USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Vol. III > Part 41
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THOMAS E. CODY-Thrown upon his own re- sources while still a lad, Mr. Cody has won his way to a position of prominence among the manufacturers of Worcester County, Massachusetts, and ranks with the successful, influential men of his community. Mr. Cody is now president and treasurer of the L. B. Ramsdell Company of Gardner, Massachusetts, manufacturers of children's and dolls' go-carts, carriages, and children's chairs. His parents died before he was nine years old, and he was taken into the home of one of their friends, David Bickford, of Gardner and with the Bick- fords he lived until reaching the age of sixteen years. He then secured employment in the plant of which he is now the head, and his history for the past fifty years is the history of that factory and its output.
Thomas E. Cody was born at Ashburnham, Massachu- setts, July 12, 1855, but from the date of his orphanhood Gardner, Massachusetts, has been his home. He attended grammar and high school until sixteen years of age, work- ing during holiday seasons and throughout his summer vacations, filling in all the time in some remunerative employment. At that time he became a regular employee of the business which is now known as the L. B. Rams- dell Company, but then owned by Levi Warren, who later admitted John Lovell as a partner, Mr. Lovell finally buying Mr. Warren's entire interest. During the panic of 1873 Mr. Lovell was obliged to suspend and the plant passed under the ownership of the firm of Ramsdell & Goodall. Three years later Mr. Goodall gave his interest to Mr. Ramsdell, who conducted it under the name of L. B. Ramsdell for twenty-five years. In 1904 the business was reorganized and incorporated as the L. B. Ramsdell Company. During all these years and changes Mr. Cody had continued to take an active interest, and when the company was incorporated in 1904 he was admitted to an interest and made treasurer and business manager. In 1916 Mr. Cody became president and still serves in that capacity. He has now worked at the same plant for more than fifty years, and its develop- ment has been remarkable. This company were pioneers in the use of fibre in the manufacture of baby carriages and chairs, having begun the use of the material many years before it was adopted by practically all of their competitors. When Mr. Cody became identified with the business less than one dozen people were em- ployed, while at present two hundred and fifty names appear on the payroll of the plant ten times the size of the one in which Mr. Cody first worked, and the L. B. Ramsdell Company is counted one of the really important industries of Gardner. Mr. Cody is a member of the Gardner Chamber of Commerce and of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Gardner. He has also served for six years as a member of the Board of Selectmen of Gardner during the town administra- tion, and is a member of several clubs.
Mr. Cody married, in 1882, Fannie Lippitt, of Peter- sham, Massachusetts, and they are the parents of three children, two of whom are living: Paul L., a director and the assistant treasurer of the L. B. Ramsdell Com- pany; and Ruth A., residing at home.
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HARVEY ORVILLE WINCH-Thoroughly rep- resentative of the progressive spirit in modern agricul- ture and husbandry, Mr. Winch holds a position of dignity and prominence in Templeton, Massachusetts, and is one of the really successful men of the day in this community. Coming of a very old Massachusetts family, he is a son of James Orville Winch, who was born at Templeton, Massachusetts, and was engaged in the manufacture of shoes when this work was prin- cipally done by hand, the introduction of shoe machinery having taken place during his lifetime. He conducted a small shop and all the prominent people from Athol, Gardner, and other towns of Northern Worcester County came to him to have their boots and shoes made. He was a man of progressive spirit and was prominent in the community affairs of his day. He died in 1912. The mother, Amanda Phelps, was born in Lunenburg, Essex County, Vermont, and is now living in Templeton.
Harvey Orville Winch was born at Templeton, Massa- chusetts, December 6, 1879. His education was begun in the public schools and following a preparatory course in Templeton High School he attended Dummer Acad- emy, at South Byefield, graduating with the class of 1899. Thereafter for two years Mr. Winch was active as an instructor in the manual training room of the Massachusetts School for Feeble Minded, then for about two years he was in charge of the farm at Dummer Academy. He then leased this farm which he con- ducted on his own responsibility for about eight years, after which he returned to Templeton and bought a farm, upon which stands the oldest house in the town of Templeton. This farm he has owned for something over ten years and conducted it along dairying lines, later starting a wholesale milk business in Gardner. About five years ago he bought a second farm in Templeton and has recently removed to this place, which com- prises sixty-five acres of land. This he is conducting as a poultry plant and having gained a splendid start his success is assured, for he has back of his present activity long experience in every line of farming interest, including poultry. Mr. Winch has supported the Re- publican party in political affairs since attaining his majority, and for six years served the town of Temple- ton as Selectman. During the World War he acted as chairman of the Public Safety Commission and as trustee of the Templeton Village Improvement Society. Fraternally he is a member of St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Rowley, Massachusetts, and his religious affiliation is with the Congregational church.
Mr. Winch married, at West Newbury, Massachusetts, September 8, 1904, Dora Goodrich, who was born at West Newbury, Massachusetts, and is a daughter of Grandville S. and Lydia B. (Goodwin) Goodrich, both natives of West Newbury. Mr. and Mrs. Winch are the parents of two children: Ruth Goodrich, born Feb- ruary 16, 1906, a graduate of Gardner High School; and Harvey Orville, Jr., born October 19, 1908, a junior in Templeton High School.
GEORGE W. TULLY, M. D .- In professional cir- cles in Southbridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Tully holds a prominent position and with excellent preparation, his
practical institutional training and his wartime experi- ence, he is equipped for large professional responsibil- ities. He has been practicing in Southbridge for the past ten years and has won an enviable position in the field of his choice. Dr. Tully is a son of John Tully, who was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and is engaged in optical work in this town. The mother, Katherine (Lafford) Tully, was born at Tipperary, Ireland, and died in the year 1922.
George W. Tully was born at Southbridge, Massa- chusetts, October 8, 1888. His education was begun in the local public schools, and following the completion of the high school course he entered Tufts' Medical College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1912 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For one year thereafter Dr. Tully was active as an interne at St. Vincent's Hospital at Worcester, Massachusetts, then in the year 1913 he located at Southbridge and en- tered upon the practice of his profession. With offices at No. 100 Main Street, he has gone forward to marked success and is counted among the really noteworthy physicians of Southern Worcester County. During the World War Dr. Tully enlisted in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army and served with the rank of first lieutenant from July, 1917, to May 1919, spending one year in France with the American Expe- ditionary Forces. Upon receiving his honorable dis- charge from the service, Dr. Tully returned to civilian life and resumed practice in Southbridge. He prominent fraternally, holding membership in the Knights of Columbus, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He takes a deep interest in civic advance but has never thus far accepted public responsibilities, although he was at one time a member of the Library Committee. His religious affiliation is with St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Dr. Tully married, in 1919, Harriet Delehanty, who was born in New York City, and they have two children : Kathleen M. and George T.
CHARLES E. MURDOCK-With wide experience in the graphic arts, Mr. Murdock has for the past ten years been active in Gardner, Massachusetts, as the vice-president of the Meals Printing Company, one of the leading job printing establishments in Northern Worcester County. His work in this connection is bearing directly upon the commercial and industrial pros- perity of Gardner and vicinity, and he is counted among the really progressive men of the day in this section. Mr. Murdock is a son of Solomon and Mary Ann (Roselle) Murdock. Solomon Murdock was born in the State of New Hampshire, but later moved to Sara- toga County, New York, then to Fort Edward, New York, where he was active in mercantile pursuits, and later moved to South Glens Falls. Subsequently he was engaged in the quarry business at South Glens Falls, New York, and continued in this field of endeavor in that town until his retirement in 1888. His death occurred in 1892, at the age of eighty-nine years. The mother was born in Saratoga, New York, they were married at Fort Edward, and she lived to the age of eighty- seven years.
Charles F. Murdock was born at Moreau, Saratoga
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County, New York, February 12, 1861. His education was acquired in the public schools of Fort Edward and Troy, New York, Business College. While he was still a small boy attending school, Mr. Murdock worked after school hours and on Saturdays in a printing office at Fort Edward. Greatly interested in the business he gained a very clear idea of the art of printing in that way and continued along this line after the family re- moved to Glens Falls. Thus he grew up with the sound of the printing press, and while still a young man was master of the art in all its details, and became foreman at the plant of the Glens Falls "Times," and later super- intendent and manager of that paper. This position Mr. Murdock filled until 1890, when he resigned to come to Gardner, where he accepted the position as foreman of the Gardner "Journal." He was active in this connec- tion for seventeen years but finally resigned to take a similar position on the Gardner "Press," then a year later went to Claremont, New Hampshire, to become general manager of the Claremont "Eagle." This posi- tion he ably filled until the plant was sold, and for a year and a half thereafter, then in 1912 he returned to Gardner and bought an interest in the Meals Printing Company. He was made vice-president and general manager of the business, which was then in its infancy, and largely through his efforts during the intervening decade the business has been built up into one of the most important job printing concerns in this county. It was during Mr. Murdock's management that the present fine home of the company was erected. Mr. Murdock is considered one of the progressive and enterprising men of the day and the standard of excellence which is upheld in all the work put out by this concern keeps it in the forefront of progress. He is personally active in many branches of civic and welfare endeavor, and is a member of the Gardner Chamber of Commerce. Fra- ternally he is a member of Hope Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Gardner Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; Ivanhoe Commandery, Knights Templar; and Massachu- setts Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the Aletheia' Grotto, of Worcester, Massachusetts. His religious affiliation is with the First Congregational Church of Gardner.
Mr. Murdock married, in 1886, Marion E. Keyes, of Glens Falls, New York.
BERNARD W. DOYLE, as president, treasurer, and general manager of The Viscoloid Company, of Leominster, Massachusetts, is a leading executive of an industry which holds foremost rank in its field in the world. In a period of twenty-two years this concern has developed from an unpretentious beginning with efforts scattered among four small buildings to their present plant, which comprises some sixty-two buildings, cover- ing forty odd acres of ground and furnishing employ- ment to approximately 1,600 men and women.
The Viscoloid Company was founded in the year 1901 for the purpose of manufacturing a product known as viscoloid sheeting, which comprises a pyroxylin plastic material utilized in the comb industry and many other articles. The channel into which the product was turned naturally suggested the production of the same article by the Viscoloid interests. Thus in 1902 the personnel
of the company organized the Sterling Comb Company. Under this title they manufactured dressing combs of fine quality, also hair ornaments of many kinds from the viscoloid sheeting. Two years following the erection of the plant of the Sterling Comb Company it was burned to the ground, but within four months after the catastrophe it was rebuilt and in active operation. In 1906 the Harvard Company was formed by the same offi- cers and was carried forward under the same manage- ment, taking up the manufacture of mounted combs, brushes, mirrors, toilet articles, and novelties of the highest quality. They branched out in the production of other novelties in great variety, and their success paralleled that of the earlier organizations. The men who organized and developed these interests were: Alex- ander S. Paton, president; Ludwig Stross, vice-presi- dent; and Bernard W. Doyle, secretary, treasurer, and general manager. Mr. Paton was the head of the Paton Manufacturing Company, which was founded in the year 1879 and wa's incorporated in 1897 with Mr. Paton as president and Bernard W. Doyle as secretary and treasurer. This interest was a leading one in the manu- facture of the finest hairpins of horn and hoof, and later of celluloid.
These practical men, appreciating the value of special- ization and concentration determined to join forces in a common organization. Thus in 1912 The Viscoloid Company, the Sterling Comb Company, the Harvard Company, and the Paton Manufacturing Company united in a great merger and have since gone forward under the title of The Viscoloid Company, the officers at that time being: Alexander S. Paton, president; Ludwig Stross, vice-president; Bernard W. Doyle, treasurer and gen- eral manager; and Daniel J. Reagan, secretary. The energy formerly scattered among the four plants is now concentrated in the one, and has brought that one plant to a level of the highest efficiency, and the concern has enjoyed very rapid growth. With its present great plant and equipment of the most modern type, complete down to the minutest detail, this company has achieved a leading position in their field in the world. They have added to their original product (viscoloid sheeting) many articles made from this product, including dress- ing combs, brushes, mirrors, dolls, toys, and novelties of every description, as well as hairpins, hair ornaments, and toilet articles. In 1923 Mr. Paton retired, Mr. Doyle becoming president and general manager. The growth of their business continues unceasingly, and the present great plant is an enduring monument to the vision of the men who brought into being The Viscoloid Company.
CHARLES L. FAIRBANKS-The experience gained in association with some five or six different lines of business activity, including the representation of ten dif- ferent fire insurance companies, together with exten- sive service as a' local public official, has made of Charles L. Fairbanks an "all-round" man of affairs. He is now managing an extensive express business of his own, and also serving as the efficient Town Clerk of Southboro, Massachusetts, an office which he has filled at different times for a period of eleven years.
Born in Southboro, Massachusetts, December 7, 1861,
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Charles L. Fairbanks is a son of Joseph and Betsey (Thompson) Fairbanks. After completing his course in the public schools of his native city, including the high school, he finished his preparation for an active career by taking a business course in Bryant & Stratton's Business School in Boston. When his commercial course was completed, he found his first employment in a music engraving establishment on Winter Street, in Boston, where he remained for about four years. At the end of that time he returned to Southboro, and engaged in the retail milk business, in which he was successfully engaged until 1889. In that year he de- cided to make a change in his line of business activity and to make use of the training he had acquired in the business college. He went to Boston and secured a po- sition in which he had full charge of the correspondence of a business firm there, and for four years he acquired valuable experience in that connection. He then re- moved to New York City, where, as stenographer, he further enlarged his experience for about twelve months. Returning to his native city he became associated with Henry E. McMaster, proprietor of a general store in Southboro, whom he served as a clerk for a period of three years. By this time his wide and varied experience had well fitted him to undertake a business enterprise of his own, and he chose the express business. His venture has been successful, and from the time of its establish- ment in 1896 to the present (1923) he has been steadily building up a most successful business concern. Prompt- ness and courtesy in service, reliable business methods, and a "square deal," have brought to him a constantly increasing volume of patronage, and his enterprise at the present time is among the well-established business concerns of the county. Along with his responsibilities as head of a growing business, Mr. Fairbanks has de- voted considerable time to the duties of local public office. Mr. Fairbanks is a Republican, and in 1889 he was elected Town Clerk of Southboro, and from that year to 1906 he served consecutively in that office. In 1919 he was again elected to fill that same office, and from that time until the present (1923) he has been con- tinuously reëlected, having served in all eleven years in that office at the present time. He also served as Collector of Taxes from 1915 to 1922, and as Postmaster from 1905 to 1914. His varied business career, as already related, has made him acquainted with several different lines of business activity, and it should also be stated that he has at different times during his career represented ten different fire insurance companies. His contact with so many different lines of business activity has given him a wide acquaintance, both personal and gen- eral, and is especially useful to him in meeting the de- mands and solving the problems of his own business enterprise. Mr. Fairbanks is also at the present time (1923) completing his twelfth year as chairman of the board of trustees of the Southboro Library.
Charles L. Fairbanks married, in Southboro, July I, 1889, Marie Elizabeth Herminie Bouthillet, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, and they are the parents of two children : Gladys H., born in 1892, who married Edward C. Nichols, son of De Clinton Nichols (see following sketch) ; and Marjorie M., who was born in 1899, mar- ried, January 15, 1923, Dr. Hugh J. McDonald, a dentist of Boston.
DeCLINTON NICHOLS-Few men are better known in the vicinity of Southboro, Massachusetts, than is De Clinton Nichols, who has been engaged in the coal business in Southboro for the past fifteen years, and who for the past twenty-eight years has rendered efficient service as a local public official.
Born in Southboro, Massachusetts, August 13, 1846, son of Oren and Mary A. (Woodbury) Nichols, Mr. Nichols received a good practical education in the public schools of Southboro, and upon the completion of his high school course found his first employment as a clerk in a grocery store at Fayville, Massachusetts. He then decided to devote his energies to agricultural pursuits, and for a period of twenty years he was engaged in tilling the soil. At the end of that time, however, he resolved again to make a change in his method of gain- ing a livelihood. In 1909 he engaged in the coal busi- ness in Southboro, and during that time he has been continuously and successfully engaged in that field of business activity. His business has steadily grown and is still expanding, but even his notably successful con- duct of the business has not prevented his giving time and attention to local public affairs.
As a Republican he has served as a member of the Board of Selectmen of Southboro for one term of three pears ; as Collector of Taxes for eighteen years, and as Assessor for the town of Southboro for twenty-eight consecutive years. In January, 1892, he took his seat ·in the Massachusetts State Legislature, serving on the Committee on Public Reservations. He has won the confidence of his fellow-townsmen in a high degree, and from year to year they insist upon his continuing to fill the office which he has held for so many years. Perhaps no other single individual in the town is so intimately acquainted with the actual and assessable values of the various properties of that community as is Mr. Nichols. Both as a business man and as a public official he has demonstrated not only his ability, but his integrity and his faithfulness as well. No better indication of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-townsmen could be required than the fact that for twenty-eight consecutive years they have continued to reëlect him to fill an important town office.
De Clinton Nichols married, at Lowell, Massachusetts, Isabella M. Simpson, daughter of A. E. Simpson, of Lowell, Massachusetts. Mrs. Nichols died January 3, 1923, leaving three children : I. Grace, born June 9, 1879, at Southboro. 2. Charlotte, who died aged three years. 3. Edward C., born June 21, 1889, received his education in the public schools, and after the completion of his high school course, became associated with his father in the coal business, with which he has been connected since 1914. He married Gladys H. Fairbanks, daughter of Charles L. and Marie Elizabeth Herminie (Bouthillet) Fairbanks, of Southboro, (see preceding sketch), and they are the parents of two children: Edwin, who was born May 16, 1913; and De Clinton (2), who was born July II, 1914.
CHARLES F. NIXON-The career of Charles F. Nixon, Leominster's veteran druggist, is of outstand- ing interest, and from it lessons of value as well as of interest may be taken. Forced by the ill health of his soldier father to depend upon himself at an early age,
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BIOGRAPHICAL
he is a "self-made" man in the best sense of that term. He is now, in point of years, the oldest druggist in Leo- minster, the third merchant in point of years in actual business, and he is now located in the store in which he began his association with the drug business nearly half a century ago. From the height of success he may review his career as business and professional man, as instructor, and as a citizen with the satisfaction that comes from duty well performed and responsibilities fairly met. As a pharmacist, he has gained the highest approval of his contemporaries of the profession. To his city he has given honorable service in different de- partments, and he has gained the esteem of his com- munity to a degree that attests the high appreciation in which he is held.
Nahum Nixon, father of Charles F. Nixon, was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts and spent his life as a farmer, dying in 1905. He was a veteran of the Civil War, serving as private in Company F, 25th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and was wounded in the battle of Bermuda Hundred. He was a member of Charles H. Stevens Post, No. 53, Grand Army of the Republic. He married Sabrina W. Hinds, born at Athol, Massachusetts, who survived him, her death occurring in 1921.
Charles F. Nixon, son of Nahum and Sabrina W. (Hinds) Nixon, was born at Sterling, Massachusetts, August 16, 1857, but early in his life Leominster became the family home. He completed the courses of the Leominster public school, finishing with high school graduation, and was variously employed all through his youth until the year 1879, when he first engaged in the drug business. That was forty-four years ago (1879- 1923), and he has been continuously in that line of busi- ness and profession, in the same town and in the same store, the latter, of course, greatly changed and enlarged. He did not adopt pharmacy professionally until three years later, when he entered the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, but all through his course in that institu- tion he continued his drug business in Leominster. He was graduated from the Massachusetts College of Phar- macy in 1884, receiving his degree of Graduate in Phar- macy. In 1895 and for twelve years thereafter he taught in the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and in the drug store personally aided more than twenty men to obtain educational knowledge of drugs and the drug busi- ness. He served for six and one-half years as mem- ber, and for two years as president, of the Pharmacists' State Board of Registration in Pharmacy. He is a mem- ber and was president one term of the Massachusetts State Pharmaceutical Association, and gave valuable aid as a member of the United States Pharmacopoeia Re- vision Committee. He is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the National Association of Retail Druggists, and the Boston Druggists' Associa- tion, of which he is an ex-president. In outside business association he is a director of the Merchants' National Bank of Leominster.
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