History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 189

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 189

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After retiring from his earlier pursuits and being in more independent circumstances,-not, indeed, where entire leisure could be indulged in, but circumstances in which his services were not in such constant and imperativedemand,-he felt at liberty to accept various duties of a public nature : duties which, though un- sought, he could not well refuse. He has been from time to time in the service of the city, and always merited and received the approbation of his constitu- ents by his judgment, skill and carefulness. He served as street commissioner two years and as a member of the Common Council four years. And though in the latter office he did not pose as an orator, his diligence and wise suggestions did not fail to re- ceive the approval of his fellow .citizens.

In varions capacities, too, of a semi-public charac- ter he has served the interests of the community. He has been much employed in appraising estates and administering estates of deceased persons. And in these, as every one knows who has had much to do in that line of business, great care and patience are required to elucidate complex interests and decide conflicting claims. The best evidence of his success in all matters of this kind is, perhaps, to be found in the circumstance of his having so many and such urgent calls for his services.

Mr. Heywood early imbibed a love for reading, and many a delightful and profitable hour has he spent in following out the thought or suggestion of some approved author. And now, in his advanced years, he finds much satisfaction and solid comfort in the habit so long indulged.

In his religious sentiments Mr. Heywood has ad-

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

hered tenaciously to the faith of his fathers-the Trinitarian Congregational; or, as it is now most commonly called, the Orthodox-and for many years has been a consistent and liberal-handed member of the Old South, or First Congregational Church of Worcester.

Mr. Heywood was united in marriage, December 31, 1844, with Mary G. Sutton, of Worcester. And the fruit of the union was six children, only two of whom (both married daughters) are now living.

It is seen by the foregoing that the life of Mr. Hey- wood has not been an eventful one. But it is such an one as many who have made a more conspicuous figure in the world, would wish, at the last, they had imitated. By example it attracts and by example it warns, thus accomplishing a most worthy end. To sneh men it matters little whether or not the trumpet of fame sounds along their path in life, for they real- ize that its keenest blast can never reach the other shore.

DAVID WHITCOMB.1

David Whiteomb was a son, and a true son, of that steadfast commonwealth, the Granite State. Rugged, solid, unhewn, and down out of sight, he was a foundation man and men builded upon him. He came of sturdy stock. John Whitcomb was his earliest ancestor in America and with his wife Frances was living in Dorchester, Mass., in 1638. Removing to Lancaster in 1654, he there died in 1662, leaving his widow to survive him for nine years longer. From this original pair the line descended through three generations of Jonathans to Abner who was in the 5th from John and was the ninth child of his parents. Abner Whitcomb was a man of remarkable physical vigor. Born on the 4th of February, 1733, he outlived three wives and married a fourth on the 21st of February, 1806, when he had just entered upon his 73d year. The name of his fourth wife was Abigail Boynton. When her hus- band was seventy five years old, their only child, the subject of this sketch, was born. The place of his birth was Hancock, the westernmost town in the county of Hillsborough. Aboer Whitcomb, whose birthplace was Littleton, Mass., had pushed north- westward about thirty miles into New Hampshire and become one of the founders of Hancock. There it was he had found and married Abigail, who was the danghter of Thomas Boynton.

The first settlement of the town was in 1764. Fif- teen years after, on the 5th of November, 1779, the town was incorporated and then named after the pa- triot whose bold and handsome autograph upon the Declaration of Independence is familiar to every school-boy. The suggestion of the name doubtless arose also from the fact that Governor Hancock was a large proprietor of lands within the township. It

is a goodly town, full of hills and valleys and ponds and streams. Of the eight summits within its bor- ders, Skatutakee, the highest, has an altitude of 2100 feet ; and of its seven ponds, the largest, Norway Pond, round and shapely, is the jewel on its breast. Lying close by the village street, it is withal nature's skating rink for the youth of Hancock. The streams, numerous but small, diverge from the centre irregularly towards the circumference. Its principal stream, the Contoocook river, skirts its eastern bor- der. On the near southwestern horizon Monadnock looms up in solitary grandeur nearly 4000 feet high. The principal street, running east and west, hardly more than a furlong in length, broadens at the west end into a Common fronted by meeting-house, town- house and school-house; while the east end branches into three diverging roads.

On first coming to this town Abner Whitcomb had settled in a level place midway between Bald Hill and Norway Pond and a mile or so north of the lat- ter. There he remained until the marriage of his son John, when the father gave up the homestead to the son and removed a mile eastward. But at the date of his marriage in 1806 he was living in a house built by him in his old age on Main Street. In this honse, still standing, David Whitcomb was born on the 30th of May, 1808. His life in the parental household was of brief duration, and the after years of his childhood were cheerless and full of hardship. Put out at the age of seven to live in a family where unkind treatment was his lot, a chore-boy in another family at the age of nine, riding horse to plow, driv- ing eows to pasture, tending a distillery, he found little time for schooling, and never had any from others worth speaking of. But in all his after life he was going to school to himself. Thus he became an apt scholar of a wise teacher ; and though it could not be said that he grew wiser than his teacher, he certainly grew as wise. Meantime, his father, very old and wholly blind, died when he was twelve years of age. His mother, leaving him behind, went to reside with her brother, the landlord of the Lamb tavern in Boston; but in the end returned to Han- cock and there died, leaving David alone in the world at the age of fifteen. He had never had a boyhood nor enjoyed the ameliorations of family life. Withal, as he approached his majority he came to have a sickly and somewhat consumptive habit of body. It was not strange that in later life the deep, almost preternatural furrows of his face told of that hard, harsh discipline of his early years.

At the age of eighteen he went forth into the world afoot to seek his fortune. A farm in the town of Gill, Mass., where now stands Moody's Mount Hermon School, was his first halting place. There he re- mained till September, 1829, when broken health drove him back to Hancock. He had now attained his majority and found himself in possession of about $450, derived partly from his father's estate, partly

1 By Chas. E. Stevens.

David Whitcomb

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WORCESTER.

from his mother's, partly from an uncle's gift and partly from his own earnings. This little capital was David Whitcomb's nest-egg, and the chickens were not long in coming. A step was taken towards that result when with improved health he went to Templeton, Mass., to ask for the place of a pedler from his cousin, John Boynton, who was a tiusmith. But John Boyn- ton was a cautious man and it had not yet been proved to him that David Whitcomb had enough ca- pacity to be a tin pedler. Foiled for awhile in this forth-putting, he went back to Gill, staid a few weeks, then pushed on afoot to Northampton and ultimately to Ware. In Northampton he found a place with one Mrs. Mills to have the care of her horse and help in her kitchen at $5 a month. In Ware he sought for work in the mills, but found it in the hotel of Deacon Porter in the guise of building fires, helping in the kitchen and blacking boots. No work, how- ever menial, came amiss to this dead-in-earnest young man. At last John Boynton heard of his doings, heard that he was 'smart,' and in January, 1830, in- vited him back to Templeton. David Whitcomb lost no time. He went by stage to Petersham, thence on foot to Templeton and on the 18th of the same Janu- ary made his first trip on wheels as a tin pedler. It was a trial trip, and a second followed; for John Boynton, cautious to the last, would not hire without a trial. David Whitcomb did not complain; it was in his nature to approve, rather. The trial was satis- factory, and an engagement for one year followed. For this service he was to have his board, $100 and a "vest pattern." This was the turning point of his fortunes. It was a humble beginning of what was destined to have a noble ending. Planting his foot thus firmly on the lowest round of the ladder, he mounted rapidly, yet round by round, until he stood at the top. From the pedler's cart he went into the shop, then into partnership with his employer. The partnership was formed in 1831 with an equal amount of capital from each. In the next year a branch was established in Leominster of which as junior partner he was put in charge. Under his management the business of the branch soon surpassed that of the principal establishment in Templeton, and in two years he was recalled to become the practical head of the whole concern. Meantime, on going to Leo- minster he had taken to wife Margaret Cummings, a descendant of one of the early settlers of Hancock. The union proved a source of lifelong happiness to which three children contributed in full measure.

'On becoming established in Templeton he largely extended the business and made it prosper beyond all its former record. The partnership with John Boynton continued for fifteen years in uninterrupted harmony; then, in 1846, was dissolved and Mr. Boynton retired from the business. A new partner- ship formed in 1848 with Col. Henry Smith, after- wards his son-in-law, was continued until 1853, when Mr. Whitcomb sold out the business to his partner

and brought this part of his life to an end. He had been in the tin business over twenty years. He had worked hard with hand and brain and had accumu- lated a handsome fortune measured by the standard of a New England country town. But he was still in the prime of life and had no thought of rest. Though never robust, work for him was always pleas- ure. His next move, therefore, was to the business centre of the county, where he established himself as a partner with C. Foster & Co. in the hardware busi- ness. His coming to Worcester was in the spring of 1854; the copartnership begau in January, 1855, and terminated in January, 1866. It was for him a new business, but the business soon felt the hand of a new master. What he did not know about the de- tails of the business he more than made up by his knowledge of business in general. Above all, he knew how and when and what to buy. The out- breaking of the Civil War gave him his opportunity. That calamity, which took the business life out of many, put new life into him. He was sure that the nation was not going to pieces; equally sure that be- cause of the war early and large purchases would yield large profits. He bought Russian sheet-iron, stored it, then sold it at a large advance to the great New York iron firm of Phelps & Dodge. A fright- ened manufacturer offered him linseed oil below the market price; a single cask, or five at most, had been the usnal purchase; but Mr. Whitcomb bought fifty casks at a stroke and then sold them at war prices and profits. In like manner a hardware manufac- turer, closing up because of the war, offered him sta- ple goods at prices below what had ever been known, and, inevitably, Mr. Whitcomb ordered the purchase of all that could be had. As box after box came in and was packed away in every available place, the conservative senior partner became dismayed, but was afterwards comforted when they were sold out at fourfuld their cost. This generalship in business left an indelible impression on the juniors in the estab- lishment who afterwards took the business when he laid it down.

Near the close of his connection with the concern he was taking initial steps towards the most impor- tant business venture in which it was his lot to be engaged. In 1864 his son, G. Henry Whitcomb, had been graduated from college and then taken into the hardware store with a view to learn the business. Finding his progress impeded, he threw up the situa- tion and went forth like his father, though in more comfortable guise, to seek his fortune. Taking a journey through the West and scanning the chances in its chief cities, he quickly made up his mind that the place for him was in the East and returned to Worcester. Presently, a newly invented machine for making envelopes attracted his attention. It had a promising look and he laid the matter before his father. The latter listened, left him to work out his own schemes, but furnished the money for the ven -

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ture. At the end of the first year the whole small capital had been sunk. This with many, perhaps with most, would have ended the matter. But a second lot of money was thrown after the first, and both were recovered. The scheme looked none the less promising because of the failure. For the fail- nre was in the machine, not in the scheme; and never yet was there a work to do for doing which a machine could not be made if only it were worth the while. To manufacture envelopes by millions a day was surcly worth the while. So, that bad first ma- chine was thrown aside, the best machines in the market were bought and set to work, by successive inventions the Whitcomb machine was developed, and in due time, the Whitcomb Envelope Company took its place among the great industries of Worces- ter. By the end of the year 1866, David Whitcomb had gone out of the hardware business and thrown himself with all needed capital into this enterprise. It was not a new field with a virgin soil for a crop that would raise itself. On the contrary, it was an old worn field calling for deep digging and careful cultivation. There was the sharpest competition to be encountered. The veterans in the business de- rided these 'prentice hands. A thing so obviously necessary to the ongoing of the world as an envelope had not been left waiting for the Whitcombs to take hold of. What could they expect? So the old en- velope-makers laughed at them. But the father's old head and the son's young enterprise proved more than their match. Wisdom, watchfulness, push and perseverance conquered ; and in the end the Whit- comb Envelope Company, if not actually at the head of the business in the United States, was a formidable rival for that pre-eminence.

We have sketched the business life of David Whit- comb. A far more important part, both for himself and for his fellow men, remains to be considered. Had he done nothing and aimed at nothing but to achieve success in business he would have been a far richer man at his death hut the world would have been far poorer. But when he began to be about thirty years of age, he met with that profound change which is most fitly described as a new birth. A new birth implies a new man, and such David Whitcomb became. In Leominster he and his young wife had made their church home with the Unitarians. On going to reside in Templeton they chose the Trinitar- ian church for such a home, although a Unitarian society, and a leading one, was there also. Soon af- terwards, the Rev. Dr. Sabin became their pastor, and under his ministry, in 1839, they united with the church. The influence of this step at once became visible in the conduct of his life. He set up a fam- ily altar and there, morning and evening, maintained family worship. His workmen and pedlers, to the number of ten or more, were invited to share in this service. To all other christian duties he gave assid- nous attention. Gradually, he came to be regarded

as not only a pillar, but as the chief pillar in the church of his choice. But the most striking change was in his use of the riches which he was so rapidly acquiring. By nature he was not a liberal giver. Auri sacra fames was with him a natural appetite. He loved money and loved to roll it as a sweet mor- sel under his tongue. This he freely confessed. But under the new inspiration he schooled himself to give. In this thing, also, he put off the old man and put on the new. Deliberately, systematically, per- sistently, he now made giving not only a business of principle, but a principal business. Beginning with the year following his new birth, he suffered no one of the forty-seven after years of his life to pass with- out making charitable gifts. In no year did the amount fall so low as $100; in two years only was it less than $200; for thirty-two it exceeded $1000 a year ; while in the last seven years of his life the av- erage annual amount exceeded $12,000. The whole amount of his known charitable gifts, testamentary and otherwise, exceeded $350,000. No part of this great sum was given to get himself a name. No one knew of it all while he lived. He did not himself know ; his right hand knew not what his left hand did. Several times he employed another hand to ar- range and file the receipts covering a large part of this giving. When the work was done he was asked if he knew the amount and answered no. He was asked if he would like to know and gave the same reply. One time he gave some thonsands to found scholarships in another person's name. He was asked if mention of it might be made in the papers and he answered no. The largest amount of all his giving, save in one particular, was to colleges and other in- stitutions of learning. Because of his own lack in early life he cherished a tender feeling for the claims of young persons seeking an education. But he re- frained from giving his money for structures of brick and stone. He had no ambition to build a monu- ment of that sort to his own fame. The spiritual building made of lively stones spoken of by St. Peter was what he had most at heart. An endowment of scholarships that would help a long succession of poor boys and girls was the favorite form of his edu- cational gifts. With one school of learning he had special and important relations. This was the Wor- cester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, now the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His early friend and partner, John Boynton, had found it in his mind to bestow the bulk of his fortune for the ed- ncation of the artisan class, the class to which he be- longed. His first intention was to make the town of Mason N. H. his beneficiary. But under David Whitcomb's advice he changed his purpose in favor of Worcester. Having no formulated scheme of his own, he finally made over to Mr. Whitcomb by an absolute deed of gift the sum of $100,000 to be used as the latter should think best for accomplishing the object. Mr. Whitcomb studied the situation, and

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Alex, Il. Wilder

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WORCESTER.

then took counsel with his pastor, Dr. Sweetser, and with Gov. Emory Washburn the adviser of Ichabod Washburn who had a similar purpose in mind. At a later stage Stephen Salisbury came into the scheme, broadening and strengthening it with his sympathy, wisdom and money. The result, made operative in 1869, was the Free Institute. To David Whitcomb, therefore, the city of Worcester primarily owes that noble school of practical science. Nor was it only by diverting the first great monetary stream from a remote field to the " Heart of the Commonwealth," that he became its benefactor ; out of his own resources he added to the treasury of the Institute more than $27,000. As its treasurer and as trustee also, he watched over and guarded its interests for many years. This is not the place to enlarge upon this new departure in an educational scheme. It is suffi- cient to say that as it was the first of its kind, so, after full proof of its admirable working, it became the model for others in different parts of the country north and south.

In 1883 Mr. Whitcomb made a voyage to Enrope for his health, and it was thought to have prolonged his life for some years. But his work was nearly done. He gradually set his house in order and pre- pared, as few men do, to take his leave of life. His death occurred on the 8th of July, 1887. The event called forth many warm tribntes to his memory from persons of distinction, college professors, clergymen and others whose friendship he had long enjoyed. A sentence from the one by Senator Hoar may well con- clude this sketch : "He was one of the best types of the New England character, faithful and true and strong and wise."

ALEXANDER HAMILTON WILDER.

Worcester County has had no more faithful public servant than Alexander H. Wilder, the long-time register of deeds, whose life-work began and ended in that office, covering a period of fifty-one years of continuous service, from 1823 to his death on the 12th of December, 1874. His portrait, which appears in this volume, was taken about ten years before his death.

' He was born in Lancaster, Mass., July 20, 1804, and married, November 10, 1835, Harriet Eaton, of Phila- delphia, whose mother was Eunice Wilder, another branch of the Wilder family, also of Lancaster, who married Nathaniel Eaton in 1792.

Alexander Hamilton Wilder was the direct descend- ant, in the seventh generation, of Thomas Wilder, one of the early settlers of Charlestown, Mass., who removed to Lancaster July 1, 1659. Nathaniel, the third son of Thomas, was killed by the Indians in July, 1704, and left four sons : Jonathan, also killed by the Indians in 1707; Nathaniel, of Petersham ; Ephraim, of Lancaster, who was a member of the General Court for several years, and Colonel Oliver Wilder, a man of note in his day. Colonel Oliver had

fonr sons : Oliver, Tilley, Phineas and Moses, the eldest, Oliver, being the father of Samuel, whose son Calvin, born in 1773, married Susannah Solendine, also of Laucaster.

Alexander H. Wilder, the subject of this sketch, was the only son of this union, and came to Worcester in 1823, at the age of nineteen, and entered the registry office as a clerk under Artemas Ward, Esq., whom he succeeded as register in 1846. Mr. Wilder entered upon the duties of the office on the 17th day of June, 1846, and his name first appears in Book No. 409, and is signed for the last time in Book No. 945. Making due allowance for the greater length of modern instruments, it appears that fully one-half of the business of the office from the organization of the registry, in 1731, to the day of his death, in 1874, was performed under his administration.

The following brief extracts from the daily journals of the city, at the time of his death, attest the public esteem in which he was held.

[From the Worcester Evening Gazette, December 12, 1874.]

The intelligence of Mr. Wilder's death, which took place at 2 o'clock A.M., Saturday, will be received with surprise and deep regret by the community where he has for so many years quietly and faithfully per- formed his official duties as Register of Deeds for thia county. Mr. Wilder, at the age of twenty, was seized with rheumatic fever, which left him a cripple for life, but for fifty-one years, as clerk or Register, be was always at his post of duty, except when some special illness detained him, and until a few years past the occasions of his absence were rare indeed. He was a man of deep religious feeling, and contributed accord- ing to his meana to many religions and charitable enterprises. Besides the large circle, here in Worcester, who will miss him from his usual place, there is a goodly number of prominent med throughout the county-the men who bear the trusts of their fellow-citizens-who have for years visited his office at regular intervals, and in whose minds Mr. Wilder and Worcester were associated as inseparable-men whom he always welcomed with cheerful words, and who will feel that they have lost an old friend.

[From the Worcester Spy, December 14, 1874.]

The death of Mr. Alexander ff. Wilder removes a public servant of uncommon modesty, faithfulness and industry. For more than fifty years he has been almost continually at his place in the office of the registry of deeds, and he has held the office of Register hy successive elections ever since the year 1846. Of late years he has usually been the candidate of both parties, and elected, of course, without opposition. Probably no one who habitually transacts business with that office can remember the time when Mr. Wilder waa not employed in it, and the experience of very few goes back to the time of the Register who pre- ceded him. Hisunfailing courtesy and patience, his quiet and systematic business methods, his absolute rectitude and accuracy, made him a model official, whose service and example have been of inestimable valueto the comomunity.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 189

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464