the son who succeeded both to his name and to his position as proprietor, or by guests who had enjoyed the old man's hospitality, and around the old inn and its long-time proprietor a great deal of New Bedford history centres.
Alfred Wilson, one of a family of ten, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, February 15, 1826, his birthplace, the Wilson homestead, on the corner of Poplar and Third streets. He died at his home, the Wilson Inn, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Saturday afternoon, November 16, 1912. His father, William Wilson, born August 3, 1789, was a just and upright man, a wheelwright by trade, a good workman, and always busily employed, but not favored with the money accumulating trait. William. Wilson married Cynthia C. Briggs, born August 31, 1789, daugh- ter of Captain William Briggs, born January 15, 1751, of the clipper ship, "Golden Ball," in the East India trade, carrying to New York spices, silks, tea and sandal wood. Captain Briggs was a son of John and Mar- garet Briggs.
Alfred Wilson was sent to the Mill street school when eight years of age, and there he was constant in his attendance for two years. He then was employed as a helper around the Mrs. Williams summer board- ing house, there earning his first suit of clothes. At the age of eleven he entered the employ of Harvey Sessions, a dry goods merchant of New- port, and during the three years that he remained with Mr. Sessions the boy attended night school, and also secured a term at Friends' School. Then in his fourteenth year came a great change in his life. He heard that there was an opening for a clerk in the dry goods store owned by
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Richard C. Rush, in Georgetown, South Carolina, and that a vessel would sail the next day which would take him there. He succeeded in obtaining the consent of his parents to go away, although they strongly objected, as did his employer. When the consent of all was finally obtained, Mr. Sessions gave him cloth sufficient for two suits of clothes, and otherwise generously replenished a rather scanty wardrobe. When the vessel sailed the next day he was on board with his chest of belong- ings, facing he knew not what. He arrived safely in Georgetown, soon fitted into his new position, and became a valuable assistant. His experiences in the South were very pleasant, and he entered into the life of the city quite freely, was corporal of a military company, and would probably have made the South his home for all time but for the bitterness which was then existing between the North and South over the question of slavery. He had kept in touch with Newport through regular return visits during the summer months, and when the feeling of the South became unpleasant to him he came North, and until 1851 was variously employed at Newport. He was in charge of a steamboat refreshment counter, clerked in a Newport dry goods store, was clerk of the old Bellevue Hotel on Catherine street, that hostelry then being well patronized by men of national prominence, including the famed Kentuckian, Henry Clay, with whom the young clerk became acquainted. He also was employed by Kingsley's Express Company, was in charge of the suttler's office at Fort Adams, and bookkeeper for Thomas Cogges- hall, a dealer in paints. During this period of his life he was clerk and foreman of the famous old Protection Engine Company, No. 5, whose hand machine, "The Honey Bee," with the gaily uniformed company was the sensation of every fireman's parade in which the company par- ticipated. With the year 1851 his Newport life ended, and his New Bed- ford career began.
He came to the latter city, February 12, 1851, a young man of twenty-five years, the city then being in its fourth year as an incor- porated city, and numbering nineteen thousand inhabitants. Simeon Bailey was serving his second term as postmaster, and he gave the young man a position as clerk. From that time until 1888 he was a part of the post office force, filling numerous positions, including that of assistant postmaster. His office was not a sinecure at any time, but in the early days he and the postmaster were at the post office at 4:00 a. m. making up the early mails to go by train and stage coach. For many years this early morning mail and another in the afternoon constituted the postal service. There were no stamps used in the early days, postage being figured by mileage, California letters costing forty cents. The mail going out was marked "collect" and that received the same. The arrival of the California mail was an event at the office, a crowd always gathering to await its distribution, for New Bedford furnished many "gold seekers" to swell the numbers of those who by land and sea sought wealth in California's sands and rocks.
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Long before Postmaster Chapman placed his three walnut boxes in Purchase street stores to receive mail, Alfred Wilson put up and owned the first mail box outside of the post office. This tin box was in the now Douglass shoe store, corner of Purchase and Union streets, and every morning Joseph R. Dunham, a carrier under the olden penny post plan, opened the box with a key furnished him, and brought the contents to the post office. This old box Mr. Wilson retained as a relic for years and years, and it is yet doing duty, but as a cake box at the Wilson Inn. An- other relic which Mr. Wilson preserved was the first mail bag used between the New Bedford and Oak Bluffs post offices. This was but an ordinary shot bag, and before his death he presented it to the post- master at Oak Bluffs. In those earlier years, as often recalled by him, the post office remained open until 9:00 p. m., and its great stove in win- ter drew a number of then well-known citizens who enjoyed a comfort- able smoke and discussed affairs of importance. On Sundays the office was opened and the few clerks were kept about as busy as on week days. The money order system was first established in New Bedford, Novem- ber 3, 1864, Cyrus W. Chapman then being postmaster. Thomas Cogges- hall, then assistant postmaster, filled out the first money order issued by the New Bedford office, making it payable to Samuel Rodman, the amount being $4.25. The first postal note from the New Bedford office was issued in September, 1883, by Alfred Wilson, for ten cents, and mailed by him to his sister in Providence, Rhode Island.
In the year 1888, after thirty-seven years' continuous, faithful and efficient service, Mr. Wilson resigned his position at the post office and opened the Wilson Inn, previously the Mundell Home, in New Bedford. The management of the inn occupied a portion of his time, and he soon afterward secured office quarters with Judge Allison Borden, and, until stricken with blindness, conducted a successful real estate and insurance business, also dealing in Western bonds. He retired from the real estate business in 1899, with greatly impaired eyesight, which later became absolute darkness, but he retained the management of the inn until the last and continued in charge of several estates. His son, Alfred B., gave up his own business career to be his father's close companion and asso- ciate, his devotion and care making it possible for the blind man to so successfully manage his business affairs.
In politics, Mr. Wilson was a Republican from the formation of that party until the Roosevelt Progressive movement swept many life- time Republicans from their allegiance, defeated the party in the elec- tion of 1912, and lost the Presidency. Mr. Wilson was an ardent admirer of the ex-President, and his devotion to the Roosevelt cause was so great that he insisted upon going across Purchase street to the polling place, although physically unfit. He contracted a cold, and death resulted the following Saturday. He was a member of North Christian Church for fifty-four years; a member of the New Bedford Protecting Society for
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twenty-five years ; and a past noble grand of Vesta Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; past worthy chief templar of Orient Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Good Templars, a leading temperance order of the long ago ; past patriarch of the Sons of Temperance, a still older temper- ance society ; and in all these was an active, useful worker. Thus his years, eighty-six, were spent, New Bedford being his home for over sixty of those years. He was faithful to every trust and in all things measured up to the fullest stature of a man.
Mr. Wilson married (first) December 25, 1851, Mary Sherman Irish, daughter of Dr. Ephraim Bancroft Irish, born June 18, 1802, and Abby (Melville) Irish, of Newport, Rhode Island, born in 1808. Mrs. Wilson died January 27, 1863, leaving a son, William D. Wilson, an employee of the New Bedford post office since 1873; he married, June 14, 1881, Rachel G. Sanford. Alfred Wilson married (second) November 29, 1865, Emily Frances Irish, a half-sister of his first wife, she a daughter of Dr. Eph- raim B. Irish and his second wife, Eliza (Weaver) Irish, who were mar- ried January 27, 1839. She died May 12, 1900, leaving a son, Alfred Bancroft Wilson, who during the years of his father's blindness was his constant companion and business associate ; since 1912 he has continued the inn along the same lines, and is still its genial, highly esteemed pro- prietor. He is unmarried.
So passed the life of a man who attained octogenarian honors, and during all those years held the esteem of all who knew him. He was inordinately fond of his home and there all his hours "off duty" were spent. He demanded prompt and implicit obedience from his sons, but gained their closest love through his unfailing kindly care and fatherly interest. He lived his life manfully, and played well his part.
WILLIAM COLE NYE SWIFT.
The sons of William Swift, of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Elijah, Thomas and Reuben Eldred Swift, were men of strong business ability, Reuben E. and Elijah being associated in the live oak timber trade. These Swifts flourished in the days when at about every port or harbor along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Cape May ships were built. launchings being almost social functions. Reuben E. Swift was a man of hardy, vigorous frame, and when live oak timber for ribs and knees of wood vessels began to grow scarce, he went South, and in the swamp section of Florida and South Carolina selected the standing timber he needed, purchasing it in large tracts, getting the logs out and shipping them North. Three of the sons of Reuben Eldred Swift, Franklin Kirby, Rodolphus Nye and William Cole Nye Swift, succeeded their father in this business, all having large marine and whaling interests, the first named brother also being a master of ships. This review principally follows the fortunes of William Cole Nye Swift, youngest of the sons of Reuben Eldred and Jane (Nye) Swift to reach years of business account-
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ability. He was one of the substantial men of a strong family and com- pressed into his years, seventy-seven, an amount of business achieve- ment, travel and intellectual enjoyment most remarkable. He was of the ninth generation of the family founded in Watertown, Massachusetts, by William Swift, in 1634, going thence to Sandwich, where he died in January, 1643. He came to New England, left a widow Joan, and a son, William, also two daughters.
This son, William (2) Swift, was born in England, came to New England with his parents, lived in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and there died in 1705 or 1706. His wife Ruth was the mother of an only son, William (3) Swift, born August 28, 1654, died in 1700 or 1701. He was succeeded by a son, William (4) Swift, born January 24, 1679, who mar- ried, October 9, 1707, Lydia Weeks. William (5) Swift, son of William (4) and Lydia (Weeks) Swift, was born in April, 1719, and married, No- vember 29, 1744, Dorcas Hatch. Their second son, William (6) Swift, was born February 17, 1747, and married, March 6, 1773, Martha Eldred, born September 12, 1752. He resided in Falmouth, Massachusetts, was a tailor by trade, also a farmer, a member of the Masonic order, a Whig, and a man of influence and usefulness. They were the parents of several sons, the line of descent coming through Reuben Eldred, the third son.
Reuben Eldred Swift was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 12, 1780, and there died December 6, 1843. He early settled in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and there followed the trade of a cabinet- maker until 1820, when he moved to New Bedford, and there engaged in the manufacture of furniture. He also was associated with his brother Elijah in the live oak timber business, spent much time in Florida and South Carolina, locating and purchasing tracts of the coveted timber. During the War of 1812, he was captain of a company stationed at Clark's Point. The cabinet-maker's shop which he built in New Bed- ford was made over to his brother William. Reuben E. Swift married in Fairhaven, March 24, 1803, Jane Nye, born in 1783, died November 9, 1839, daughter of Captain Obed Nye, a soldier of the Revolution, a direct descendant of Benjamin Nye.
William Cole Nye Swift, son of Reuben Eldred and Jane (Nye) Swift, was born at the Nye farm in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, April 27, 1815, died in New Bedford, May 11, 1892. In 1820 New Bedford became the family home and there he attended private school and academy. He entered Brown University, class of 1835, but on completing his sopho- more year found himself so broken in health that he was obliged to aban- don all thought of a college degree. He then began his long and success- ful career as a business man. His first position was with Benjamin Rod- man, as bookkeeper, remaining with him until 1835. His father then offered him a partnership in the firm, E. & R. Swift & Company, an offer which was accepted, the young man at once plunging into the work assigned him. His first assignment was in the South at Ossabaw Island, on the coast of Georgia, he there superintending the cutting and ship-
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ment of live oak ship timber. He traveled over Florida and Louisiana, examining lumber tracts and enduring great privation, for the timber he sought grew in the most inaccessible districts, and this was about the year 1836. But he had youth and a vigorous constitution, and he acquired several valuable tracts for his firm. The firm, E. & R. Swift & Company, dissolved in 1837, and from that time until 1847 William C. N. Swift, with his brothers, in O. N. Swift & Company, engaged in the live oak timber business steadily, and at intervals all through his active life. In the pursuit of his business he travelled South in 1838, and on his return took passage from Savannah for Baltimore on the steamship, "Pulaski." She never reached her destination, an explosion in the boiler room ending the voyage for the ship and many of the passengers. Mr. Swift escaped in one of the small boats, landing on an uninhabited island in Stump sound on the North Carolina coast, he and another New Bedford man being the first to land. The same year Mr. Swift took a greater interest in whaling, although he had owned shares in several New Bedford whalers, but in 1843 he bought the ship "Plowboy," and dispatched her on a cruise for sperm oil. In 1845 he joined with his brother, Obed Nye Swift, and bought the "Formosa." He was also interested in the lumber operations of Swift Brothers, and with his brother, Rodolphus Nye Swift, engaged in the business of whale fishing, meeting with success in all.
The possibilities of an export business in ship lumber and spars attracted him, and in December, 1845, he went to Europe, there spent nearly a year, returning with contracts from the English government for spars of American timber. A large part of that year was spent in Paris, and there he acquired a fluent knowledge of the French language. In July, 1847, he visited Europe as a wedding trip, he and Mrs. Swift spend- ing over a year abroad, a year memorable in the history of France as wit- nessing the Revolution of the 24th of February, 1848, and the terrible days preceding and following the overthrow of the provincial govern- ment during the June following. Mr. Swift was in Paris on both of these dates and seemed fated to witness the agony of France in her efforts to reach stable government, for in 1851 he was in Paris on that 2nd of December that witnessed the "coup d' etat" by which Louis Philipe regained the Throne which the great Napoleon bequeathed him. He had previously visited Europe in 1849, and all his life maintained the deepest interest in French politics, indeed in all European affairs of great moment. The business he secured on these trips was very satisfactory, and in time would have reached large proportion as he had contracts with England, France and Holland. But in 1849 the death of his father- in-law, Jireh Perry, made an almost imperative demand upon him to attend to the Perry estate which owned several whaling ships and other important business interests as well. Mr. Swift finally decided to with- draw from his European timber exporting business, and with his brother- in-law, Eben Perry, gave himself to the management of the Perry
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estate. This, with his whaling business, occupied his years until retire- ment, his interest in whaling becoming very large. At one time he had twelve vessels engaged in whale fishing, his agents being Aiken & Swift.
Cultured, courtly and courteous, Mr. Swift is also remembered as a man of fine appearance, genial, affable nature, very hospitable and fond of his friends and of his home. He possessed that culture which travel alone can give, the thrilling scenes he witnessed and the wide experience gained in many lands giving him a fund of interesting matter which ren- dered him a most interesting and instructive conversationalist. Energy, enterprise and good judgment distinguished his business management, integrity and uprightness in every act of his life. Success came to him abundantly, and for many years he ranked with the leading business men of the city. He was a director of the New Bedford Bank of Com- merce from 1849, was its vice-president, and ever a strong factor in the success of the bank. He was a Whig in politics until 1856, then became a Democrat. He was an intimate friend of President James Buchanan, and this gave him influential position in Massachusetts politics, but this friendship he never took advantage of either by asking office for his friends or for himself. He steadfastly set his face against public office, and refused every offer made him.
William C. N. Swift married, June 15, 1847, Eliza Nye Perry, daughter of Jireh and Nancy (Nye) Perry, of New Bedford, granddaughter of Dr. Ebenezer Perry, an eminent physician of New Bedford, and great-grand- daughter of Dr. Samuel Perry, well known and highly respected among New Bedford's early physicians. Jireh Perry was intimately connected with the whaling industry during his entire business life, beginning as a clerk for Charles and Seth Russell, and becoming one of the wealthy owners and merchants. Mr. and Mrs. Swift were the parents of four sons and a daughter : 1. Henry W., a graduate of Harvard, Bachelor of Arts, 1871, Harvard Law School, Bachelor of Laws, 1874, now practicing law in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices at No. 50 State street, and also serves as reporter of decisions, Massachusetts Supreme Court. 2. Frederick, a graduate of Harvard, Bachelor of Arts, 1874, died Decem- ber 13, 1915 (q. v.). 3. Dr. William N. Swift, a graduate of Harvard, Bachelor of Arts, 1874, Harvard Medical School, Doctor of Medicine, 1879, and practiced his profession in New Bedford until his death, Octo- ber 27, 1911. 4. Lieutenant Franklin Swift, United States Navy, whose sketch follows. 5. Elise, the youngest and only daughter. Mrs. Swift, mother of these children, died January 15, 1904. The family home since 1856 was "Rockland," a beautiful farm in South Dartmouth, containing about one hundred and twenty-five acres bordering on the shores of Buz- zard's Bay. The winter home was on Orchard street, New Bedford, and at both homes a rarely bountiful hospitality was extended to all friends, young and old.
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LIEUTENANT FRANKLIN SWIFT, U. S. N.
This, the youngest son of William Cole Nye and Eliza Nye (Perry) Swift, chose the naval service of his country as his profession and gave himself to the performance of the trust he had assumed with all the enthusiasm and intensity of his nature, and at the time of his death was on the retired list, yet after being retired he performed valuable service. He was a victim of ill health for many years, that fact causing his retire- ment and closing many avenues strictly in the line of naval duty which he could have followed with success. He rendered great service to the coast survey and fisheries department, his only chance to distinguish himself ending through illness just as he reached command of a vessel during the Spanish-American War.
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