USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 47
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in 1858, he became foreman in the Industrial Works of Bement & Dougherty in Philadelphia for two years. Then, returning to Lowell, he worked in the Lowell Machine Shop until 1865, when, promoted to a fore- man's place, he entered upon the fulfilment of important duties for a fourteen years' term. In 1879 Mr. Hildreth was elected to the position he now holds. Mr. Hildreth is a quiet, reserved man, but he has a cordial address and broad sympathies, and is possessed of sound judg- ment and firm pur- pose, and as the head of Lowell's most important corpora- tion he has the respect of his thou- sands of employees, and the confidence of the entire com- munity. Mr. Hil- dreth dislikes osten- tation, and has left public and political life almost entirely alone, although front 1868 to 1871 he served on the alder- manic board, and contributed much to the city's welfare. He takes a great interest in the be- nevolent institutions of the city, but his principal attention has been given to the Middlesex Me- chanics' Association, an institution which, as its name implies, was organized by mechanics early in the city's history, to afford educa- tional facilities to the thousands of mill operatives. In furthering the ends of the association, through its library and lyceum, Mr. Hildreth has given time and thought, and to the accomplishment of its objects no one is en- titled to more credit than he. As the manager of a great machine works Mr. Hildreth is conversant with the minntest details, and to his knowledge perhaps is due the great variety of machinery mannfactured.
CHARLES L. HILDRETH.
373
LOWELL.
JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS was one of the greatest of American civil engineers, and one who did more in making Lowell's history than any other man. To his great genius and wonderful achievement is due the high position the City of Spindles now holds in the manufacturing and commercial circles of the country and of the whole world. Mr. Francis' death, which occurred in September, 1892, was a loss to the whole world, and it was particularly felt in Lowell, where every page of its history for a half century is linked with his name. Mr. Francis was born in Southleigh, Ox- fordshire, England, May 18, 1815, his father at the time be- ing superintendent of the Dufferyn, Llynwi & Porth Cawl Rail- way in South Wales. He early received a training for what was to be his life's work, as at fourteen years of age he became an engineer upon the harbor works of Porth Cawl, and subse- quently on the Great Western Canal. He came to America at the age of eighteen years, and went to work on railways. He attracted the at- tention of George W. Whistler, the dis- tinguished engineer, in the surveys for the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad. A year later Mr. Whistler came to Lowell to build locomotives and to superintend extensive hydraulic works for the Locks and Canal Company, a corporation controlling the water power of the Merrimack River. Mr. Francis also came to Lowell, and in 1837 was appointed chief engineer. In 1845 he was chosen agent, in addition to his other office, and for fifty years he filled both posi- tions. The corporation refused to accept his resigna-
JAMES B' FRANCIS.
tion, but made him consulting engineer and appointed his son, Colonel James Francis, agent and engineer. During the half century of service, Mr. Francis had entire control of the immense water power at Lowell, and he undertook the great hydraulic improvements which have made the city a great manufacturing centre. Many of these operations were original and on a grand scale, and as a result came the volume " Lowell Hydrau- lic Experiments " in 1858, and republished in 1868 and 1883, and recognized as an authority by the engineers of two continents. Mr. Francis was regarded as the founder of a new school of hy- draulic engineering, and wherever great interests were at stake in connection with hydraulics, his ser- vices were de- manded. Two great monuments to his foresight and skill are the Northern Canal, constructed in 1846, a work of such massive strength and such perfection of ex- ecution that it will be admired for ages, and the "Guard Locks" of the Pawtucket canal, constructed in 1850 to save the city from inunda- tion, and which, in 1852, did save the city from destruction by a freshet. Mr. Francis was a member of the principal European and American societies devoted to the devel- opment of the mechanic arts and sciences. He was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1852, and served as president from ISSo to 1882. He was chairman of the commission to ex- amine and report upon the condition of the dam and to explain the cause of the terrible Johnstown disaster. He left a widow and two sons.
374
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
C OLONEL ALBERT A. HAGGETT, ex-postmaster of Lowell, is perhaps without a single exception more familiarly known in social and political circles than any other citizen. He surely is the most prominent Democrat of the city, a Democrat by conviction and ac- tion. He was born in Lowell in 1839, and was edu- cated in the public schools, graduating from the Moody Grammar and the high schools, and at the age of fifteen years entering the counting-room of the Middlesex Manu- facturing Company as a " runner." Already Colonel Haggett has covered a period of service of nearly forty years with this com- pany, for he is now the paymaster, a posi- tion reached by close attention to his du- ties and promotion step by step. He has been in political life to a certain extent since 1868, but his Democratic tenden- cies date back to the years when his minor- ity prevented his ex- ercising the right of suffrage. Indeed, he was a Democrat in his early days when it required a great (leal of back bone to hold out against the Republican majority. He began to attract attention as a politi- cian and a sturdy Democrat by acting as an inspector of elections in Ward Six, and afterwards as clerk and warden in Ward Three. Then in 1868, 1869 and 1870 he was sent to the Common Council by Ward Six, and the last two years he served in the capacity of president, an honor which attested his popularity because it was a time of Republican admin- istrations. In 1871 he served on the Board of Alder- men, and in 1872 was elected a director of the City Library, this institution not being free at that time. In
ALBERT A. HAGGETT.
1873 he was again sent to the Council, serving as presi- dent, in 1874 again being returned to the City Library directory, and in 1875 returning as president of the Council, and in 1876 again wearing aldermanic honors. In 1869 he was on the special committee chosen to build the city water works, and in 1875 he was placed on the Water Board, the interim being the years in which he served in other branches of the city govern- ment. In 1878 he was elected to the Water Board, and chosen president, an office which he held until 1885. His rank of "colonel " comes from his commission on Governor Gas- ton's staff in 1875. In 1883 Colonel Haggett was ap- pointed by Governor Butler as a member of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity. In October, 1885, he was ap- pointed by President Cleveland postmas- ter of Lowell, and served until Feb. 28, 1890. In April, 1891, Mayor Fifield nom- inated him as City H all commissioner, to fill a vacancy in the commission caused by the resig- nation of Mr. James B. Francis, a position which he still fills in an acceptable manner. For years he was chairman of the Democratic City Committee, a member of the State Central Committee, and in 1876 and 1880 a delegate to the National Democratie Con- vention. In minor honors he has been particularly favored, and in 1892 once more served as chairman on the Board of Aldermen, elected from the city at large. In social circles he is welcomed, as he is a ready talker and especially clever at repartee. He is connected with the Masonic and Elk orders.
375
LOWELL.
C OLONEL JAMES WILLIAM BENNETT, super- visor of construction on the Lowell Federal Building now in process of erection, is probably one of the best known of Lowell's citizens. He was born in Newmarket, N. H., March 21, 1833, and came to Lowell at the age of fifteen, binding himself to his uncle, Abram Matthews, to learn the carpenter's trade. During his life in the country Mr. Bennett had little opportunity to secure an education, as he only attended school sessions in the winter months. He went to the old Franklin School for three months, soon after engaging with his uncle. After a five years' appren- ticeship he worked as a journeyman for two years, and then his uncle admitted him to partnership. The first wages earned by the colonel were six dollars a month and board during his appren- ticeship. Colonel Bennett began busi- ness for himself on Aug. 17, 1858, when, with a few effects loaded upon a hand- cart, he took a shop on Middlesex Street, near his present es- tablishment, the part- nership with his uncle having come to an end by reason of the latter receiv- ing a position with the Lowell Bleachery Company. It was not long before Colonel Bennett's ability as a master mechanic, and the excellence and workmanlike nature of his building brought him to the attention of the rapidly growing city, and once his reputation was established, his success in life was assured. From that time to the present that reputation has been strength- ened and broadened, and the builder has become known throughout New England. Soon after, he added gravel
JAMES W. BENNETT.
roofing, and in 1881 he took into partnership his brother, George A. Bennett, and his son, Fred W. Ben- nett, under the firm name of J. W. Bennett & Co. Mr. Bennett's individuality, as well as his public spirit, early brought him into social and political favor with his fellow-townsmen, and while he never sought public office, he has been several times honored with it. Po- litically he was a Whig until that party fell, and then he became a Republican, a sturdy, faithful, hard-working member of the party. He represented his ward in the Common Council in 1876 and 1877, and was in the lower branch of the General Court in 1879 and 1880. In 1878 he was elected a water commis- sioner for a two years' term, and in 1880 was re-elected for an additional term. His title of "colonel" comes from his commission held for three years on Governor Ames's staff, as an assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of " colonel." He has been a president of the Erie Telephone Company, and is in the directory of two Lowell banks. So thoroughly identified with Lowell's inter- ests is Colonel Ben- nett that his opinion always carries with it weight. He was one of the chief promoters, and is one of the sub- stantial men of the Highland Club, which has a magnifi- cent club-house in the ward with which Colonel Bennett has so long been identified. Secretary of the Treasury Windom appointed him supervisor of the new Federal Building, now in process of construction. In the social, political and business circles of Lowell Colonel Bennett is highly esteemed and very popular.
376
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
J JEREMIAH CROWLEY, lawyer, was born in Lowell, Jan. 12, 1832. He was educated in the public schools, and at an early age went to work in the cotton factories, and later learned the machinist's trade with Aldrich, Calvert & Tyng. In 1857 he went to Nashua, and stayed there until December, 1860. While in that city Mr. Crowley pursued an educational course in an academy founded for the purpose of assist- ing young mechanics in securing an education. The sessions were held nightly, and it re- quired pluck and energy to spend an evening, after a hard day's work, in a school-room. In I 86 1 Mr. Crowley went to the war as a member of the Me- chanic Phalanx, Company C, Sixth Regiment (a com- pany still in exist- ence), and was in the march through Baltimore, Company C being one of the four companies pass- ing through the city. Mr. Crowley served until the regiment returned home, and was with General Butler at the Relay House and at the taking of Baltimore. After coming home he was offered a commission in the Thirtieth Massachu- setts Regiment, but was rejected for physical disability. He was also offered a commission in the Tenth New Hampshire Regiment, but was rejected for the same cause. He then went to work at the Watertown Arsenal until early in 1864, when he came to Lowell and entered the law office of the late John F. McEvoy. In 1868 Mr. Crowley was admitted to practise law at the bar, and that year he entered into partnership with Mr. McEvoy. The partnership lasted one year, Mr. Crowley
continuing to practise alone. In his practice he has become one of the best known and most successful of Lowell's lawyers. In politics Mr. Crowley is a Demo- crat. His first political office was that of councilman, in 1868 and 1869, from Ward Five, the ward in which he was born and in which he has always lived. In 1870 and 1871, 1873 and 1874, 1877 and 1878, 1884 and 1891 he was in the Board of Aldermen, serving eight times in the upper board. During his periods of service he was on every committee of the City Council, and thus he had a hand in some of the most important municipal improvements, of which the introduc- tion of city water is one. In 1882 Mr. Crowley was elected to the State Senate, defeating Hon. F. T. Greenhalge by five hundred votes, and the following year he was counted in for re-election and then counted out. He was twice nomi- nated for mayor and defeated. In 1888 he ran for the Senate against Hon. F. W. Howe, and although defeated, he pulled down a Republican majority of twelve hundred of the year before to eighty. Mr. Crowley has always been an active worker in the crusade against intemperance, and is known as a temperance speaker of much force. In 1848 he was instrumental in pro- moting temperance societies, and was a member of the Mathew Institute. Mr. Crowley has been a national delegate of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, president of the Lowell Benevolent Society, and president of the Sixth Regiment Association. Mr. Crowley belongs to B. F. Butler Post 42, G. A. R.
JEREMIAH_ CROWLEY.
CHELSE
C HELSEA, the "Queen City of the Commonwealth," has to-day a population of thirty thousand, ranks the thirteenth largest in the State, and is a prosperous and growing community. According to the national census of 1890 the population was 27,850. The Indian name of the place was Winnisimmet, and it was settled in 1630 by some of the good people who came to Massachusetts Bay with Governor John Winthrop. All the adjacent land was bought for a horn of powder, and to this day the highest elevation in the city limits is known as Powder Horn Hill. In 1632 it was ordered " that the neck of land betwixt Powder Horne Hill and Pullen Poynte shall belong to Boston," and two years later the General Court ordered " that Wynesemit shall belong to Boston." For more than a century Boston continued to exercise control over the settlements across the Mystic River, but in 1739, in consideration of having established and maintained a meeting-house, Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point, which included what is now Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop and part of Saugus, was set apart as the town of Chelsea, the name being given in honor of Chelsea in England. In 1846 Chelsea were divided, less than a third of the area being retained as Chelsea, while what is now Revere and Winthrop was set apart as North Chelsea. The division seemed to act as an invigorator, for Chelsea increased rapidly from a population of forty-three hun- dred in 1846 to twelve thousand, four hundred in 1857, and in the latter year it was incorporated.
The City Council consists of a mayor, a Board of Aldermen of eight members, and a Common Council of twenty members, all of whom, excepting the mayor, serve without pay. Elections are held annually, the mayor and aldermen being elected at large, and the councilmen by wards. With the exception of the School Committee all other city offices are filled either by appointment by the inayor, with the approval of the aldermen, or elected by concurrent vote of both branches of the City Council. The total debt of the city is $800,000, and the valua- tion of real and personal property, $22,000,000. The city is principally residential, but has many important manu- facturing industries, and in everything is closely allied with Boston, from which it is separated by the Mystic River and Chelsea Creek, and joined by three substantial bridges. By an arrangement made some years ago between Boston and Chelsea, each city cares exclusively for the affairs usually managed by county commissioners. Chelsea pays no county tax, all the expenses being borne by the city of Boston.
Numerous lines of street cars, a line of steam cars and a ferry connect Chelsea with surrounding cities and towns. The ferry is the oldest established in the country, dating from 1631, and has been operated continuously ever since. In Chelsea are located the United States Naval and Marine hospitals, and the Soldiers' Home of Massachusetts. The city has a General Hospital, the gift of Hon. Rufus S. Frost, which is maintained by popular subscription ; a public library of sixteen thousand volumes and pamphlets, the handsome and commodious build- ing being a gift to the city from Hon. Eustace C. Fitz. In the city are three Congregational, two Baptist and two Methodist Episcopal churches, and one each of the Universalist, Unitarian, Catholic, Free Baptist African Metho- dist Episcopal, Adventist and Episcopal denominations. The city has schools ranking second to none in the State, efficient fire and police departments, beautiful streets, complete water and sewerage systems, two parks, and an elaborate park system now under consideration. The financial institutions include two national banks, two savings banks and a co-operative bank. Of newspapers there are one daily and five weeklies. There are innu- merable social clubs and fraternal societies.
Manufactures are many and diversified. Rubber goods are the most important, the annual product being valued at three million dollars. Here are located the only wall-paper factory in New England ; the laboratory of the New England Vaccine Factory, the largest of its kind in the world, annually producing sufficient virus to vaccinate two million people; and here, also, is the largest lampblack factory in this part of the country. Some of the manufactured products are furnaces and stoves, hardware, art tiles, soda fountains, crockery, building and fire- proof brick, furniture, street cars, cordage, boots and shoes, whiting, oils and varnishes, fire hose, bluing, salt, ships, type, mattresses, clothing and machinery. Other important industries are iron and brass foundries, bleacheries, dye works, lithographic printing works and tanneries.
378
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
A LFRED COLLINS CONVERSE is the present mayor of Chelsea, and a member of the firm of Phelps, Dalton & Co., proprietors of the Dickinson Type Foundry. His connection with this foundry com- menced about thirty-eight years ago, upon his removal from New York, where he had learned matrix making in the type foundry of Hagar & Company. The connec- tion then formed has continued uninterruptedly as em- ployee and employer. Twenty-eight years ago he bought an interest in the company, taking charge of the manu- facturing depart- ment. He has seen the business in its small beginnings grow to such propor- tions as to make a market for its manu- factures in every part of the world. Its type is used wherever the Roman letter is read. The type used in this book is of their manufacture. Nine years ago, in connection with his nephew, Morton E. Converse, he estab- lished at Winchen- don, Mass., what is now the largest toy manufactory in the country. When Mr. Converse was still an employee of the Dickinson Type Foundry he became interested in the manufacture of fire-alarm apparatus, which he continued two years, selling out that business to purchase an inter- est in the type foundry. Mayor Converse is descended from an ancestry that came to this country from Eng- land in 1630 with Governor John Winthrop. The first ferryman to receive a grant from the General Court was Edward Converse, for a ferry between Boston and Charlestown, in 1631. Ten years later he was chairman of a commission of seven men appointed by the church
ALFRED C. CONVERSE.
for effecting the settlement of the now prosperous city of Woburn. Several generations ago his ancestors moved to New Hampshire, and it was at Rindge, in that State, that Mr. Converse was born, March 17, 1827. His father was a large farmer, and a man much inter- ested in town affairs, being a selectman for seventeen years, a longer period than any other citizen of the town has served. Mayor Converse attended the district schools of his town, and the New Ipswich Academy. Until he was twenty- three years of age he worked on the farm and in his father's mills in summer, and taught school in the winter. He went to New York in 1850 and learned type founding. Mr. Con- verse moved to Chelsea in 1856. He served in the Common Council in 1877, being elected as a Republican, to which party he has always adhered. In 1889 he was elected to the Board of Al- dermen, and the year following was re-elected, both years receiving the popular vote of the city. In 1890 he was nominated for mayor, but failed of an election by 159 votes out of a total vote of 2,300. In 1891 he was again nominated, carrying the day by 762 majority, out of a total vote of 3,900. In 1892 he was unanimously renominated for the office. Mr. Converse was married, in 1855, to Miss Julia A. Woods, who died twelve years later. In 1869 he married Miss Hulda H. Mitchell, of East Boston. They have two children liv- ing, - Julia Luella, wife of De Witt Ramsay, of Madi- son, Wis., and Alfred Otis Converse. Mayor Converse's administration has been very successful.
379
CHELSEA.
RUFUS S. FROST is one of the best-known men in Massachusetts, through his long connection with religious, educational and charitable organizations, as well as through his public and business career. Mr. Frost was born in Marlborough, N. H., July 18, 1826. His father's ancestors came to this country in 1635 from England, and his mother's ancestors were settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640. At the age of seven years, Mr. Frost was bereft of his father, and then the mother and two youngest chil- dren left the farm in Marlborough and moved to Boston. Here Mr. Frost at- tended the public schools, later taking a supplementary course at Newton Academy. He secured a position in a wholesale dry goods house in Boston, and for the energy and ability manifested was admitted to part- nership at the age of twenty-one, the firm adopting the name of Osgood & Frost. In 1866 the present firm of Rufus S. Frost & Co. was formed for the trans- action of a general commission business in American goods. Mr. Frost is also president of the Haile & Frost Man- ufacturing Company, manufacturers of woollens, of which Lieutenant-Governor Haile is treasurer. Mr. Frost is president of the North National Bank of Boston ; and has been one of its directors for twenty-eight years. He was the second president of the National Association of Woollen Manufacturers, and is now chairman of its executive committee. For two years he was president of the Boston Board of Trade. When still a young man he moved to Chelsea, where he continues to reside. He
RUFUS S. FROST.
has received all the political honors within the city's gift. He has been councilman, alderman and mayor, a State senator, and a member of the governor's council. In 1874 he was elected to Congress and served on the committees on Railroads and Freedmen's Affairs. In 1892 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Minneapolis, which renominated Presi- dent Harrison. In 1890 Mr. Frost founded a hospital in Chelsea and presented it to the city, one of the conditions of the deed being that " no person shall ever be denied treatment on account of poverty, race or religion." Another condition was that patients should be permitted to be treated under any school of medi- cine they preferred. The hospital has been named by the trus- tees the Rufus S. Frost General Hos- pital. His native town of Marlborough, N. H., was presented in 1867 by him with a free public library building and two thousand volumes, and a trust fund of $5,000 for the pur- chase of books. Mr. Frost was for eight years president of the New England Conservatory of Mu- sic. He is now pres- ident of the American Congregational Association, and has been president of the Congregational Club of Boston, and of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospital. Mr. Frost has been twice married. By his first wife he had six children, five of whom are now living. His second marriage occurred in 1879, when he was united to Catherine Emily Wickham, of Corning, N. Y. She is one of the National Board of lady managers of the World's Fair.
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