USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. III > Part 10
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. III > Part 10
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. III > Part 10
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sor, and during the Civil War was a member of the Common Council. He was for many years deacon of the Central Square Baptist Church, East Boston. He married Laura Ann Leach, daughter of Lemuel and Betsy (Smallidge) Leach, of Shrewsbury, who died at the home of her son, Warren A. Reed, September 15, 1897. She was descended from Gile Leach, lo- cated, as early as 1656, at Weymouth. Children: An- nie E .; Emma Cornelia; Warren Augustus; Alice H.
(VIII) Warren Augustus Reed, son of Augustus and Laura Ann (Leach) Reed, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, July 1, 1851. He attended the public schools, prepared for college in an English high school and under private instruction, entered Har- vard, and graduated in 1875, with Bachelor of Arts degree, and has since been secretary of his class. He spent a year and a half in European travel, and has subsequently made five European trips, four journ- eys to the Pacific coast and one trip to South America.
Returned from Europe after his graduation from Harvard, he entered Harvard Law School in 1876, and afterward studied in the law offices of Harris & Tucker, Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk County bar in 1878, engaging in practice, at Boston, in the same year. He removed from Boston to Brockton in 1881, and formed a partnership with Robert O. Harris, former Associate Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, later member of Congress, under the firm style of Reed & Harris, which association continued for about a year, after which Mr. Reed continued to practice alone. He served as city solicitor for Brockton from 1886 to 1889, and as Judge of the Police Court from 1889 until 1921 (thirty-two years). On December 16, 1885, he was appointed a justice of the peace, and a notary public on March 12, 1888, and continues to retain both commissiones. From 1885, he gave six years service to the School Board; was a trustee of the Public Library, and of Howard Seminary, and was also vice-president of the latter; was secretary and treasurer for several years of the Brockton Athen- æum; was president of the Brockton Industrial Cor- poration, and an organizer and former president of the Brockton Gas Light Company; former president of the University, Economic, Commercial, and Boy's clubs of Brockton; former trustee and president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Brockton; former trustee of the Brockton Hospital; and for three years was a visitor to the Bussey Institution. He was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Conciliation and Arbitration from 1900 to 1903; vice- chairman of the Massachusetts Commission on In- dustrial and Technical Education; president of the trustees of the Massachusetts Savings Bank Insur- ance and Pension System; also former member of the Massachusetts Commission on Probation. He is now president of the Peoples' Savings Bank, a di- rector of the Brockton Savings Bank, president of the trustees of the Howard Home for Aged Men, presi- dent of the Brockton Union Cemetery, president of the trustees of the Douglas Gift to the Brockton Day Nursery, and member of the Brockton Park Commis- sion. He belongs to South Congregational Church of Campello; is a Republican in political faith, and for recreation, holds membership in the Brockton Country Club.
Warren Augustus Reed married, at East Boston, December 3, 1878, Nellie Newcomb Crocker, who died at Brockton, January 4, 1908. She was the daugh-
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ter of Bradford Lincoln Crocker, a native of Hyannis, and Mary (Perkins) Crocker. Children: Nellie, born March 30, 1880, died April 5, 1880, at Boston; Laur- ence Bradford, born at Boston, February 22, 1881 (Harvard 1903, M. D. 1907); married, at Brockton, October 9, 1907, Edith Goddard, and has two chil- dren: Dorothy Bradford, born April 19, 1909, and Warren Goddard, born January 9, 1911, both at Plymouth; Robert and Malcolm Reed, born in Brockton, March 2, died March 4, 1886; Warren Au- gustus, born August 20, 1887, died April 21, 1890; Clarence Crocker, born at Brockton August 30, 1889 (Harvard, 1910, LL.B. 1913); married, at West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, July 7, 1913, Clara Evelina Dunham, and has two sons: Robert Dunham Reed, born at Brockton, October 28, 1914, and Rich- ard Crocker Reed, born at Brockton, February 29, 1916; Mildred, born September 2, 1890, died October 1, 1890, in Brockton.
A partial synopsis, only of the good works of Warren A. Reed is printed herewith. A considerable portion of his most noteworthy contributions in be- half of his fellow-men may never be known. It is certain, however, that many among the residents of Brockton have been influenced and benefited by his life.
RICHARD W. NUTTER-One of the best-known names in that historic section of Massachusetts comprising the counties of Plymouth and Barnstable, is that of Richard W. Nutter, distinguished lawyer of the firm of Nutter, King & Keith, of Brockton, Mas- sachusetts. His ancestors played an important part in the upbuilding of the country. The founder, Elder Hatevil Nutter, was born in England in 1603, of good estate, and of "some account for religion." He left his native land with Captain Wiggins in 1633 for the purpose of founding a town on Dover Neck, in New Hampshire. With several land grants and much ability, he acquired a large estate. He was a ruling elder in the first church at Dover, and some- times filled its pulpit. He died June 28, 1675. From him and his wife, Ann, the line descended as fol- lows: Anthony Nutter, resident in Newington, New Hampshire, freeman, "corporall," "leftenant," select- man, member of the General Court and later of the Provincial Council, in progressive succession; mar- ried Sarah Langstaff; Henry Nutter, married Mary Shackford in Newington; Samuel Nutter, married Sarah Hoyt, in Newington; Richard Nutter, moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, where he was asses- sor in 1757, and on the Committee of Safety during the Revolution, married Temperance Nutter; Richard Nutter, of Rochester, New Hampshire, married (first) Dorothy Place; Isaac Nutter, who moved to East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where he was first a carriage trimmer and later a merchant, married Margaret Orr Keen, descendant through her mother of Edward Winslow, of Droitwich, England, who came to New England in the "Mayflower," in 1620.
The son of this last-named couple was Isaac New- ton Nutter, born in East Bridgewater, June 23, 1836, who grew up to prosperity. He was a successful drygoods merchant in East Bridgewater, one of the original incorporators and trustees of the East Bridge- water Savings Bank, of which he was elected the first treasurer, and a leader in the organization of the Plymouth County Safe Deposit & Trust Company, of Brockton. which he served as treasurer until 1908. The Brockton National Bank also had his
support and aid as a director until he became the treasurer of the trust company, as did the earlier street railway ventures of Brockton and vicinity. He was trustee of the public library of East Bridgewater until his death, January 9, 1911, town treasurer for a quarter of a century, Representative and Senator from his district; and participant in many other local enterprises. On July 5, 1865, Isaac Newton Nutter married Anna Maria Latham, of East Bridgewater, and they had children: 1. Maria Latham. 2. Richard Winslow, of further mention. 3. Charles Latham.
Richard Winslow Nutter, son of Isaac Newton and Anna Maria (Latham) Nutter, was born at East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 17, 1869. His home surroundings, as well as the background of a cultured family, assured him an excellent educa- tion and every advantage for the successful career he has enjoyed. He attended the public schools of East Bridgewater, graduated from the high school in 1885, from Phillips-Exeter Academy in 1887, and from Harvard College in 1891, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He read law in the offices of Judge Benjamin W. Harris and Robert O. Harris, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1896.
Mr. Nutter's legal practice has always centered in Brockton, where he opened offices of his own in 1896. In 1906 he formed a partnership with Charles C. King, under the firm name of Nutter and King. Ultimately a third partner, Joseph W. Keith, of Bridgewater, came into the firm, which took the name of Nutter, King & Keith. The firm has con- ducted a general law practice, with offices at No. 106 Main Street, and ranks high in the community be- cause of the ability, integrity, and force of the part- ners. The senior member, the subject of this sketch, is highly respected. In addition to handling impor- tant litigation, he has ably filled public offices and par- ticipated in the business progress of his city. He was for four years (1902-1905) Assistant District Attor- ney for the counties of Plymouth and Norfolk, two years (1907-1909) a special assistant United States attorney in Boston, engaged in the suit of the United States against the New Haven Railroad for attempt- ing to merge with itself the Boston & Maine. He was for three years a member of the Brockton Common Council, the last of which he served as its president. He has been, since 1908, one of the trustees of the Brockton Public Library, serving part of the time as president of the board. He was for four years, until his resignation, in 1915, a member of the board of di- rectors of the Plymouth County Trust Company. He is president of the Old Colony Foundry Company of East Bridgewater. He is a trustee of the East Bridge- water Savings Bank and has been its vice-president since 1906.
His professional affiliations are with the Massachu- setts Bar Association, on whose executive committee he has served; and the Brockton Bar Association. He is also a member of the important committee on judicial appointments of the Massachusetts Bar As- sociation. During the World War he was chairman of the Legal Advisory Board of Brockton. His po- litical views are those of the Republican party. He attends the Unitarian church and has at different times been a member of its standing committee. His clubs are the Thorny Lea Golf Club, of Brockton, of which he has long been an officer, the Harvard Club of Boston; and his secret order, Paul Revere Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.
In 1905, Richard Winslow Nutter married Alice
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G. Moore, of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, daugh- ter of Albert and Carrie (Ingraham) Moore. Chil- dren: Richard W. Nutter, Jr., and Albert Moore Nutter.
CHARLES CARROLL KING of Brockton, has, for several years, been Chief Justice of the District Court of Brockton, and a member of the law firm of Nutter, King & Keith, of Brockton. With a heritage from the sturdy stock of the Green Mountain State, his life began auspiciously, his parents being able to afford him an education, that began with the local public schools and was followed by the full university course at Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and by the full course at the Harvard Law School, which grad- uated him in 1888, with the degree of Bachelor of Literature and Law. Such a foundation enabled the young man later to rise to high position in his pro- fession. His success has been unquestioned in the community in which he has resided for upward of thirty years and where offices of importance have been a part of the reward for unwavering attention to duty, coupled with a personality of unusual charm.
Charles Carroll King was born June 13, 1863, at Montpelier, Vermont, son of Clark and Rhoda R. (Dodge) King, both natives of that commonwealth and living until 1924 and 1925, respectively. His father was engaged in a successful wholesale produce business during his lifetime and held a position of respect in the community. The son first attended the public schools, then the university at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in which he was associated with men who later became distinguished in many lines. Im- mediately after his admission to the bar, in 1889, he settled in Brockton, whene in 1906, he formed a partnership with Richard Winslow Nutter, a native of Massachusetts and also a graduate of Harvard University of the class of 1891. Later this firm became Nutter, King & Keith, as it stands today. Its practice as a firm is wide and important, while its individual members have each contributed to the achievements of the local legal profession.
Republican in politics, Judge King was executive secretary to Governor Dillingham, of Vermont, in 1888, later becoming a member of the Brockton City Council, in which body he served two years. This post was followed by membership in the Board of Aldermen, in which he represented the Third Ward. In 1904 he was appointed a Special Justice of the District Court and, in 1921, succeeded Judge Warren A. Reed as Chief Justice of that court. He has twice served on the bench of the Superior Court, in 1924 and 1925. He was a member of the Legal Advisory Board in 1917-18 and is affiliated with St. George Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He has been on the Standing Committee of the Unitarian church of Brockton and for the last eight years has been presi- dent of the Plymouth and Bay Conference of that church.
Charles C. King married Abbie E. Allen, of Dart- mouth, Massachusetts, in 1899, she being a daughter of James E. and Adelaide (Slocum) Allen, of Dart- mouth. Their daughter, Adelaide, is now a student at the Connecticut College for Women.
HON. EBEN STURGIS SMITH KEITH was born October 24, 1872, in West Sandwich (now known as Sagamore), the son of Isaac Newton Keith, who was outstanding as a citizen and public official of
the community and a leading manufacturer of his time, and Eliza Frances (Smith) Keith. In West Sand- wich (Sagamore) he attended the public schools, was graduated from the high school at Bourne, and joined with his father in the car manufactory. This manu- factory had been founded by Isaac Keith, grandfather of Eben Sturgis Smith Keith, to construct carriages, and to function also as a wheelwright and blacksmith- ing concern, in 1829. The grandfather had begun in a small way; he built a few carriages, sold them, built more and sold them; carried on work in repairs; acquired a sound reputation as manufacturer and smith, and within the span of a few years he installed a tool plant within the works. By 1849, when the enterprise was twenty years old, he had so expanded his manufacturing project that the sale of tool ware for the California gold fields alone provided a lucra- tive revenue. The first Isaac assisted in the gold rush of '49 in another way, too, in the provision of prairie schooners, which he built exceedingly well, of such staunch construction that several are pre- served today, with most of the original equipment left intact, where preserved from inroads of rust. Meanwhile Isaac Newton Keith, son of the founder, had come into association with his father, the first Isaac; and as he assumed the control of the in- dustrial works, contracts for the repair and construc- tion of railway freight cars were undertaken, with such success that other contracts were forthcoming; and in short time the Keith works gave itself almost wholly to rolling stock under the direction of Isaac Newton Keith, who, upon the death of his father, directed the organization to further prosperity. Then, as noted, came into the organization the third genera- tion, Eben Sturgis Smith Keith, just graduated from Bourne High School, and he, as his father before him, injected new blood, new force, new ideas, into it, gradually assuming control. When the manufac- tory was founded in 1829 by the first Isaac, it bore the style Ryder & Keith Carriage Manufacturers; two years later Isaac Keith bought out Mr. Ryder and changed the style to Isaac Keith & Sons; in 1899, when Isaac Newton Keith came into control, the style was altered to I. N. Keith & Son, and still later the firm name was changed to Keith Manufac- turing Company; and in 1907, after Eben Sturgis Smith Keith had been in charge several years, was once more changed, to the present style, to the Keith Car & Manufacturing Company. During the first years that railway cars were manufactured in the Keith works, the annual output ranged from fifty to two hundred of rolling units, according to demand of the carriers, and the average number of men em- ployed was seventy-five. Even so, at that time, the works were considered of great industrial importance to the Cape, and growth was steady, if not rapid, during the last years of Isaac Newton Keith's di- rection, and when he died, Eben Sturgis Smith Keith enlarged the works, installed new and improved ma- chines, and within four years of operation had pushed his charge mightily toward the volume now accus- tomed. In 1907, he realized the need of augmented capital to carry on his progress, so secured the cap- ital required, and incorporated the Keith Car & Manufacturing Company with charter to build, re- build and otherwise work in rolling stock, and to en- gage generally in manufacturing. For several years past the annual output of the Keith works has totaled cars by the hundred rather than by the score, and more than six hundred men are regularly employed.
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Segments of the manufacturing plant extend for a mile along the right of way of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. Thus has Mr. Keith taken the vehicle inherited by him, improved it, and driven it a distance never imagined by the first Isaac.
A man whose industrial affairs are of such mag- nitude could not fail to have wide interests; and these Mr. Keith does have, and employs them to the benefit of community, county and State. The prin- ciples of secure foundation of industry and society being in many ways similar, Mr. Keith's activities in politics have at all times been accompanied by keen understanding and practical application of practi- cal theory. His personal development was constant- ly democratic; when he entered the Keith works under his father, about 1890, at the age of eighteen years, he was put to work in the machine shops, there learned the point of view, of working men, and learned also to understand and to like their philosophies of life. For four years, in the shops, he was in close contact with the men, and after entering into the company as partner, in 1894, through preference con- tinued the many friendships he had made; and to this day, many of his friends of youth are with him still, though few of them remain at the machines. He has always been one to work with his men rather than to direct them from a distance. He was trained to know the value of good government, industrially and socially, both. A Republican, he has ever been loyal to the principles of the party. For years he represented the town of Bourne as member of the Republican Town Committee. In 1907, 1908, and 1909 he was elected to the State Senate, and served throughout his tenure of office as member of the ways and means committee, and as chairman on counties and committees on insurance.
It is seen, then, that Mr. Keith worked for his ideals of good government, in particular as they concerned improvement of business conditions, main- tenance of the improvements, and the public welfare. Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1909 he became a member of the executive council, and as such was in service for three terms. In. 1909 he was called upon to represent the Fourteenth Congressional District at the Republican National Convention, in Chicago, and in 1910 he was sent to the State Conven- tion, where he was one of the committee to draw up the Republican platform for that year. Fraternally, Mr. Keith is concerned chiefly with the workings of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he is a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and holder of the thirty-second de- gree. His favorite recreations are fishing and gun- ning. During the World War he acted as food ad- ministrator of Cape Cod, most efficiently, and took part with great effect in the several Liberty Loan campaigns. He is vice-president of the Sandwich Co-operative Bank, and a director of the Osgood Bradley Car Company of Worcester, Massachusetts.
On February 8, 1900, at Sagamore, Hon. Eben Sturgis Smith Keith was united in marriage with Malvina Landers, a daughter of Edward Francis and Laura A. (Bearse) Landers. To this union was born one child, a daughter, Anne Frances, who is the wife of Fritz Ehlenhaut, of Waban, Massachusetts.
LOUIS A. WHITEHOUSE-The careers of nu- merous architects and talented designers in the field of memorial art bear witness to the fact that what was
formerly a trade is developing into an industry. Since the closing years of the nineteenth century, the influ- ence of certain designers has been steadily bringing about a great change not only in the general char- acter of monumental design but also in the spirit which animates the trade, and a substantial expansion of the industry. With the advent of good design as the dominant factor in competition, standards have been raised throughout the country, genuine effort put forth to secure beauty of line and proportion, and an era of sound values and of ethical relations between dealers has been ushered in. In this work the trade designers have exerted their influence by example and by precept, for while contributing to the trade increasingly beautiful and artistic designs, they have also given liberally of their time in a sus- tained effort, through the written and spoken word, to kindle the love of beauty and increase the desire for knowledge. As a body they have done more to achieve the renaissance of good art in the memorial industry than any other single factor. Among the talented artists of this group, none has done more to inspire the entire craft than has Louis A. White- house, of Quincy, Massachusetts.
Born in East Boston, Massachusetts, August 28, 1880, Mr. Whitehouse seemed destined to become a naval architect. His father, Frederick Whitehouse, who was born in Newcastle, Maine, in 1834, and died in 1913, married Sarah A. Ferguson of Monongahela City, Pennsylvania, in 1879. The father was a ship- wright. It was but natural that his eldest son, en- couraged to spend much time with his father, should become deeply interested in shipbuilding, particularly in ship-designing, for in early life he showed a marked aptitude for sketching and mechanical drawing. There was a certain beauty of line and grace of mass even in these first efforts. After attending the local public schools, the young artist studied for two years at the Mechanic Arts High School of Boston, prepara- tory to entering the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, where he planned to take a course in naval architecture. Instead, however, he secured a position as draughtsman in the office of E. C. Willison, who was engaged in the wholesale monument business in Boston, at the same time pursuing his studies in a five-year evening course at the School of Architecture. Here the appeal of an artistic interest in design finally became stronger than his early ambition to design ships, and in 1903 he came to Quincy and associated himself with the Milne and Chalmers Granite Com- pany, with whom he remained until 1908. That year he went to Boston, where he engaged in business for himself as a designer of memorials and general monumental work for the trade. In his studios at Cambridge and in the Studio Building, Boston, Mr. Whitehouse, without the aid of assistants, in a few years, had built up a clientele which covered the entire country. The remarkable productivity of these busy years is perhaps the most eloquent evidence of his resourcefulness in design and of his masterly rapidity as a draughtsman. It was during these years that Mr. Whitehouse made his valuable contribution to the art of memorial design. The trade journal, "Granite, Marble and Bronze," in an article written by Ernest S. Leland, gives the following apprecia- tion of the artistic quality of his work:
Two qualities are outstanding in the work of Mr. White- house as a designer-his remarkable sense of proportion and his technique as an architectural renderist. A singular delicacy marks both his compositions and their delineation. . There is a flow of line, a sense for scale, and a certain .
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nobility of proportions in even his inexpensive tablets which stamps his work with a personality no fellow-artist could mistake for that of any other designer.
Other qualities of his work are summarized as follows:
Exquisite refinement in the combination and profiles of mouldings and of suites of mouldings are features of his work in the classic orders and in the memorials of the more academic type. His ornamentation is invariably subtle in relief and rich in play of delicate shadings. . . . Mr. White- house has devoted much of his genius to the development of the so-called moderate-priced memorials. His contributions to the design plates of the trade press and his work in the design of memorials for stock, or quantity production, are outstanding achievements in his career. Perhaps no single artist in the field surpasses him in the originality and in- dividuality of this work which constitutes the great volume of production in our field.
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