History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 192

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 192

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To this town, sometime in the last century came Edward Goodnow from Sudbury, on his way sojourn- ng in Northborough long enough to find and espouse a wife. Born to them was another Edward, who in turn became the father of Edward Augustus the sub- ject of this sketch. He was consequently the third Edward in succession and in the third generation from Edward of Sudbury. The name of his mother was Rebecca Beaman. She was born in Princeton and lived to the great age of eighty-seven. In the primi- tive days of her girlhood it was the custom of the girls of her neighborhood to fetch the Princeton let- ters from Worcester, their nearest post-office; and Rebecca took her turn with others. Alone, on horse- back, guided only by " blazed " trees through the " for- est primeval," the intrepid maiden often made her way in the performance of this service.

The house in which Edward A. was born his grandfather had built in 1786. Large, roomy, with stately elms in front and standing on the highway from Boston to Deerfield and " the back towns," it was well suited and situated for a tavern ; and as such the father of Edward A. opened it to the public about the year 1823. By the wayside swung the sign bear- ing the inscription, " E. Goodnow, Inn." The mail- carrier of the earlier day as landlady of the new hostelry showed herself so apt in providing good cheer for her guests that the Goodnow Inn became a house of fame. Drovers of cattle, sheep, hogs and turkeys found it a place much to be coveted for a halt over night, and to make sure of their quarters were wont to give notice of their coming, in advance. Then for a night the premises would be populous. The driven cattle browsed in the adjoining field or rested their jowls on each other's necks, while roosting tur- keys filled the apple-trees with unwonted crops. The inn was kept open for twenty-one years and then closed. The fine old house, now the residence of William B. Goodnow, is still in a state of excellent preservation and bids fair to outlast the second cen- ' tury on which it has already entered.

1 By Chas. E. Stevens.

E A Courbiom

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WORCESTER.

Tavern life is well fitted to quicken a boy's wits and make him alert. In a measure, also, it is a sub- stitute for travel ; the wide world comes to him in- stead of his going forth into it. The boy Edward Augustus had his full share of such influences and they did much in fitting him for his after life. The common school also did something ; and three terms in Hadley Academy did something. This was all the strictly educational outfit he received. Farm work occupied a large part of his young years, and to work of all sorts he was well inclined. But he had a set · rather towards trade, and at the age of nineteen went to work for wages in the store of an elder brother in Princeton. At the end of two years or so, the brothers formed a partnership which continued for about ten years. The general business of a country store, the manufacture of palm-leaf hats and the marketing of country produce made up the business of the firm. For several seasons Mr. Goodnow was his own team- ster, rising at two o'clock, driving forty miles to Bos- ton, and spending a good part of one night on the road. This was a regular weekly trip. In 1836 the firm took in a third partner with a view to engaging in the manufacture of shoes. At a later period Ed- ward A. sold out his interest in the concern and engaged in the shoe manufacture by himself. Mean- while he had taken to wife Harriet Bagg, a daughter of Dr. Henry Bagg the leading physician of Prince- ton, with whom he lived happily for some five years. After her decease Mary Augusta, the only remaining daughter of Dr. Bagg, became his second wife; but alter a like period of domestic happiness her decease also left him once more alone. His next matrimonial venture proved more fortunate. In 1846 he secured the hand of Catharine Bowman, eldest daughter of Seth Caldwell Esq. of Barre, by whom for the next quarter of a century his home and all his social sur- roundings were made a source of unalloyed satisfac- tion to himself and his friends.

At the age of thirty-seven he found that the limi- tations of country trade in a country town were not giving him his chance and he began to look out for a broader field. Accordingly, in 1847 he sold out his Princeton business and left the town. During the period of "prospecting" which followed he had charge for a time of the store connected with the great cutlery establishment of Lamson, Goodnow & Co. at Shelburne Falls, making sales at the rate of $60,000 a year. But neither this nor a manufactur- ing prospect in central New York offered him the chance he was seeking. Then he retraced his steps and in the city of Worcester found his chance. He was now forty-two years old, with small capital but large capacity, untiring energy and thorough prac- tical training. In Princeton he had become familiar with the ins and outs of the shoe trade and had seen that, of necessity, it was one of the leading industries of the country. At the same time, he was well aware that abundant competition awaited each new-

comer. Notwithstanding, he felt that still it was the shoe trade which offered him his best chance, and that if he was to stand well on anything it must be on shoes. Accordingly in 1852 he bought out a small concern in Worcester and began. Retail and jobbing were combined, but the trade was chiefly of the retail sort. Mr. Goodnow soon learned that if money was to be made in large amount it must be by the jobbing business. At the end of four years, therefore, he sold out the retail branch and proceeded to establish the first exclusive jobbing house of any kind in Worcester. This jobbing busi- ness was conducted in a store under Mechanics Hall. For the first year it amounted to $130,000. At the end of ten years it had increased to nearly $400,000.

He was in the thick of this prosperity when the Civil War broke out. It did not daunt him in the least. On the contrary, he welcomed the issue, since it needs must be, and gave himself to the cause of the Union with all his soul. He had long been pre- paring for the crisis. In Princeton years before he had adopted the principles of the Free Soil party, being among the first eight, and he felt the war to be the legitimate outcome of those principles. With these views he was forward in doing his part. Thir- teen of his clerks one after another, encouraged and helped by him, enlisted in the Union ranks. One had his wages continued while he was gone and his place kept open for him against his return. The proposal of Governor Andrew to raise a regiment of colored troops engaged his liveliest sympathies, and he headed a subscription with $500 for their equip- ment. All the while he maintained unswerving con- fidence in the government and the final success of its cause. He subscribed liberally to the first issue of its bonds in the face of distrust in high quarters. And when the national bank act was passed and the old state hanks were backward in reorganizing under it, he took a leading part in forming the First Na- tional Bank, which because of such prompt show of confidence was made and continued for many years the exclusive depositary of the government funds.

With the close of the war he closed up his busi. ness and gave himself a respite. After a year or two of leisure he accepted the office of president of the First National Bank to which he had heen unanimously elected. In some banks the president, full of other business, is often only a figure head ; Mr. Goodnow was the real head. Able boards of directors, accomplished cashiers, expert tellers and other officers did their full share in promoting the prosperity of the bank. But the potential voice was still that of the president. All the paper passed through his hands and he passed upon it all. He took risks which timid men never dare to take and ignorant men never know how to take. He se- cured large deposits by'a liberal attitude towards

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

depositors. For many years the First National was the only bank in the city which offered interest on special deposits subject to check at sight. Men with large balances were quick to see the point. Because of this, a prominent director in another bank made a deposit of $20,000 at one time. The results of this policy were disclosed by the magni- tude of the item of "individual deposits " in the published statements of the bank's condition. Then, as he was ready to pay interest on the deposits in his own bank, so he was careful to obtain the best possible interest on the deposits by his own bank. On first taking the management he found the bank had been receiving what he deemed an inadequate rate from its Boston depositary. This he inereased by one per cent., which, in the aggregate, gave the bank a handsome addition to its income. When he took office the stock of the bank had a market value of 110; under his management its par value was doubled. On a capital of $300,000 the surplus was raised at one time to more than $200,000. Of fifty or more semi-annual dividends, only one or two were at the rate of nine per cent., while all the rest were at the rate of ten and twelve. For many years the uniform rate has been ten per cent. In recogni- tion of Mr. Goodnow's agency in producing this great prosperity, his associates on the board and the stockholders at their annual meeting in 1881 unan- imously adopted and made of record these re- solves :

1. That the present high degree of prosperity of the First National Bank of Worcester, placing it among the foremost banks of the Com- monwealth in the ratio and amount of its surplus, the percentage of its dividends and its financial standing, is largely due to the manage- ment of its president, Mr. Edward A. Goodnow ;

2. That the thanke of the stockholders be and they hereby are ten- dered to the President for his long and untiring devotion to the inter- ests of the bank and for the great success achieved in its behalf.

The secret of this success was an open secret. Mr. Goodnow gave himself wholly and absolutely to the business of the bank. " This one thing I do " was his motto. An eminent member of the Wor- cester bar, still living, was wont to say that in a suit he knew no one but his client. "All his might, mind and amity " were engaged for him. Towards all others in such an issue he was relentless. Of Mr. Goodnow also it might be said that he was re- lentless for the bank. His financial pity was re- served for that ; and no stockholder was ever known to complain.

We have seen how Mr. Goodnow made his money. It will be interesting, and pleasant, also, to see what he has been doing with it. In early life he became, as he hoped, a christian and took upon himself a vow to live and do for others. This he remembered ; and as his gains increased he increased his giving. He had of course his choice among the objects inces- santly presented for his favor, but still his chosen objects were both numerous and various. To the great benevolent societies he was a large and con-

stant giver. His subscriptions to the city missions commonly headed the list. His own church shared largely in his giving, of course; but other churches also shared largely. To more than one he gave a communion service. To one not his own he gave $500 for its organ. Again, he gave in order to provide a free gospel. When a new church was about to be organized in the city he left his own and joined the new to help make it a free church. In the meeting for organization he made a motion to that effect ; and in proof that he meant what he said gave $1500 a year to secure free seats for all. He. hated a church debt and gave an organ and chime of bells costing about $11,000 as an incentive to the ex- tinguishment of such a debt. All such giving was open and more or less read of men. But unnumbered private gifts went out of his hand of which no man can tell the sum but to which this writer can testify. The aggregate of his gifts at the time of writ- ing this sketch exceeded $200,000.

In the beginning it was said that Mr. Goodnow's munificence was bestowed largely for educational uses. It may uow be added that much the larger part was so bestowed. The amount given in this way can- not have been less than about $140,000. Scholarships for needy and worthy girls was a favorite because self- perpetuating form of educational investment. Proba- bly not less than fifty young women are to-day receiv- ing their education at Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley, Northfield, Oberlin, Berea in Kentucky, Hampton in Virginia and elsewhere, because of Mr. Goodnow's charitable fonudations at those schools. And the procession will go on until a hundred times fifty will have had reason to remember the name of the founder as interwoven with their own best history. Besides scholarships, many thousands were given for the erection of educational buildings. When a cyclone swept away the entire group of Iowa College build- ings, Mr. Goodnow gave $15,500 to provide for the erection of a building of stone for library and observ- atory and of a cottage for the accommodation of the female pupils of the College. Another sum of $15,000 was given to Huguenot Seminary in South Africa for a building there. Huguenot Seminary was conceived on the plan of Mary Lyon's School. To aid in real- izing the plan graduates from Mt. Holyoke were called for, and among others Miss M. Lizzie Cum- mings responded to the call. After a time it was found that a large Hall was exceedingly needed and Miss Cummings returned to America in quest of funds for the purpose. She presented her cause in public and private but failed to obtain much help. Then she bethought herself of her cousin, Mr. Goodnow. Her appeal touched his sympathies and secured all the help she needed. Because of entire lack of tim- ber in the region the frame was prepared in this country and shipped to South Africa with all the requisite furniture. In due time the building stood complete and was named by the Seminary authorities

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WORCESTER.

Goodnow Hall. Then the grateful pupils of their own motiou prepared and transmitted to the giver a hand- somely illuminated testimonial to which were ap- pended their autographs to the number of one hun- dred and sixty-nine.

Other educational gifts were: the sum of $5000 to found a John Brown Professorship in Washburn College, Kansas; $5000 to provide the Catharine B. Goodnow fund for the Young Women's Christian Association of Worcester; $700 to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; to Worcester High School a marble bust of Gen. Grant and marble tablets in- scribed with the names of soldier-students who died for their country ; to Mechanics Hall life-size por- traits of President Garfield and Vice-President Wilson.

But his crowning educational gift was reserved for his native town. In 1884 he completed and gave to the town a building which he named Goodnow Memorial Building, in memory of his first two wives and only child. Constructed of granite and brown- stone finely harmonized in color, with a clock-tower and clock and how front and gable, and standing on a most commanding site, the building presents to the eye an object of exquisite architectural heanty. Its design embraces the double purpose of a library and a school. Two rooms are specially fitted and furnished for a graded grammar school. The decoration within answers to the beauty without. A charming reading- room occupies the ample bay and looks out over a landscape that stretches miles away. Accompanying the gift of the building was a gift of five thousand dollars in money to provide for the care and repair of the building the purchase of books for the library and the beautifying of the grounds. Including some thou- sands of dollars given towards the construction of the attractive Town-Hall which stands near, the whole gift amounted to about forty thousand dollars. When both buildings were completed and all things were ready, the busy town turned aside from its business and on the 6th of September 1887 gave itself up for the entire day to an elaborate dedication of the two buildings.

It is one of the distinctions of Mr. Goodnow that he has never been an office-holder nor an office- seeker. One office of much responsibility and no emolumeut came to him unsought. In 1867 he re- ceived from Governor Andrew the appointment of trustee of the .Westborough Reform School for a term of three years. At the end of the term he was re- appointed by Governor Bullock. Although a very busy man, he gave himself up to the service of the institution beyond the ordinary measure of his duties. He was especially in earnest to provide for the moral and religious instruction of the young wrong-doers who thus came under his official supervision, and to that end he did not spare his own purse.

Mr. Goodnow has had his trials, hut they have not hardened his heart nor closed his liberal hand.

GEORGE CROMPTON.

The textile manufacturing interests of New Eng- land have heretofore been greatly benefited by the skill and inventive genius of men from the Old World. And to the Crompton family, especially, much is due. The father of the subject of this sketch-William Crompton-who was the inventor of the widely known and highly approved Crompton loom, was a Lanca- shire man ; but neither he nor his son, George, had ever been practical mechanics or had worked at machinery ; yet from true theoretical knowledge both father and son were destined to accomplish great wonders in the art of weaving. Cartwright was the inventor of the power-loom, but his loom could only weave heavy fabrics, like sail-cloth ; not a yard of fancy cassimere was ever woven by power till William Crompton's invention. To the fulfillment of the demands of the time William Crompton sedulously devoted himself. One or two mills were established by him in Worcester County, and for a time he prosecuted a thriving business. But he finally be- came financially embarrassed ; not, however, before he had, by his skill, inventions and suggested improve- ments, given an impetus to manufacturing-an im- petus which is felt to this day. The Crompton loom has a world-wide reputation, and the works, at this time, are among the most extensive in Worcester, second only, indeed, to the wire-mills.

George Crompton, to whom this sketch refers, was born in Tottington, Lancashire, England, on the 23d of March, 1829, and came to this country when about ten years of age. Up to the time of his father's failure he had had nothing to do with the mechanical part of the mill, but simply kept the books. At the time of the failure, being left entirely to his own resources, he entered Colt's Pistol Factory, at Hart- ford, and remained there about a year, at the end of which time he began himself the manufacture of his father's loom, at Worcester. The knowledge gained while at Colt's factory enabled him, when the Civil War commenced, to enter upon the business of gun- making, which he pursued to great pecuniary ad- vantage. But the principal business of his life was loom-making, which, having languished during the war period, on the return of peace, again became exceedingly profitable.

Mr. Crompton was gifted with a power of keeu in- sight into mechanical principles, and the adaptation of mechanical appliances-a fact which is abundantly testified to by his having secured more than a hun- dred patents, most of them connected with manu- facturing machinery.

It cannot be said that Mr. Crompton, during his whole business career, was uniformly successful, or above the common vicissitudes incidental to business life. He lost largely by the devouring fire of 1854, and by financially crippled debtors during the war- time, and his law expenses in defending his patents drew largely upon his purse. But hy his indomitable

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

courage, financial ability and unwearied activity he triumphed, and, on the close of a life of many bene- factions, left a very large estate. He always had a tender regard for his credit, well knowing that to be a fundamental requisite for success, had a horror of long-standing accounts, and, especially in all minor transactions, kept his affairs well squared. At the time of his decease there were some seven hundred hands at his works, all well paid-up. "His inevita- ble rule," says the writer of the biographical sketch of him in the handsomely illustrated and well-pre- pared volume, published in 1888, by Oliver B. Wood, and entitled "Worcester: Its Past and Present," " was to pay his help monthly until a few years ago, when he adopted weekly payments, and it was his boast that he never failed to pay his men on the ex- act day named. During his earlier business years he once found pay-day approaching and no funds to meet it. He at once started on a collecting tour. The evening before pay-day found him with the money in his pocket, but on the wrong side of the Connecticut River, swollen with a spring freshet and filled with large cakes of ice, with no bridge in the

neighborhood upon which he could cross.

hunted until he found a boatman with a small boat, who was willing to risk his life for an adequate com- pensation, and the two started across the river. It was several hours before they landed on the opposite shore, at a long distance below the starting-point, and completely wet through, but Mr. Crompton's men were paid before night on their regular pay-day."

Mr. Crompton was a man of taste in its broader sense, and an admirer of the beantiful, as well in art as nature. His elegant residence, surrounded by finely embellished grounds, and commanding exten- sive and rich landscape views, and within supplied with many works of art and objects of refined adorn- ment, give evidence of ample means and cultivated taste. Worcester, with its breezy hill-tops, sunny acclivities, and in every way charming surroundings, affords numberless lovely sites for residences, and many are becomingly occupied. But very few, if any, of the estates yet to be seen are more attractive than the Crompton.

Mr. Crompton was, in 1853, united in marriage with Miss Mary Christina Pratt, a daughter of Charles Pratt, of Cork, Ireland, by whom he had twelve chil- dren, nine of whom are living.

Mr. Crompton was remarkably quick of apprehen- sion, very social in his habits, and loved to relate in anecdotal form his early experiences, often giving a humorous or pathetic turn to his recitals or impress- ing some useful thought. He was a deep thinker, and had a wonderful power of mental concentration and self-abstraction, insomuch that he was sometimes called absent-minded. He was educated in the private schools of his native town, and continned his studies till his seventeenth year at the Millbury Academy, at the end of which time he became his

father's clerk. But, although obliged to leave school so yonng, because his rapidly developing talents made him invalnable to his father, he continued his educa- tion at home. His father procured a good library and his son profited by it.

Mr. Crompton was not especially active in public life. He, however, served as alderman and as a mem · ber of the Common Council of Worcester, a year or two in each position, and in 1871 he was a candidate for the mayoralty. He also took such a strong inter- est in public affairs as led to exertion in behalf of any project that promised benefit to the city.

BENJAMIN WALKER.

Mr. Benjamin Walker, whose death occurred on January 28, 1888, was a citizen whose active life was identified with the life and growth of this his adopted home. He was descended from a line of Worcester County yeomanry, though he was born (November 8, 1808) in Greenfield, to which place his father, Benjamin, had removed from Barre, the old home of the family. His mother, Nancy Lee, was the granddaughter of Henry Lee, one of the original proprietors and early settlers of Worcester, a select- man, assessor and justice of the peace. This Lieu- tenant Henry Lee, a native of Concord, descendant from John Leigh, who came from London in 1635 and settled in Ipswich, was evidently a man of strong character. His name appears very frequently upon committees appointed by the proprietors; he was granted a prominent position for his "pue" in the first ("Old South ") meeting-house; but his inde- pendence and firmness are strikingly portrayed in a letter, preserved in the State Archives (Vol. 102, page 153), in answer to a circular letter from the sec- retary of the province, denouncing the "Land Bank Scheme," and ordering the courts and magistrates "to prevent the spreading of the great fraud," and "by no means to pass, receive or countenance " the bills issued by the bank. Squire Lee replied that he had examined the scheme and was determined to support it ; that his privilege as an Englishman was sufficient warrant therefor; that to be punished in any way for differing with the Governor and Council in his opinion would be a civil persecution; and to be deprived of his office until he were proved un- faithful in it or violated the laws of the land would be an invasion of his natural rights, but that to sac- rifice his post for the interests of his country would be infinitely more honorable than to keep it on the base conditions of blindly following the inclinations, not supported by laws, of those above him. The letter was dated April 14, 1741, and on the 30th he was removed from his office of justice. His death followed within a few years.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 192

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