USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 39
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FRANCIS A. HARRINGTON.
ments. He was chairman of the Sewer Committee when the purification works at Lake Quinsigamond were erected, and has followed closely the course of the experiments and large expenditures in this department ever since. In December, 1889, he was elected mayor, to succeed Hon. Samuel Winslow. He has since been twice re- elected. During his three years of incumbency of the office, some great improvements, involving great ex- penditures of money, have been made. Chief among them are the purifi- cation works, on which nearly two hundred thousand dollars have been expended ; the rais- ing of the Holden dam, at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, and the con- struction of the new English High School, at a cost of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He gave to the affairs of the city the same faithful attention that had won success in his private business, and his sound com- mon-sense and com- mercial sagacity and experience proved of the greatest value to the city in the large expenditures which were necessary dur- ing the years he was in the public service. His administrations of the office were singularly able and free from all re- proach. He was enabled to accomplish not a little in placing Worcester among the most progressive munici- palities of New England. The mayor is prominent in Masonic circles, and has held high offices in the order, as also in the Odd Fellows. He has been master of the Worcester Grange, and is deservedly popular in the order, as well as in the social, business and political life of the city.
310
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
H ENRY ALEXANDER MARSH, mayor of Wor- cester, was born in Southborough, Mass., Sept. 7, 1836, the son of Alexander and Maria (Fay) Marsh. The family moved to Worcester in 1849, and Mr. Marsh attended the public schools of Worcester during the three following years. In 1852 he entered the high school, which he soon left to continue his studies with the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, then pastor of the Church of the Unity in Worcester. In June, 1853, Mr. Marsh entered the employ of the Central Bank as clerk. He has since passed through all the grades in bank- ing service, and is now president of the bank, a position to which he was elected Jan. 12, 1892. Mr. Marsh's public ser- vice began in 1867, when he became a member of the Com- mon Council, and served two years. He was elected an alderman in 1878, and served four years, the last one as president of the board. Though fre- quently solicited to - take public office in other capacities than those named above, he always declined until, in 1892, the very general demand of the citizens per- suaded him to accept a nomination as mayor. He was elected in December, receiving the largest vote ever cast for a mayoralty can- dlidate in the history of the city. Mr. Marsh's business reputation and high character have led to his selection on numerous occasions for positions of trust. He has undoubtedly held more offices of a fiduciary nature than any other citizen of Worcester. In 1856 he was secre- tary and treasurer of the Worcester Lyceum and Library Association. From 1869 to 1875 he was a director of
HENRY A. MARSH.
the Free Public Library. He has been a trustee of the People's Savings Bank since 1869, and vice-president of the board since 1892. He was a commissioner of the sinking funds of the city in 1875 and 1876, and has served continuously in this capacity since 1882. Still other offices of trust are - trustee of the City Hospital in 1879 and since 1889, auditor of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company from 1880 to 1885, trustee of the Rural Cemetery Corporation in 1882, chairman of the Worcester Clearing House Association since 1884, commis- sioner of City Hospi- tal funds since 1888, member of the com- mittee to examine the accounts of the treas- urer of Harvard Col- lege, 1875 to 1877, director of the Asso- ciated Charities since 1890. Mr. Marsh has very fre- quently been se- lected as executor of estates. In this ca- pacity he settled the large estates of George Jaques, Lu- cins J. Knowles, Helen C. Knowles and William A. Den- holm. He has also been treasurer of public relief funds on many occasions, notably for the Irish, Michigan forest fire, Charleston earth- quake, yellow fever and Conemaugh Valley funds. Mr. Marsh married, Sept. 7, 1864, Emily W., daughter of John C. and Sarah Miles Mason. Three children have been born to them, of whom two daughters survive. Mr. Marsh is a member of the Worcester Club, the Quinsigamond Boat Club, and of the St. Wulstan Society, and is treasurer of the last-named organization. Few citizens of Worcester have been called to so many different positions of trust as Mr. Marsh, or have filled them so satisfactorily.
3II
WORCESTER.
STEPHEN SALISBURY, third of the name, was born in Worcester, March 31, 1835, the son of the sec- ond Stephen Salisbury and of Rebekah Scott (Dean) Salisbury. He left the Worcester High School in 1852, and entered Harvard College, from which he was grad- uated in the class of 1856. Going to Europe immedi- ately after graduation, he was matriculated at Frederick William University in Berlin, and remained in Europe more than two years, dividing his time between the Berlin University, the Ecole de Droit in Paris and travel, vis- iting different por- tions of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Continent, and also the less known countries of Greece and Turkey. Mr. Salisbury re- turned to Worcester in 1858 and studied law. He received the degree of LL. B. at Harvard in 1861, and was admitted to the Worcester bar. In the winter of 1861 Mr. Salisbury visited Yucatan, and passed six months studying the interesting In- dian remains of that country. The results of this and subse- quent visits and in- vestigations are em- bodied in several interesting contribu- tions to the transac- tions of the American Antiquarian Society. Mr. Salis- The Dean bury has been generous to his native city. and Salisbury buildings, the first apartment houses in Worcester constructed on the most modern plan, and numerous buildings for manufactories and for homes, have been erected by him. He has given to the city a ward at the City Hospital and the beautiful Institute Park, a pleasure ground of eighteen acres on the borders of Salisbury Pond. The land was graded and laid out,
and the various buildings thereon were erected at Mr. Salisbury's expense and under his personal supervision and direction. The Salisbury Laboratories at the Poly- technic Institute are another of his gifts. Mr. Salisbury was elected to the Common Council in 1863, 1865 and 1866. In the latter year he was president of the board. In 1892 he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate from the Worcester city district. He became a director of the Worcester National Bank in 1865, and its president on the death of his father, in 1884. He has been president of the Worcester County Institution for Sav- ings since 1882. He has been a director of the State Mutual Life Assurance Com- pany since 1863, and was a director of the Worcester, Nashua & Rochester and of the Boston, Barre & Gardner railroads until their absorption by the Boston & Maine and the Fitch- burg roads. He was a trustee of the City Hospital from its incorporation in 187 1 until 1889 and its secretary for seven- teen years, and he is also a trustee of the Washburn Memorial Hospital, and held the position of sec- retary for ten years. He was elected trustee of the 'Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1884, of Clark University in 1887, and treasurer since 1891, and of the Peabody Museum of Archæology in 1887. Mr. Salisbury is a member of the American Antiquarian Society, of which he has been president since 1887 ; American Geographical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Conservatorio Yucateco, and of the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica.
STEPHEN SALISBURY.
312
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
AMUEL SWETT GREEN was born in Worcester, part in the discussions of the meetings. He was chosen S Feb. 20, 1837. His father was James Green, son of the second Dr. John Green, of Worcester, and his mother is Elizabeth (Swett) Green. Mr. Green was
raduated from the Worcester High School in 1854, and from Harvard College in 1858. He was graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1864, and took the degree of master of arts at Harvard in 1870. After serving several years as book-keeper in the Mechanics' National Bank, and as teller in the Wor- cester National Bank, he became, in 1867, a director, and in 1871, librarian, of the Free Public Li- brary of Worcester. The latter position he still holds. The library has grown rap- idly in size and use- fulness under his care, and a remark- able feature respect- ing its use is the very large proportion of books that is em- ployed for study and purposes of refer- ence. Mr. Green is one of the distin- guished librarians of the country, and is an authority in re- spect to the nise of libraries as popular educational institu- tions, and in respect to the establishment of close relations be- tween libraries and schools. Mr. Green has held vari- ous offices in the American Library Association. Elected president of the association in 1891, he presided at the meetings held in San Francisco, Oct. 12-16 of that year. In May, 1892, he was chosen one of the original ten members of the new council of the association. He was a delegate of the association to the International Congress of Librarians, held in London in 1877, was a member of the council of that body, and took an active
SAMUEL S. GREEN.
an honorary member of the Library Association of Great Britain in 1878. In October, 1890, Mr. Green was appointed by the governor of Massachusetts an original member of the State Board of Free Public Library Commissioners. He is one of the founders of the Mas- sachusetts Library Club, and gave courses of lectures in the School of Library Economy when it was connected with Columbia College, New York City. He is a mem- ber of the Advisory Council of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition on a Con- gress of Librarians. Mr. Green is a Fel- low of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the coun- cil of the American Antiquarian Society, a member of the American Historical Association, of the New England His- toric Genealogical Society, of the Art Commission of the St. Wulstan Society and of the Sons of the Revolution. He is a trustee of Leices- ter Academy, and was recently presi- dent of the Worces- ter Art Society. Mr. Green has written constantly for the " Library Journal " since its establishment, and has made many contribu- tions to the proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. He has also contributed to other periodicals in the United States and England. He has written two books and several pamphlets on questions in library economy, and has prepared monographs which have been published by the Massachusetts Board of Educa- tion, the United States Bureau of Education and the American Social Science Association.
313
WORCESTER.
J OHN STANTON BALDWIN is at the head of one of the oldest institutions in the country, - the Worcester Spy, one of the very few American news- papers which antedate the Revolution, and have had a consecutive history since that time. The first num- ber of the Spy was printed experimentally in Boston in July, 1770, at the office of the veteran printer Zechariah Fowle, with whom Isaiah Thomas had that year entered into partnership. The next year the paper passed entirely into Mr. Thomas's hands. In 1775 the atmosphere of Boston grew too hot for a journal of the revolu- tionary character of the Spy, and the press (still preserved at the hall of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester) and types were smuggled across Charles River, and thence, the day after the Battle of Lex- ington, to Worcester, where the paper has since been regularly published. A com- plete file covering one hundred and twenty- two years may be seen at the Antiquarian Hall. After the death of Isaiah Thomas the paper was for thirty-five years edited by John Mil- ton Earle, who be- gan the daily issue in 1845. Mr. Earle was a pioneer and leader in the free-soil movement. He was succeeded by John D. Baldwin, who with his sons, John S. and Charles C., assumed control of the paper in 1859. Mr. Baldwin was also an anti-slavery pioneer. He was a member of Congress and an author of note, two of his volumes, " Pre-Historic Nations" and "Ancient America," having taken their place as standard works. He died in 1883. John S. Baldwin, the present editor and chief owner of the Spy,
was born in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 6, 1834. He was educated in the Connecticut schools, learning the printer's trade while he was passing through the several grades, and fitting for Yale College at the Hartford High School. At this time all his hours not spent in school, from break of day till evening, were given to the print- ing-office. Disappointed in his desire to enter college, for he was a poor boy and could not afford it, he pre- pared himself for the work of teaching, graduating with high honors at the State Normal School. On the recommenda- tion of the principal, D. N. Camp, after- wards Connecticut's commissioner of ed- ucation, he was ap- pointed principal of a large school but declined the offer, for he was called to Boston to take charge of the busi- ness of. the Daily Commonwealth, of which his father was the editor. During the exciting] years which followed he was in close contact with some of the most famous men of Massachusetts, w ho made that office their headquarters. Among them were Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Theodore Parker, Richard H. Dana, John A. Andrew, Anson Burlingame, Richard Hildreth, W. S. Robinson, William Claflin, Robert Carter, and many others of note. Mr. Bald- win's life in Worcester has been devoted to his paper. He has never sought public office, though he has served in the City Council, the School Board and the Legisla- ture. He was an officer in the Union Army, going out in command of a company in the Fifty-first Regiment, which he raised at the request of Governor Andrew.
JOHN S. BALDWIN.
314
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
E DWARD AUGUSTUS GOODNOW was born in Princeton, Mass., July 16, 1810. His parents, Edward and Rebecca (Beaman) Goodnow, kept the tavern in Princeton, and Mr. Goodnow's early training was in the labors of the tavern and the farm attached to it, with the limited educational facilities of the district school, eked out by three terms at Hadley Academy. At the age of nineteen he entered the employ of his brother in the village store, and later entered into partnership with him
in the enterprise. He afterward entered upon the manufac- ture of shoes in Princeton, but in 1 847 sold out his business and left the village for wider fields. After one or two ventures without marked success, one in a cutlery establish- ment in Shelburne Falls and another in manufacturing in New York, he came to Worcester and bought a small retail shoe store. In four years he disposed of the retail department and devoted his attention to the broader and more lucrative field of a jobbing house, the first exclusively job- bing honse ever started in Worcester. In ten years he was doing a business of $400,000. When the war broke out he joined heartily in the movement to save the Union, giving liberally to various causes to help the Govern- ment. He invested largely in government bonds, and when the national banking law was passed anticipated the local State banks in acceptance of the situation, by organizing a new banking institution which secured the name of the First National Bank of Worcester. He gave up his business at the close of the war and devoted
EDWARD A. GOODNOW,
his attention to the bank, of which he became presi- dent, an office which he still holds. Mr. Goodnow encouraged the clerks in his employ to enlist for the war, and thirteen of his employees enlisted at different times. When the movement for arming colored troops was started he headed a subscription with $500 to aid in the equipment of the first regiment. Mr. Goodnow has been a liberal giver of his wealth. He gave to Iowa College, $15,500 ; to the Huguenot Seminary in South Africa, $15,000; to Washburn College, Kansas, $5,000; to the Young Women's Christian Associa- tion of Worcester, $26,000, of which $9,000 was devoted to finishing and fur- nishing a hall in the building called the Memorial Hall, in memory of his wife. Her portrait was solicited for the hall. He has also estab- lished scholarships in Mt. Holyoke College, Northfield Seminary, Wellesley College, Iowa College, Huge- not Seminary, South Africa, and Hampton Institute, Virginia. Over fifty girls are receiving aid in these varions institutions from funds furnished by Mr. Goodnow. He gave to his na- tive town $40,000, of which $3,000 was toward the erection of a new town hall, and the rest for the building and endowment of a free public library and reading-room and a grammar school. Mr. Goodnow has been married three times. His first wife was Harriet, daughter of Dr. Henry Bagg, of Princeton, and at her decease he married her sister Mary. After the death of the latter he married Cather- ine Bowman Caldwell, eldest daughter of Seth Caldwell, of Barre.
315
WORCESTER.
S AMUEL WINSLOW, son of Eleazer R. and Ann Corbett Winslow, was born in Newton, Mass., Feb. 28, 1827. He received a common-school educa- tion in the schools of that town, after which he went to work for a local establishment engaged in the manufac- ture of cotton machinery. He displayed great ingenuity and mechanical skill, and at the age of twenty was fore- man of the machine shop in which he had learned his trade. He moved to Worcester in 1855, and in com- pany with his brother, Seth C. Winslow, started a machine shop. Two years later they began the manufacture of skates. They re- mained in company until the death of Seth C., in 1871, after which Samuel Winslow carried on alone a constantly in- creasing business until 1886, when he was succeeded by The Samuel Winslow Skate Company, of which Mr. Winslow became president and treasurer, posi- tions which he still holds. This corpo- ration is the most extensive manufac- tory of ice and roller skates in the world, and will probably stand for all time as a monument to the perseverance and industry of its present president and treasurer. Before Mr. Winslow came to Worcester, he served as a member of the prudential committee of the school committee of Newton Upper Falls, Mass. He was a member of the Worcester Common Council in 1864 and 1865, and afterward represented the Tenth Worcester District in €
the Massachusetts Legislature in the years 1873 and 1874. In 1884 he was elected alderman to fill an unex- pired term of one year, and in December, 1885, was
elected mayor of the city, a position which he held for a term of four successive years. Mr. Winslow was a trustee of the Worcester County Mechanics' Association in 1868. He was vice-president in 1884 and 1885, and president in 1886. In December, 1888, Mr. Winslow became a director of the Citizens' National Bank, and in 1889 was made president of the board, an office which he still holds. In the same year he became a trustee of the People's Savings Bank. He took an active part in the introduction of elec- tric lighting into the city of Worcester, and was one of the original stockhold- ers of the Worcester Electric Light Com- pany, with which he was continually con- nected as a director until early in the year 1892. He was the promulgator of the Worcester, Leicester & Spencer Electric Street Rail- way, which, with its thirteen and one-half miles of track, has, until recently, en- joyed the distinction of being the longest continuous elec- tric railway operated from one power sta- tion in the world. Mr. Winslow was ac- tive in the incorpo- ration of the com- pany, and on its organization became its president, an office which he still holds. He was also among the promoters of the organization of the Worcester & Millbury Electric Rail- way, which is now in operation, and of which he is pres- ident. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1892. Mr. Winslow was married in Newton, in 1848, to Mary, daughter of David and Lydia Robbins. They have two sons, Frank Ellery and Samuel Ellsworth Winslow.
SAMUEL WINSLOW.
316
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
C HARLES B. PRATT was born in Lancaster, Mass., Feb. 14, 1824. His early years were passed in a hard struggle for a livelihood, for the poverty of his parents compelled him to seek work at the early age of nine years. He worked in a cotton mill in Fitchburg for three years, and then wandered to Rochester, N. Y., where he became apprentice to a moulder. He secured a release from his apprenticeship after a year to enter, at fourteen years, the dangerous employment of sub- marine diving. At twenty he had thor- oughly learned the business and had saved a large portion of his wages. He then came to Wor- cester and finished his time as a moulder in the old Wheeler foundry. Seven years later Mr. Pratt went into the submarine business on his own account, and pursued it with success for twenty years, under- taking in that time a number of important and hazardous opera- tions on the coast and among the Great Lakes. He retired in 1871 to devote himself to his private interests in Worces- ter, where he had in- vested the profits of his business, and where in the inter- vals of his sub - marine work he had been city marshal in 1863, 1864 and 1865. His business talents quickly found occupa- tion. He had invested in the First National Bank on its organization, and has been one of its directors from the beginning. He became president of the First National Fire Insurance Company in 1872, and was for years its sole manager. He was the first president of the Worcester Protective Department, and continues to hold the position. He is also a trustee of the Worcester
CHARLES B. PRATT.
County Institution for Savings. Mr. Pratt was president of the Worcester Agricultural Society for sixteen years, and was active in bringing about the combined exhibi- tions of the New England and the Worcester societies. He pushed the project of horse-car lines to the fair grounds, and organized the Citizens' Street Railway Company in 1886. The following year a combination was effected with the old company, and Mr. Pratt has since been president of the consolidated company. He was an original director in the Wor- cester Theatre Cor- poration, and also in the Bay State House Corporation. Mr. Pratt has attained the thirty - second degree in Masonry. He is a member of Worcester County Commandery of Knights Templar, and is also a mem- ber of various Odd Fellow and Pythian organizations. Mr. Pratt has served in both branches of the City Council and in both branches of the Legislature. He was elected mayor in 1876, and was re- elected in 1877 and 1878. During his occupancy of the office of mayor were effected the settle- ment of the claims for the bursting of the Lynde Brook dam, the construction of the Foster Street extension and of the "Big Sewer" to Quinsiga- mond, the three operations involving the expenditure of half a million dollars. The city debt, however, was increased but $50,000, and the tax rate kept below $15. Mr. Pratt was State senator in 1883. He continues to serve the city as an overseer of the poor and as com- missioner of the Jaques (City Hospital) Fund. Mr. Pratt married, in 1844, Lucy Ann Brewer.
317
WORCESTER.
H. H. BIGELOW was born in Marlboro, Mass., June 2, 1827, the fifth son of Levi and Nancy Ames Bigelow. Mr. Bigelow received a common-school education in the public schools of Marlboro, but at the age of fifteen applied himself to learning the shoe- maker's trade. He had always shown a taste for me- chanics, and at an early age displayed inventive talent. He devised an arrangement for making meat skewers when but a boy, such articles having formerly been whittled out by hand. In 1847 he began to manufacture shoes in Marlboro, and three years later went to New York and made brogans in company with his uncle, Charles D. Bigelow. He returned to Marl- boro in 1854, and then after three years of building, farm- ing and speculating, went to Albany, N. Y., and continued the shoe manufacture, employing convict labor in the peniten- tiary. He subse - quently employed convicts in Provi - dence, R. I., and at Trenton, N. J., using the latter in the manufacture of army shoes in the early years of the war. Among labor-saving devices of Mr. Bige- low's invention made during the years last mentioned, were a gang punch, an improvement in pegging machines which substituted a knife for the saw to cut the pegs, and channeling and heel trimming machines. Mr. Bigelow came to Worces- ter in 1863 as superintendent for Bigelow & Trask, a firm which was afterwards absorbed by the Bay State Shoe and Leather Company. Mr. Bigelow became a large owner of stock in this corporation, and its manager. In 1869, Mr. Bigelow invented the Bigelow heeling ma-
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