History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 45

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 45

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Mr. Mason began the manufacture of wooden-ware in 1853, purchasing one-half interest with Ephraim Kendall, and carrying on the business under the firm-name of Kendall & Mason. In 1863, Mr. Ken- dall sold his interest to Mr. Mason, and the latter became the sole proprietor, continuing his business alone up to the present time; in later years, since 1869, his son, Dwight L. Mason, assisting him. His mill is on Miller's River, near the centre of the cen- tral village of Winchendon. His goods bear the best reputation and find their way to the markets of both the Old and New Worlds.

But Mr. Mason, though an active and zealous business man, has found time to take part in various movements and enterprises calenlated to promote the religious, moral, social and industrial welfare of the community. He has served at various times as selectman and overseer of the poor, and in 1871 re- presented Winchendon in the General Court. He took an active part in organizing the Winchendon Savings Bank in 1854, and while since its incorpora- tion, he has been a member of its board of invest- ment, during the last ten years he has been its president. He was also efficient in the organization of the First National Bank in Winchendon, in 1864, and since that time has been a member of its board of directors. His appointment on various town committees illustrates the confidence of his fellow- citizens in his sagacity and prudence and judgment. On the committees to secure volunteers during the war ; to select a suitable tract of land for a cemetery ; to recommend a proper site for a High School building, to oppose the division of Worcester County, and to consider the subject of town water-works, his business methods and wise council were duly appreciated by the town.

In more limited fields of usefulness he has been no less efficient. As chairman of the Republican Town Committee for many years, as superintend- ent of the Congregational Sunday-school for twenty- two years, as trustee of the Cushing Academy and a director in the Fitchhurg Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company, his services have been in request as long as he was willing to render them.

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Such a record as is here displayed renders it an easy task to form a correct estimate of the character of the man. He is such a man as every town seeking its highest and best development, guiding the foot- steps of its youth, gnarding the financial interests of its people, looking to progress without extravagance and respecting economy without the taint of parsi- mony, should possess.

Mr. Mason married, February 13, 1851, Jane S. Fifield, whose son, Dwight L. Mason, was born An- gust 10, 1852. Twin daughters were also born Jnne 26, 1858, one of whom died on the day of its birth and was buried with its mother, and the other at the age of five years. Dwight L. Mason graduated at the Highland Military Academy in 1869, and since that time has been engaged in business with his father.

Mr. Mason married a second wife, Calista Streeter, November 17, 1859, whose children have been Mar- cus Marvin and Mabel Murdock, both born October 7, 1861. Marcus Marvin Mason graduated at Am- herst College in 1883, and since 1884 has occupied re- sponsible positions in connection with stock-raising associations in Wyoming Territory, with a central office in Cheyenne. Mabel Murdock Mason, after finishing her education at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, engaged for several years in the occupation of teacher in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Mr. Mason is still in active business, with a career of usefulness, should his health be spared, far from finished.

WILLIAM WEBSTER WHITNEY.

William Webster Whitney is descended from John Whitney, who came, a boy of eleven years, from England in 1635, in the Elizabeth and Anne, and settled with his father and mother, and fonr younger brothers, in Watertown. William Whitney, the great-grandson of John, was born in Weston April 10, 1736, and settled in Winchendon in 1774. He mar- ried, June 14, 1762, Mary Mansfield, of Weston, and had seven children,-William, Phinehas, Mary, Jo- seph, Amasa, Sally and Luke,-and died July 10, 1817. He was a soldier in the company of Captain Moses Hale and regiment of Colonel Nathan Spar- hawk, which marched from Winchendon to Cambridge at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775.

Amasa Whitney, son of William, was born June 16, 1777, and married, in December, 1802, Mary, daughter of Daniel Goodridge, and died February 2, 1852. His children were,-Webster, born in Win- chendon October 6, 1803; Amasa, April 24, 1806, who married Mary, daughter of Ephraim Murdock ; Har- riet, January 27, 1811, who married C. C. Pierce ; William Lowe, March 24, 1815; Baxter Dodridge, June 28, 1817, who married Sarah Jane, daughter of Richard Whitney ; Mary Goodridge, August 2, 1819, who married William, son of Ephraim Murdock ; and John Milton, December 18, 1826.

Webster Whitney, son of Amasa, born as above, married, March 16, 1828, Eliza Parks, daughter of Colonel Joseph Whitman, of Lincoln, and had Eliza Caroline, born June 16, 1830, who married William Beaman ; William Webster, the subject of this sketch ; and Lucy Ellen, born October 21, 1834, who married Archus S. Kimball.

William Webster Whitney was born in Winchen- don May 5, 1833. He attended the public schools of that town, and Phillips Academy at Andover. At the age of eighteen he began an apprenticeship with Captain Ephraim Murdock, an extensive manufac- turer of wooden-ware, and remained with him until he was twenty-seven. He then went into partnership with his father-in-law, Elisha Murdock, a brother of Ephraim, in the same business at Waterville, under the firm-name of E. Murdock & Co. In 1862 Mr. Murdock retired from the partnership on account of ill-health, and died in 1870. Under the same title Mr. Whitney formed a partnership with his cousin, James Alfred Whitman, son of Ephraim Parks Whitman, which continued seventeen years, until 1879. During the next five years he carried on the business alone, and in 1884 took his son Elisha Mur- dock Whitney into partnership, still retaining the old firm-name of E. Murdock & Co.

The business originally established by Mr. Elisha Murdock, always successful, has, in the hands of Mr. Whitney, gradually extended, until his establishment is now not only the oldest, but has been for the last ten years the most extensive wooden-ware manufac- tory in the country. He married, January 22, 1857, Sophia Morse, daughter of his old partner, Elisha Murdock, and has one son, Elisha Murdock Whitney, who is his present partner.

Concerning this young man, the son of Mr. Whit- ney, the interesting fact may be stated that his three great-grandfathers-Amasa Whitney, Ephraim Mur- dock and Isaac Morse-who were three of the most prominent men in Winchendon from 1800 to 1825, lie buried side by side in adjoining lots in the old ceme- tery oľ the town.

From the first step taken by Mr. Whitney in his business life he has devoted himself unremittingly to the enterprises with which he has been connected, and to his industry, supplemented and reinforced by a good education, a marked intelligence, a sensitive honor and an indomitable will, his success has been due. Though avoiding and refusing public office, he has never been inattentive to the wants of his native town, and any project calculated to promote its in- terests he has pushed with energy and zeal. With the extension of the Ware River Railroad from Gil- bertville, in Hardwick, to Winchendon, he was especially identified, and from the time that exten- sion was projected he has been a director of the road. Since its practical purchase by the Boston and Albany Railroad corporation, when it became the Ware River Branch of that company, his early efforts in its

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behalf, and his high business character, have been recognized by continued re-elections to a director- ship. He is also one of the trustees of the Winchen- don Savings Bank, and an active member of the Unitarian Society, to which he has been a liberal benefactor, and of the executive committees of which he was for twenty years a member. Elisha Murdock, his father-in-law, was the pioneer of Unitarianism in Winchendon, and in later years his interest in the society was largely shared by his brother Ephraim.

Mr. Whitney is a man of marked presence, and with his genial social traits and broad views on the questions of the day, together with good conversa- tional powers, he cannot fail to impress a stranger as a leader among men, possessing the brain to conceive and the ability to execute enterprises which men of less ardent and less hopeful temperament would con- sider impracticable, if not impossible. He is now in the prime of life, strong in body and mind, with a probable future before him of continued prosperity and usefulness.

W. P. CLARK.1

Wilder P. Clark, of Winchendon, was born in Chesterfield, N. H., October 12, 1832. His father, Joseph Clark, a son of Solomon Clark, of Chester- field, and a grandson of Jonas Clark, of Petersham, Mass., married Fanny Gary, who died February 27, 1817, leaving two children ; he married, second, Polly Kneeland, who died May 7, 1850, leaving six chil- dren ; he died July 25, 1852, aged nearly sixty years. He was an industrious man and a good citizen. A prominent member of the Methodist Church, class leader and superintendent of the Sabbath-school, his life was a consistent expression of his religious con- victions and professions. For many years he was an earnest and intelligent advocate of the cause of tem- perance, and frequently spoke in public from the standpoint of a man who never drank liquor at a public bar, which was an unusually conspicuous rec- ord for his time. His kindness was extended to all, and he never grew weary in his efforts for the good of his fellow-men.

John Kneeland, Esq., the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a son of Timothy Knee- land, was born in the southeast part of Winchendon (now Gardner), and in early manhood removed to Chesterfield. He was a man of marked ability, a selectman sixteen years, a representative several years and, living to an advanced age, he continued to exercise a commanding influence in town and State affairs.

The early experience and training of Mr. Clark were those common to the lot of many successful men who have been reared in the country homes of New England. Attending the public schools of his native town, and supplementing a brief primary

course by a few terms at the academy, his school ad- vantages were measured more by industry and ap- plication than by months or years of study.

At sixteen years of age yonng Clark began the battle of life. In the autumn of 1848 he found em- ployment in the store of B. L. Marsh & Co., on Han- over Street, Boston, where he remained four years. In the mean time Mr. Marsh retired from the firm, and, in connection with Eben D. Jordan, founded the well-known house of Jordan, Marsh & Co. In this employment he was eminently successful, and en- joyed the esteem aud confidence of his employers and his associates.

In 1852 the engagement was terminated by severe sickness, and, after a residence in Texas of a year he returned to the scenes of his first successful effort in mercantile pursuits. From 1853 to 1857 he was a salesman in the employ of Porter & Lawrence and of Locke, Hall & Co., dry-goods houses, on Hanover Street. In 1857 Mr. Clark made bis first essay in business on his own account. He bought, and soon sold, with apparent advantage, a stock of goods on Hanover Street, and while contemplating the em- ployment of his modest capital in future business, he saw it melt away, in the failure of his purchaser to meet the notes given in exchange for the stock of goods. In the common usage of the term Mr. Clark did not fail, and no creditors attended him in mis- fortune. He simply lost of the fruit of his early la- bor and the rewards of a few years of self-denial and industry. The career of many successful business men has been prefaced by misfortune, and it is probable that lessons of caution and prudence thus acquired have compensated the loss of capital.

In May, 1858, Mr. Clark came to Winchendon. During the ensuing three years he was in the employ- ment of E. Murdock, Jr., wholesale dealer in and extensive manufacturer of wooden-ware. The suc- ceeding three years he was again engaged in the dry- goods trade, and was with the firms of Wm. Locke & Co., of Portland, Me., and Hall, Dame & Co., of Boston, and in February, 1864, he returned to Win- chendon, and renewed his business relations with Mr. Murdock, which were continued until 1872, when he began business in this town on his own account as a wholesale dealer in wooden-ware and manufacturers' supplies. During the preceding years of close appli- cation and efficient service, Mr. Clark had commanded a liberal salary. He commenced business in this town under favorable auspices, and from the first he has been eminently successful. For many years Winchendon has been an important centre in the sale and distribution of wooden-ware, and the busi- ness of Mr. Clark exceeds in volume that of any other dealer in this line in New England. Since 1883 he has been extensively engaged in the manufacture of tubs, pails and other lines of wooden-ware, having mills in this town and at East Swanzey, N. H.

While he has been actively and closely engaged in

1 By Ezra S. Stearns.

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his chosen line of business, he has accepted several positions of trust. He is a director of the Safety Fund National Bank of Fitchburg, and since 1873 he has been a trustee and one of the board of invest- ment of the Winchendon Savings Bank. He was a member of the House of Representatives 1877-79-83, and was assigned to important committees, including those of finance and insurance. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been a member of Artisan Lodge, F. A. M., since its charter (1865), and has been W. M. three years.

Mr. Clark is a man of keen perception and ready judgment, and while he thinks quickly he acts cau- tiously. His qualities are eminently practical, and his resources are at his command. His success in business has not been the fruit of hazardous enter- prise, nor the result of fortuitous circumstances. From the beginning he aims at well-defined results, and he has the force of character and executive ability to attain them. With such industry and qualities of mind he would have been cqually successful in any other calling. Frank and direct in his habits of speech and condnet, his convictions are well defined and are always attended with the courage of expres- sion. In his relations with his fellow-men, he is affa- ble, kind and attentive to the demands of society and of friendship. The achievements of his life and the esteem of his associates, which has never been with- held, are the legitimate rewards of a commendable ambition and an honorable conduct.

In his domestic relations Mr. Clark has been fortu- nate and happy. He married, February 3, 1864, Mary C. Merrill, an accomplished daughter of Nathaniel and Caroline W. (Harris) Merrill, of Belfast, Maine. They have three children : Murdock Merrill, born December 9, 1867 ; Mary Wilder, born June 11, 1873, and Maurice Leonard, born July 13, 1875.

OZRO HANCOCK.

Hezekiah Hancock, the grandfather of Ozro Han- cock, the subject of this sketch, lived in Templeton, and died March 24, 1828, at the age of eighty years. His wife, Martha Hancock, died December 16, 1820, at the age of sixty-six. Their children were James, Jonas, Patty Levina, Chloe, Alma, Rufus, Hezekiah, John, Artemas, Hepzibah and Olive Richardson. Rufus Hancock, son of Hezekiah, was born in Win- chendon, August 21, 1780, and married Sally, daugh- ter of Samuel Bacon, September 19, 1802. His chil- dren were Benjamin Franklin; Hannah, born in Templeton, November 25, 1803; William Martin, horn in Harrisburg, Pa., March 16, 1806; Artemas, August 13, 1809, and Ozro, January 10, 1812. Rufus, the father, died April 1, 1821.

Ozro Hancock, the subject of this sketch, was born January 10, 1812, as above stated in that part of Templeton now called Baldwinsville. He attended he lower grade schools in that town and one term

at the High School. He left school at the early age of nine years, and served an apprenticeship with Peter Pierce, of Templeton, in the business of chair- making, remaining with him until he was twenty- two years of age. After that time he worked with several different persons in the same business until 1838, when he connected himself with his cousin, Moses Hancock, son of his Uncle John, in the manu- facture of pails at Waterville, on that part of Mil- ler's River about a mile and a half below the central village of Winchendon. During his connection with his cousin, which continued two or three years, the business was carried on on leascd premises. After he began business alone, about the year 1842, he built a factory of his own, and continued until 1887 in the manufacture of pail ears and fixings. 1n 1887 he sold or transferred his business to his son, John, who has added to his product butts and hinges and other small articles of hardware. By faithful appli- cation to business in his younger days, by strict adherence to good principles, and by frugality and skillful management, Mr. Ozro Hancock has made himself what he is, and risen from slender means to a comfortable competency. He is one of those men who, no matter what may be said about the natural depravity of man, illustrate, on the other hand, the elastic and rising tendency of human nature,-a ten- dency which, without direct and positive hindrances, must have its way. They illustrate, too, the oppor- tunities which the free and elevating influences of our institutions afford to the honest, faithful man to occupy a higher station in life. They increase our respect for man as a man severed from all the adven- titious aids and circumstances of life. They are the most effective examples to youth,-living examples of what youth, with uncorrupted morals and a deter- mined will, can accomplish in the race of life.

Mr. Hancock married, November 26, 1846, Sarah, a daughter of William Brooks, of Winchendon, and has two children,-John, his successor in business, who married Mary Allen, of Woburn, and Flora Jane, who married George F. Brown, of Alstead, N. H. He is a Unitarian in religion and Republi- can in politics, less inclined, however, to be confined within the limits of any theological creed than to rigidly adhere to the principles of his party. He is now at the age of seventy-six, in retirement from business, after sixty-seven years of work, enjoying the comforts of home and a happiness well earned.

MORTON E. CONVERSE.

The name of Converse is of French origin and is derived from Coigniers. An early seat of the family was in Navarre, France, from whence Roger de Coig- niers emigrated to England in the eleventh century, and during the reign of William the Conqueror. To him the Bishop of Durham gave the constableship of Durham, and among his descendants Conyers, of Hord-

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en, Durham, was created a baronet July 14, 1628. In the line of descent, Sir Humphrey, the eighth genera- tion, wrote the name Coigners, and Sir Christopher, the twelfth generation, adopted the orthography of Conyers. In Navarre, in the sixteenth century, the seat of a family of this name was styled the Chateau de Coigniers, and families bearing the name in France were Huguenots. In the massacre on Saint Bartholo- mew's Day, in 1572, many of the family fell victims to the rage of the Papists. Pierre Coigniers, who was attached to the court of Henry of Navarre, having witnessed the assassination of his kinsman, Admiral Coligny, escaped with his wife and two infant chil- dren to England. He settled in the County of Essex, where a son married a lady of considerable possessions in that and an adjoining county. Ralph, a son of this marriage, was created a baronet by Charles II. In time, corresponding to the pronunciation, the name became fixed as Conyers, and sometimes by the change of a single letter, as Convers. The coat of arms of Coigniers, Conyers and Converse is substantially the same.

I. Edward Convers, the emigrant ancestor, born 1589, settled in Charlestown, 1629 or 1630. In 1631 he received a grant of the ferry from Charlestown to Boston, of which, under the favor of the General Court, he had the control several years. The same year he was admitted freeman, and he was a select- man of Charlestown, 1635 to 1640. His name is first of the seven commissioners appointed by the church in Charlestown to effect the settlement of Woburn. He removed to the new town and became one of its most useful and honored citizens. He was a select- man of Woburn from 1644 until his death, and for several years one of the board of commissioners for the trial of minor causes. He was a member of the First Church, Boston, 1630, an original member of the First Church, Charlestown, 1632, and the First Church, Woburn, 1642; of the latter church he was one of the first two deacons. His homestead is now within the town of Winchester, where he died August 10, 1663. The name of his wife was Sarah, who died January 14, 1661-62; he married (2) September 9, 1662, Joanna (Corbin) Sprague, widow of Ralph Sprague. The children of Dea. Edward and Sarah Convers were James, Josiah, Samuel and Mary.

II. James Convers, born in England, 1620, came to America with his father, Dea. Edward Convers. In the records he is styled ensign. He married, October 24, 1643, Anna Long, born 1625, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Long, of Charlestown. He lived in Woburn, where he died May 10, 1715. "Through a long life he was a very valuable and highly esteemed citizen, and was repeatedly honored by the town with the principal offices which it had to confer."

III. Major James Convers, eldest of the ten children of Ensign James Convers, was born in Woburn, Oc- tober 16, 1645, and died July 8, 1706. He was prom- inent in military affairs, and for his gallant defence

of Storer's Garrison, in 1691, he was promoted to major. He was ten years a member of the General Court and three times elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. He married, January, 1, 1668-69, Hannah Carter, born January 19, 1650-51, daughter of Capt. John and Elizabeth Carter, of Woburn. They had nine children, four of whom died in infancy.

IV. John Convers, son of Major James Convers, was born in Woburn, August 22, 1673. He married, May 22, 1699, Abigail Sawyer, born March 17, 1679, daughter of Joshua Sawyer, of Woburn. He died in Woburn, January 6, 1707-08; his widow married, November 29. 1720, John Vinton.

V. Joshua Convers, son of John Convers, was born in Woburn, June 3, 1704. He removed to Dunstable where he married, July 31, 1729, Rachel Blanchard, born March 23, 1712, daughter of Joseph and Abiah (Hassell) Blanchard, and a sister of Joseph Blanchard, an agent of the Masonian proprietors. In 1729 he removed to Naticook (now Merrimack), N. H. He was there a prominent citizen, and was frequently elected to office. In 1744 he was drowned in the Mer- rimack River.

VI. Zebulon Converse, son of Joshua, was born March 21, 1744, the year his father was drowned. He married, 1773, Sarah Merriam, born October 10, 1753, daughter of Nathaniel and Olive (Wheeler) Merriam, of Bedford, Mass. Previous to the Revolution he re- moved to Rindge, N. H., where he died, November 10, 1805; his wife died the twenty-eighth of the same month.

VII. Joshua Converse, Esq., the fifth of the eleven children of Zebulon Converse, was born in Rindge, April 23, 1781. He was a farmer in his native town and a successful manufacturer of lumber and wood- en-ware. Possessing a strong mind and manifesting an earnest solicitude for the public good, his services were frequently sought by his townsmen. He was a representative, a delegate to the Constitutional Con- vention of 1850, and a selectman seventeen years. He married, May 6, 1808, Polly Piper, born February 13, 1791, danghter of Thomas and Hepsibeth (Jewett) Piper, and a granddaughter of Ezekiel and Hannah (Platts) Jewett. She died February 7, 1840; he mar- ried (2) May 20, 1841, Polly Kimball, born September 25, 1789, daughter of William and Abigail (Hamlet) Kimball, of Rindge. He died November 1, 1862; his widow died September 10, 1866.

VIII. Capt. Ebenezer H. Converse, son of Joshua Converse, Esq., was born in Rindge, November 14, 1811. He resides in Rindge. He was a captain in the Sixth New Hampshire Volunteers, and was in the service in the Burnside expedition to North Carolina. He married, October 8, 1835, Sarah Darling, of Winch- endon, who died July 10, 1875. The marriage cere mony was performed by Rev. Daniel O. Morton, the father of Vice-President Morton, and in his memory the subject of this sketch derives a name. Mrs. Sarah (Darling) Converse was a daughter of Jewett B. and

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 45

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