History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 44

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 44

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Elischer Murdock

1069

WINCHENDON.

This, which gave prosperity to his native town, was his success as a business man. But it is not for this alone that Elisha Murdock is remembered in Win- chendon; he was successful in far more than this. We have alluded to his work for the schools of the towu. This was with him a labor of love. He was alive to progressive methods and strove unweariedly to elevate the standards of education. A personal friend of Horace Mann, he was familiar with and sympathized in all his work as secretary of education for Massachusetts. For more than thirty years this man found time from out of the engrossing cares of his business life to supervise the education of the children in the district schools; his buggy beside the old red school-houses at the cross-roads was a familiar sight to the teachers; the children sometimes cateli- ing rides in his buggy, and so making his acquaint- ance, loved him. Realizing how limited his own opportunities for education had been, for the next generation of his townsmen he sought out something better. Young men struggling to gain a liberal edu- cation came to him for the advice and assistance that were not wanting; they had come to the right man. Without envy, he was ever ready to help those who made the effort to help themselves. No man was ever more popular as a member of the School Committee or more serviceable to the schools than he. Marvin, in his "History of Winchendon," who was for many years an efficient co-worker with Mr. Murdock on that committee, records a notable instance. In that brief era, when the secret organization, known as the Native American or Know-Nothing Party, made a clean sweep of all the public offices in Massachusetts, the town of Winchendon proved no exception. When the vote in town-meeting, on the election of School Committee was declared, Mr. Murdock's popularity was found to be proof even against Know-Nothingism, although it was well known he had no sympathy with that organization. He had been re elected, but with a board of Know-Nothing colleagues. Such was his popularity and such was his interest in the schools, extending outside of and beyond their politics, that they seemed to have chosen him for life. But it showed something more than popularity when, look- ing only to the best interests of the schools, he rose in the town-meeting and declined to serve. This was moral strength greater than popularity, and in tribute to this, the town, with returning sense, voted him in again, together with the old chairman of the commit- tee, whom they had just defeated; one of the newly- elected members resigning to make room for him.

Mr. Murdock was always a quiet mau, but firm-a firmness that could be relied on. He had the courage of his convictions; he was a fearless pioneer in the temperance cause and in the party of freedom and free soil. He looked for a reign of universal brother- hood, and the peace movement of Elihu Burrett found in him an earnest advocate. He was sent as a delegate to conventions; he attended the primary

meetings ; he attended those public gatherings that voiced the sentiment of the community on the great questions of the day ; present to counsel and to guide, ever ready to speak and to act for the welfare of his kind. A Unitarian in his religious faith, he believed in a nobility in human nature; and believing, he was not disappointed in his trust. What others embalmed in their creeds, he strove to put into his daily life.

He found time to be a public-spirited man in re- spect to all that makes a town better, and still stood first among her business men. He compassed in his life the work of a dozen men, with his attention to his mills and his business in all its details-his farm, which he took for his recreation, and his public life for the welfare of his fellow-men ; yet he slighted no one of these.

So it came at last that a constitution never robust gave way under the ceaseless strain, and failing health withdrew him from the public counsels while not yet old, taking with him into that final retirement the tender sympathies of all. He had worn ont his life in their service, yet he had done all so quietly and with such apparent ease that men did not realize the magnitude of the work until it was over. It was a true life, with no ignoble aims ; gentle, unostentatious, but great in those practical achievements which bring wealth to communities and make States.

NELSON DAVIS WHITE.

The American ancestor of Mr. White was Thomas White, who appeared in Charlestown in 1677, where he became a freeman in that year. He was born in 1636 and married Mary Frothingham, by whom he had Thomas, born October 15, 1664; William, born September 12, 1667; Samuel, October 24, 1669, and Elizabeth, February 28, 1671. Thomas, the oldest of these children, married Sarah Rand and had Thomas, born December 18, 1685; Samuel, born June 4, 1690; Sarah; John, born August 22, 1695; Hannah, born August 25, 1698; Mary; Rebecca, born December 1, 1704, and Abigail, born June 2, 1708. John, the third son of Thomas, married Sybilla, daughter of Col. Jo- seph Buckminster and removed to Framingham. His children were: John, born October 17, 1728; Thomas, born July 11, 1731 ; Rebecca, born February 5, 1733; Sarah, born January 22, 1737 ; Sybilla, born October 29, 1741, and Rand, born October 15, 1751. Thomas, the second son of John, removed to Spencer and mar- ried Abigail Muzzey. His children were :- Thomas, born November 24, 1757; Thaddeus, born July 16, 1759; Abigail, born May 3, 1761 ; Mary, born Novem- ber 11, 1762; Benjamin, born August 8, 1764; Joel, born May 3, 1766; Sibbel, born February 13, 1768; Nancy, born May 25, 1769; Jonah, born April 20, 1771 ; Betsey, born July 1, 1774; Amos, born Febru- ary 6, 1776; John Bradshaw, born February 1, 1778, and Molly, born September 2, 1782. Thomas, the old- est child of the above, was a soldier in the Revolution

1070

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and after the war settled in West Boylston. He mar- ried Hannah Estabrook and had Polly, born May 23, 1786; Nancy, born October 15, 1789; Joseph, born July 24, 1792; Hannah, born February, 1794; Thomas, born June 5, 1796, and Ebenezer, born June 13, 1798. Joseph, of West Boylston, the oldest son of the last Thomas, married Matilda, daughter of Simon Davis, of West Boylston, and had Nelson Davis, born July 24, 1818 : Persis Arminda, born January 11, 1820, who married Dr. Abbott, of Boston; Windsor Newton. born March 4, 1823, who married Miriam Walker, of West Boylston; Hannah Mandana, born June 27, 1825, who married Percival W. Bartlett; Joseph Es- tabrook, born June 19, 1832, and Francis Wayland, horn October 26, 1834, who married Josephine M. Tracey.

Joseph White was a man of superior mental quali- ties and executive ability. He was a thorough me- chanic and at the age of eighteen started a wire fac- tory in West Boylston with eighteen hands in his em- ploy. Two years later he began the manufacture of cotton yarns and a short time after of cotton goods, of which he was one of the earliest manufacturers in the country, and in which he continued until his death, leaving a handsome property to his family as the fruit of his labors.

Nelson Davis White, the subject of this sketch, the oldest child of the above Joseph, was born, as above stated, in West Boylston, July 24, 1818. He attended the common schools in his native town and the acade. mies at Westminster and Shelburne Falls. Until he was twenty-five years of age he remained with his father at West Boylston, and was the superintendent of his mill, which he remodeled in 1838 at the age of twenty, introducing many improvements which at- tracted the attention of manufacturers. In 1843 he removed to Winchendon, and as the agent of the Nelson Corporation started the Nelson Mill, a wooden structure standing where the large brick mill now owned by Mr. White is located, at Spring Village, and which was burned in 1854. Not long before the de- struction of this mill Mr. White removed to Winch- endon Village, and in 1855 rented a building and privilege owned by Baxter D. Whitney, and fitted it with machinery, including eighty looms, where he began, and has continued up to this time, the manu- facture of colored cotton goods, giving employment to about ninety hands. .

In 1857 Mr. White bought for the sum of eight thousand dollars the property of the Nelson Mills Corporation, including the water privilege which had been idle since the fire three years before, and built a brick mill in which eighty-six looms were put in op- eration on the same line of goods as were manufac- tured in the mill at the village. From time to time the extent and capacity of this mill have been in- creased until at the present time it contains one hun- dred and eighty-five looms and employs about two hundred hands. The annual product of the two mills,

with their two hundred and seventy-five looms, em- ploying nearly three hundred hands, is about half a million of dollars. The old Nelson Mills Corpora- tion has survived the change of ownership of its prop- erty, and is still maintained with the possession of all the shares of its stock in the hands of Mr. White and his sons. Nelson Davis White is president and his son, Zadoc Long White, is clerk and treasurer. The property of the corporation consists of the water privilege on Miller's River, with the factory and ma- chinery and about fifty honses, which constitute Spring Village, about a mile and a half or two miles from the central part of Winchendon.

A little lower down on Miller's River and nearer the town of Winchendon another mill has been re- cently built, containing one hundred and thirty looms, which is also engaged in the manufacture of the same line of cotton colored goods, and employs one hun- dred and ten hands. This mill, three-eighths of which are owned by Mr. White, two-eighths by Joseph N. White, two-eighths by Zadoc L. White and one- eighth by Charles D. White, is called the Glen Allan Mill, after Allan Temple White, a son of Mr. White, now living in Europe, and is managed by Charles Davis White, another son. The value of its annual product is about two hundred thousand dollars. Owing to the state of Mr. White's health he has relinquished the care of the Nelson Mill and the mill at the Cen- tral Village to his sons, Joseph N. and Zadoc L. White, under whose skillful management these in- dustries have maintained their reputation and con- tiuued in their prosperous career.

Nor do these establishments, as extensive as they are, include all the manufacturing enterprises in which Mr. White has been engaged. In the town of Jaffrey, across the New Hampshire line, about ten miles from Winchendon, two other mills are engaged, under the management of Joseph N. and Zadoc L. White, in the manufacture of the same class of goods, employing two hundred and fifty hands and yielding a product of halt a million dollars.

Mr. White married, December 15, 1847, Julia Davis. daughter of Zadoc Long, of Buckfield, Maine, and had Julia Matilda, born June 15, 1849; Joseph N., born October 4, 1851 ; Zadoc Long, born December 29, 1854; Percival Bartlett, born December 25, 1857; Allan Temple, born June 27, 1860; Charles Davis, born November 12, 1862, and Nellie, born April 8, 1873. Julia Davis Long, the wife of Mr. White, who died October 31, 1882, was the oldest sister of John Davis Long, ex-Governor of the Commonwealth and the present Representative in Congress from the Second Congressional District. Her father, who mar- ried Julia Temple Davis, daughter of Simon Davis, of West Boylston, and half-sister of Matilda, the wife of Joseph White, received his name from his grand- father, Zadoc Churchill, of Plymouth, a descendant from Governor Bradford of the Mayflower, the second Governor of the old colony.

Ira Russell

107]

WINCHENDON.

Mrs. White " was an accomplished woman, of rare character and worth; her life, which was somewhat retired, was devoted to the happiness and culture of her family and bore fruit in a pure and delightful home. Her manners were dignified and she impressed those who met her with a sense of the most genuine womanliness. It was, however, in the inner circle of her near relatives and friends that her exquisite quali- ties found full expression-her tenderness of heart, her regard for others, especially for those in need or sorrow, her unselfish and thoughtful kindness and that nameless loftiness of spirit which, respecting itself and respecting others, is superior to the pettishness of the meaner ranges of thought and conduct." Thus spoke one after her death who knew her well and had the best opportunities for estimating and appreciating her character.

Notwithstanding the magnitude of the enterprises in which Mr. White has been engaged, he has fonnd time to respond to the demands of the community in which he has lived since he reached the years of man- hood, for the display of his good judgment and the bestowment of his service in its behalf. The town, the church of which he is a member, the political party to whose principles he has long been devoted, the financial institutions with which he has been con- nected and the projects of a more public nature with which he has been identified, are ready witnesses of his wisdom, integrity and conscientious fidelity to trusts confided to him. Directorships in the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad and in the Winchendon National Bank, the vice-presidency of the Winchen- don Savings Bank, and a seat in the House of Repre- sentatives, are among the positions which he holds or has held with credit to himself and with usefulness to his constituents.

Mr. White is a typical representative of a class of men who have made the manufacturing interests of New England conspicuons and successful. His grasp of business enterprises has been comprehensive. He has exhibited a genius for securing the largest manu- factured product with the greatest economy in its pro- duction. He has himself invented some of his labor- saving appliances. His career is identified with the history of the town in which he has lived so many years, and of the prosperity and growth of which he is recognized as one of the foremost promoters. He is everywhere recognized as a man of liberal and pro- gressive spirit, alive to the progress of the age and open to its advance in all the realms of modern thought and growth. He has a large circle of at- tached friends, to whom he is endeared by his pleasant manners and his kindly and social nature. Enjoying now, at three-score years and ten, the rewards of an industrious, successful and honorable life, living in the home of his life-work, surrounded by his children and children's children, all provided with abundant store, listening to the hum of the wheels and spindles which he set in motion, witnessing the continued ex-

pansion and prosperity of the business he founded and the activities of a village population to whom he has given employment, he presents a rare picture of the ripe years of a felicitous lite.

DR. IRA RUSSELL.

Among the varied industries of Winchendon there is one which is quite outside of its ordinary business, but which is deserving of extended notice. We refer to

THE HIGHLANDS-(a Family Home for the Treat- ment of Nervous and Mental Diseases).1-In 1875, Dr. Ira Russell put in successful operation an idea which had been developing in his mind for many years. Quite original with him, it has proven a radical and valuable change in the care of insane and nervous patients. He planned to care for and treat such dis- eases in a home, with the associations of family life thrown about them, and every possible distasteful feature of sickness removed. How well he succeeded is gladly testified by many patients restored to health and happiness by his kindly and paternal care.

Dr. Russell, whose face on another page shows the strong nature of the man, was born in Rindge, N. H., November 9, 1814, and died at Winchendon, Decem- ber 19, 1888, at the age of seventy-four years. He was the son of Eliakim and Sarah (Converse) Russell, of English and Hngnenot descent. Very early in boyhood he was obliged to make his own way in the world, and with great self-denial and perseverance sought for and won his education. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1841, and began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Dixi Crosby, of Hanover, N. H., and with Dr. Abell, of Rindge, and Dr. Alvah Godding, of Winehendon, Mass. He attended medical lectures in New York, and graduated from the University of New York City in 1844. He had received the appointment of district physician to the famous New York Hospital, where he had opportunities for large experience. He was among the very first to study and use the stethoscope, and indeed, in after-life, he was always in the van of medical progress. This was peculiarly shown by his going to New York and spending seve- ral months in the study of the microscope, when he was nearly sixty years of age.

He entered private practice in Winchendon, Mass., where, April 24, 1844, he married Rowena Green- wood, daughter of Henry and Sarah (Woodbury) Greenwood ; she died in 1875. At first associated with Dr. Godding, and later on by himself, he prac- tised for nine years with a constantly widening circle of friends, whom he served with unwearied de- votion and energy. In 1853 he was invited by a committee of citizens to remove to Natick, where he soon took a leading position, and had an 'extensive and pleasant practice. In 1861 he could no longer

1 For references, terms and confidential correspondence, address Dr. Frederick W. Russell, Winchendou.

1072

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

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THE HIGHLANDS.

control his desire for a more active participation in the great conflict, and he entered the army, by person- al request of Surgeon-General Dale, as surgeon of the Eleventh Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Colo- nel Blaisdell commanding-a body of citizen soldiery which won an enviable reputation in " Fighting Joe Hooker's " command.

Soon after the battles about Yorktown he was pro- moted to surgeon United States Volunteers, and assigned to duty in Hooker's division. His executive ability attracted attention, and he was next ordered to Baltimore, to organize the Stuart Mansion Hospi- tal, of which he remained in charge until November, 1862. He was then ordered to St. Louis, to equip the Lawson Hospital. In December he was appointed medical director of Northwest Arkansas ; while here he had charge of the wounded men after the battle of Prairie Grove, and forwarded to Washington a report more complete than that of any other battle during the entire war. In February, 1863, he was put in charge of the general and post hospitals at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mo., which under his administra- tion became one of the very largest hospitals of the war. While on duty at St. Louis he was a prominent figure in the benevolent and official life of the city, and made troops of friends. In December, 1864, he was placed on the staff of General Thomas, and organ- ized the Wilson General Hospital for colored troops, at Nashville, Tenn. Here he did a great amount of scientific work, which has secured a permanent place in medical literature. At the close of the war he was breveted lieutenant-colonel for long and meritorious services ; he then spent a year in the service of the United States Sanitary Commission in extensive travel and research in the line of his profession.

In 1867 he returned to Winchendon, where he en- tered into practice with the enthusiasm of a younger

man. In 1875 he entered upon the crowning work of his eventful life-his long-cherished idea of a fam- ily home for mental diseases-the first of its kind in this country : an idea which came at once into re- markable public favor. He devoted himself to this work for many years, and died in harness, the hero of many a hard-fought battle with disease, displaying wonderful courage to the very last moment of his life.

Dr. Russell was a man of sturdy and powerful frame, of great vigor of mind, and of almost unique devotion to his patients.

In 1876 he married Josephine A. Lees, who sur- vives him. He left two children,-Dr. Frederick W. Russell, for many years his associate in practice and now superintendant of the Highlands, and Mrs. S. J. Walcott, wife of E. H. Walcott, well known in news- paper work. The following description will further explain the character of the Highlands, and the sys- tem by which it is carried on :

The Highlands was established by Dr. Ira Russell in 1875 for the treatment of nervous and mental dis- eases, the opium habit and inebriety. It is conducted like a home, where the principles of family life, non- restraint and open air are carried to the greatest possible extent. The home is not an institution or asylum, and there is no suggestion of sickness or gloom whatever about the buildings.

Each patient, when necessary, is provided with a companion. All małe attendants, usually medical students, are obliged to be total abstainers from tobacco and alcohol and of gentlemanly deportment, while young American women of intelligence are the companions of lady patients. The utmost possible liberty is permitted under suitable guardianship to every patient, and each one is regarded and treated as a member of a private family.

The Highlands, so-called, is a pleasant mansion

Orlando Manon

1073

WINCHENDON.

with cottages annexed, situated in the midst of ample grounds, on an eminence overlooking the town of Winchendon and the valley of Miller's River. From the windows a superb range of hills and mountains can' be seen, reaching from Wachusett in the south- east to Monadnock in the northwest.

A piano-room, billiard-room, bowling saloon, cro- quet and tennis courts and ample stabling are on the grounds. The drives in the vicinity are considered delightful, and for healthfulness of location the High- lands is unsurpassed.

A farm, with exceptionally pleasant surroundings, and farm-house fitted with closet and bath-room appliances with hot and cold water, is used to give suitable patients an outing as often as possible.

ORLANDO MASON.

The first American ancestor of Orlando Mason, the subject of this sketch, was Capt. Hugh Mason, who came to New England in 1634 and settled in Water- town. He was conspicuous in town affairs, and in 1653 received the commission which gave him his title. He was a representative from Watertown in the General Court of the Massachusetts Colony for ten years, and died in 1678. By a wife Esther he had a son Joseph, who was born June 10, 1644, and mar- ried Mary Fiske. Joseph had a son Joseph, who was born October 2, 1688, and married Mary Monk. Ben- jamin Mason, a son of the last Joseph, was born July 14, 1717, and married Martha Fairbanks. He re- moved to Dublin, New Hampshire, about 1764, and Bela, one of his children, was born in Dublin, October 1st, in that year. Another son of Benjamin, bearing his father's name, two years older than Bela, was a drummer boy at the battle of Bunker Hill. Bela Ma- son married Sarah Norcross, and had four sons and three daughters. Capt. Rufus Mason, the oldest son of Bela, was born at Dublin, N. H., May 16, 1788, and when still a boy removed to Sullivan, in the same State, where he became a successful farmer and mar- ried, June 1, 1815, Prudence Woods. At a time when herds and flocks were more abundant in New England than in these later years he raised many cattle and counted his sheep by the hundreds. He held for sev- eral years the offices of selectman and assessor, and for two years represented his adopted town in the Legislature. He died in Winchendon, December 4, 1873.

Orlando Mason, the subject of this sketch, was the son of Rufus, and was born in Sullivan, N. H., June 3, 1824. He was educated in the public schools of his native town and at the academy in Thetford, Vermont. After leaving the academy he taught school in Nelson, N. H., and thus, by the performance of his duties as a teacher, not only nourished the seeds of knowledge which he had planted as a pupil, but gave them better opportunities for germination and growth. On the 4th of March, 1844, he removed to Winchendon, and

entered the wooden-ware manufacturing establishment of E. Murdock, Jr., with whom he remained nine years, six years in the factory and three years in the office. On his retirement from the office of Mr. Mur- dock, to begin business on his own account, his em- ployer, in token of his appreciation of the industry and fidelity which Mr. Mason had displayed, author- ized him to draw on him at sight for the sum of two thousand dollars, if ever it might be required in the exigencies of the business upon which he was enter- ing. The offer of such substantial aid was as credit- able to the liberality of Mr. Murdock as the fact that advantage was never taken of it by Mr. Mason was to the spirit of independence and high sense of honor of Mr. Mason.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 44

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