USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts of today; a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago > Part 76
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598
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
B. MARVIN FERNALD was born in Great Falls, N. H., Feb. 14, 1847. He was prepared for college at Phillips Acadamy, Exeter, N. H., after which he entered Harvard College and was graduated in the class of 1870. He soon after decided to become a member of the legal profession, and with this object in view he entered the law office of Judge Joseph F. Wig- gin and was admitted to the bar in 1873. A partner- ship was very soon formed, and the firm became Wiggin & Fernald, and they are still in partner- ship and do an ex- tensive business, having an office on State Street, Boston. In 1874 Mr. Fernald was married to Miss Grace Fuller, daugh- ter of Richard F. Fuller, of Boston, and they have one child, a daughter of fifteen. Mr. Fernald moved to Melrose in 1875 and began to take an active inter- est in everything that pertained to the wel- fare and prosperity of the town. He has frequently been urged to accept office in the town, but has declined because he wished to devote his whole time to his business. Being, however, an ardent Republican in poli- tics, he was naturally forced to serve the town as chairman of the Republican Town Committee, and he was for two years a member of the State Central Committee. Hle was elected to the Legislature in 1881 and 1882 and was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He was also a chair- man of the Committee on 'Taxation, and he framed the bill which exempts from double taxation mortgages on real estate. This measure was of vast importance to property holders. During the following ten years he
held no political office, but when it again became the right of the town to name a candidate for State senator, the Republicans of Melrose were of one mind and heart in selecting Mr. Fernald, and he received the unani- mous nomination at the Senatorial Convention. He was elected by a large majority. He served in the Senate in 1891 and 1892, and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, one of the most important com- mittees of the Legislature. He was also made chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, the Committee on Public Reservations a n d the Committee on Insolvency. He is now chairman of the committee appointed to revise the judicial system of the Com- monwealth, which committee is to make its report to the next legislature. Mr. Fernald is connected with many of the social organizations of Melrose, being a member of the Hugh de Payens Com- mandery, Knights Templar, the Waverly Royal Arch Chapter, the Wyo- ming Lodge and the Melrose Council. Hle is also a member of the Melrose Ath- letic Club and the Highlands Club, two very popular organizations of the town. He is a mem- ber of the Congregational church. Quiet and retiring in his disposition, he cares little for notoriety, and the public offices he has held were not of his own seek- ing. His ability and prudence as a legislator have won the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and his services will probably be sought for in the future in some honored capacity, for the mass of work which he has done for his district is the kind which practical men appreciate.
B. MARVIN FERNALD.
599
MELROSE.
L EVI SWANTON GOULD, son of Dr. Levi Gould and Elizabeth Webb (Whitmore) Gould, was born at Dixmont, Me., March 27, 1834. His ancestors were John Gould, an inhabitant of Charlestown in 1635, probably the first settler of Stoneham, Mass., and Fran- ces Whitmore, ancestor of the Whitmore and Wetmore families, who was one of the earliest selectmen of Cam- bridge, and who died there in 1685. When he was six months old the parents of Levi S. Gould moved to Stoneham, Mass., the native place of his father, and in 1843 the family settled at North Malden, now Melrose, where it has since resided. He was educated in the public schools of North Malden, and at Waitt's and In- galls' academies in Melrose. Early in life Mr. Gould learned the shoe- making trade, and worked at the bench in North Malden, where, according to the custom of the time, he would make up a lot of shoes, pack them in a bag purchased for the purpose, carry them on his back to Stone- ham, two miles away, receive his pay and a new lot of stock, and return for an- other season of work. In 1850 he obtained a position in a wholesale house in Boston, and in 1857 was a clerk with Alexander Leitch, a prominent druggist in St. Louis. When Lincoln was elected President Mr. Gould received an appointment in the office of the secretary of the treasury at Wash- ington, and was later in the navy agent's office in Bos- ton. In 1866 he became connected with F. M. Holmes & Co., furniture manufacturers of Boston, and in 1878 became junior partner. He retired in 1889, since which
LEVI S. GOULD.
time he has not been in active business. During the sessions of 1868 and 1869, Mr. Gould was representative in the General Court, the district including Melrose, Wakefield and Stoneham. He was first elected select- man of Melrose in 1869, and he has been chairman of the board since 1884. Seventy times he has been elected moderator of town meetings, which, together with the adjournments, make one hundred and thirty- one meetings over which he has presided. He has been four times wor- shipful master of Wyoming Lodge, F. and A. M., of Melrose, and is con- nected with the Chapter Command- ery of Hugh de Pay- ens and Consistory, thirty-second degree. Mr. Gould was presi- dent of the New England Furniture Exchange in 1883 and 1884, and of the Furniture Club of Boston in 1886, and was for six years a member of the Bos- ton Executive Busi- ness Men's Associ- ation as a delegate from the New Eng- land Furniture Club. He is also a director of the Melrose Na- tional Bank. Mr. Gould has resided in Melrose for the past forty years, where he has always been known as an earnest Republican politician. On his six- tieth election as moderator, in November, 1890, his fellow-citizens, in town meeting assembled, unanimously passed a highly complimentary set of resolutions, and presented him with a silver pitcher and a beautiful gold badge, to be worn on all public occasions. Mr. Gould is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, his great-grandfather having been a minute-man at Lexington.
600
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
D ANIEL RUSSELL, son of Daniel and Mary W. Russell, was born in Providence, R. I., July 16, 1824. Educated in the public schools of Providence, at the age of seventeen he began life on his own behalf as a mechanic. For three years he served a very ardu- ous apprenticeship at one branch of the carriage manu- facturing business in his native city, and after graduating from this practical kind of school he labored in the same place and at Middleborough, Mass., as a journey- man for the term of four years. At the end of this time (1847), accompa- nied by a fellow work- man, he moved to Boston and began the business of selling small wares by sam- ple. Two years later he determined to go to California, but the Hon. Nathan Porter offered him employ- ment in Providence which was a certainty and also attractive. Therefore he re- turned there and re- mained for two years. Once more moving to Boston, in 1852, he entered the em- ploy of Edward Locke & Co., clothiers, and three years later he became connected with the wholesale clothing house of Isaac Fenno & Co. He was made a mem- ber of this firm in 1861, and in 1869 he retired from business, having secured a comfortable competency. Mr. Russell became a resident of Melrose in 1852, and has ever since been closely identified with the material and moral growth of the town. He has served three years on the Board of Selectmen, and is at present one of the commissioners of the water-loan sinking fund. Hle is also president of the Melrose Savings Bank. In 1878 he was elected to the State Senate for the Sixth
Middlesex Senatorial District, and did valuable service in that body as chairman of the Committee on Insur- ance and as a member of the Committee on Agriculture. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1879, and in the year following was elected a delegate to the National Republican Convention. He is a director of the Malden and Melrose Gas Light Company and of the Putnam Woollen Company. On Oct. 21, 1850, Mr. Russell was married to Mary, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Lynde, of Melrose, and they have two children, - William Clifton and Daniel Blake Russell. Mr. Russell has for many years been or- ganist of the Hugh de Payens Command- ery, Knights ·Tem- plar. His home at Wyoming is one of the most comfortable places in the town. He is exceedingly fond of entertaining agreeable people, and frequently has numbers of his towns- people and others at his home. He takes great delight in mu- sic, and has in his spacious parlor a large organ and piano run by electricity, and he always has on hand all the latest and best music. Another way he has of entertaining his visitors is by the use of one of Edison's big phonographs, which reproduces comic songs and stump speeches and makes an hour pass very pleasantly. Mr. Russell does not think of entering public life again, although he is still enjoying good health, but he is consulted frequently by his fellow-citizens in connection with the various material interests of the town of Melrose, with which his politi- cal and social life has for about forty years been closely identified.
DANIEL RUSSELL.
WAKEFIELD
C
T THE charming town of Wakefield is situated about ten miles from the city of Boston on the line of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and it is beyond the shadow of a doubt one of the most picturesque towns in the State. It lies as if at rest in the heart of a vast amphitheatre, for it is nearly surrounded by hills and has two beautiful lakes, whose clear, bright faces attract the summer wanderer. It was settled in 1639 and when incorporated in 1644 included what was called a "four miles' grant," embracing the present town of Wakefield, with Reading and North Reading. The early settlers received grants of land from the town of Lynn, and tradition has it that a meeting-house was erected here before 1657, near where the post-office now stands. In 1645 the first Congrega- tional church of the colony was built here, and Henry Green, of Watertown, became its first pastor. In those days, by order of the court military, guards were recruited for every town to protect the inhabitants against the Indians. In 1655 there were twenty persons, fourteen men and six women, held in the bonds of slavery within the town's limits. The town's minister in those days had no money, but received his salary in butter, wheat, rye and barley. In 1663 there were two mills here, a saw mill and a corn mill, and in 1666 the present First Parish Burial-ground was located. At that time the depredations of wolves became so great that twenty shillings apiece was offered as a bounty for their heads. Blackbirds must have been so numerous just then as to be a plague, since the town offered twopence apiece for their heads in order to save the crops. Other interesting things occurred in antique Wakefield. Women were gagged or set in a ducking stool, if they were caught railing or scolding, and young men were fined five pounds for winning the affections of a young woman without the consent of her parents or guardians. This fine was doubled for a second offence. There are also cases on record where men were fined for not attending church.
Among the early settlers whose descendants reside there at the present time are the Eatons, Flints, Wileys, Cowdreys, Hartshornes, Emersons, Greens, Nichols, Parkers and Woodwards. The First Parish Society was organized in 1768, the Baptist Society in 1797. In 1834 was erected the old Town House, which was used by the town up to 1868, when the present handsome Town Hall was presented to the town by the late Cyrus Wakefield.
When the town was incorporated in 1812, it was known as South Reading and its valuation was $100,000. The first stage coach ran between here and Boston in 1817, and in 1845 the Boston & Maine Railroad was built between Boston and Wilmington.
When Mr. Wakefield made his magnificent gift to the town, the name was changed in his honor from South Reading to Wakefield. Mr. Wakefield's enterprise did much to build up the town. He started the rattan manufacturing business on a small scale in 1855 and at the time he died, in 1872, he carried on the most extensive rattan business in the country, employing some twenty-five hundred persons. Besides the rattan business there are several shoe shops and a large stove and furnace foundry, and there are various other enterprises which furnish employment to many people. The town has excellent schools and churches, electric railroads, water works, and a postal service, and is one of the healthiest towns in New England. The valuation of the town is $4,723;785 and the population 7,500.
Wakefield will soon have a practical system of sewerage, and electric railways connecting it with Lynn, Saugus, Melrose and Malden. In addition to the steam-car lines connecting with Boston, Lowell, Lawrence, Portland, Newburyport, Salem and other places, there is an electric line between Wakefield, Stoneham and Woburn, and an electric road will soon girdle Lake Quannapowitt. This will make one of the most beautiful rides in the summer season that can be had anywhere in New England. The Miller Piano Works are also located here, and the company occupies a magnificent brick block. There are several fine estates, and the convenience of travel to and from Boston, where many of the town's citizens are engaged in business, makes it a most desirable place of residence. The town has two live local papers, a Masonic and Odd Fellows Society and many organiza- tions for social and friendly intercourse. There are also a national bank and a savings bank and a Board of Trade. The town has recently voted to establish an electric plant for lighting purposes.
602
MASSACHUSETTS OF TO-DAY.
C' YRUS G. BEEBE was born in Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 16, 1850, being the third son of the late Lucius Beebe. He received his early education in Ellington, Conn., at a private boarding-school, and afterwards took a collegiate course at the Andover Seminary. Here he was fitted for college at seventeen, but instead of further pursuing his studies, he entered the office of his father, who was one of the most exten- sive cotton dealers in New England. Four years after- wards, attaining his majority, he became a partner with his father in the cotton business. His father retiring from the cot- ton business after a few years, he carried it on alone, and by his ability and enter- prise succeeded in enlarging it. His brother, Frederic, was admitted as a partner several years later, and the part- nership continues up to the present time, the Boston office being at 89 State Street. This firm of the Beebe Brothers now carry on a very extensive business. They import large quantities of cotton from the South, and they are large im- porters of Egyptian cottons, and they sell their cottons di- rect to the mills. Mr. Beebe has made his home in Wakefield for many years in the Beebe mansion, located near the head of Lake Quannapowitt. His father, the late Lucius Beebe, was one of the most respected citi- zens of the town, the founder of its free public library, which is now named in his honor. The Beebe family, in fact, is one of the most prominent and most honored in Middlesex County. The late Lucius Beebe was a candidate for Congress shortly before he died, and he
polled a very large vote in a strongly Republican dis- trict. He had been representative to the General Court from Wakefield, and he held various offices in the gift of the town. Cyrus G. inherited the business tact and stability of his father, and is highly esteemed by his fel- low-citizens and business friends and acquaintances. He has never sought public office, preferring to give his undivided time to his commercial duties, although there is little doubt but that he could have any political office in the gift of the town, did he care to go into politics. Since 1884 he has been president of the South Reading National Bank, pres- ident of the Wake- field Real Estate and Building Association, a member of the Wakefield Board of Trade, and a director in the Massachusetts Loan & Trust Com- pany. He takes a deep interest in the improvement and progress of his town, and is recognized as
CYRUS G. BEEBE.
one of her foremost citizens. On June 15 of the present year (1892) he was married to Jessie Ingles Hogg, daugh- ter of John Hogg, of 50 Common wealth Avenue, Boston, Mr. Hogg being well known as one of the firm of Smith, Hogg & Gardner. Mr. Beebe has three brothers in the leather business at 69 High Street, Bos- ton, Marcus, Decius and Junius. They have extended greatly their business since the time it was founded by their father. There were seven sons and two daugh- ters in this typical Massachusetts family, all of whom are still living, with the exception of one son. Mr. Beebe is recognized as one of the ablest and most suc- cessful business men of Massachusetts.
603
WAKEFIELD.
S AMUEL KING HAMILTON, the youngest son of Benjamin B. and Sarah Hamilton, was born July 27, 1837, in Waterboro, York County, Me. Descended from a sturdy, strong-headed Scottish ancestry, his boy- hood and youth were spent on the home farm. The rudimentary education afforded by a district school was supplemented by a single term at Limerick Academy, six months under the instruction of Hon. M. D. L. Lane at Hollis and a year in the Saco High School. In August, 1856, Mr. Hamilton entered the Chandler Scien- L. tific Department of Dartmouth College and graduated in the class of '59. He spent the next three years in the law office of the Hon. Ira T. Drew, at Alfred, Me., in teaching in Wake- field (then South Reading), Mass., and as principal of Alfred Academy. Admitted to the bar of York County in 1862, he was immediately re- ceived into partner- ship with Mr. Drew under the firm name of Drew & Hamilton. This copartnership continued until 1867 and afforded Mr. Hamilton a wide ex- perience in both civil and criminal prac- tice. In 1867 he removed to Bidde- ford and there continued in practice until 1872. While there he served two years on the Board of Aldermen and in 1872 represented that city in the Legislature of Maine, establishing a reputation as a ready and able debater and a sound legislator. In December of that year he formed a copartnership with C. W. Eaton, of Wakefield, with him established law offices in that town, and Boston and removed his residence to Wake- field. This business connection continued to 1878,
when it was dissolved, Mr. Hamilton retaining the Boston office and Mr. Eaton the Wakefield. Since his residence in Wakefield Mr. Hamilton has been engaged in nearly every important case in the town, and has taken a lively interest in public affairs, especially those of an educational nature. As chairman of the School Committee for nine years he effected a complete re-organization of the school system, and in 1883, when the town was about erecting a new and commodious brick school-house, the town in open town meeting voted 1 that it be named the " Hamilton School Building " in recog- nition of his services. He has also served for three years as chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and many years as chairman of the trustees of the Beebe Town Library. In 1880 Mr. Hamilton was a delegate to the convention which nominated General Hancock for presi- dent, and took a con- spicuous part in har- monizing the con- testing delegation for Massachusetts. In 1883 he was a candi- date for district at- torney of Middlesex County and made a handsome canvass. but was defeated, the district being very largely Republican. In 1892 he was candidate for presidentail elector from the Seventh Congressional District. He has been frequently soli- cited to become a candidate for Congress, but has uniformly declined. He was one of the founders of the Pine Tree State Club in Boston, and since its organiza- tion has been its treasurer. Mr. Hamilton was married Feb. 13, 1867, to Annie E., daughter of Joseph B. and Harriet N. Davis. They have no children.
SAMUEL K. HAMILTON.
·
HUDSON
T' THE beautiful and thriving town of Hudson, in the rich county of Middlesex, has a population of over five thousand inhabitants. It was set apart from Marlborough, March 19, 1866. Prior to its starting as a town- ship it was the village of Feltonville. Hudson of to-day may well be termed a typical Massachusetts town in the matter of manufacturing. The chief industry of Hudson is the manufacture of boots and shoes, in which line of product the town occupies a distinctive position. Between the years of the town's birth and 1886 the population doubled ; from the latter year to the present time its general increase has been gradual, but of a thoroughly sub- stantial and satisfactory kind. The pride of the people centres very largely and very justly in their town hall, a large, handsome, imposing brick structure, such as few towns in the Commonwealth have the credit of possessing. It is situated in the heart of the place, and is made particularly attractive by the extensive lawn which separates it from the main thoroughfare. To complete the fine setting of this architectural gem, sinuous concrete driveways and concrete paths add to the general appearance of neatness, all indicative of the town's thrift and progressive- ness. In the building is the public library of five thousand volumes. The intellectual appetite and strength of the community are made apparent when one ponders the fact that over twenty-five thousand books are taken out annually. Territorially, Hudson is very much smaller than the average town, and thus its striking compactness is explained. Since there are no lengthy outside highways to be kept in repair, the appropriations for highways are expended in such a manner that the effects are observable almost at a glance, and a very casual glance, too. The streets are wide, and kept in excellent condition, and many of them are finely shaded when the foliage of spring and summer clothes the trees. Particular attention is paid by the town to its sidewalks, for which a stated sum is annually appropriated, the result being miles of concrete walks that serve to emphasize the frequent assertion that Hudson is one of the model towns of the State.
Particularly fortunate is it in the point of railroad facilities. It has two railroads running through it -a branch of the Fitchburg road, and the Central Massachusetts. The latter gives a direct line of communication between Boston and the West, also affording easy connections with other roads, and thus furnishing unusual opportunities for its business and manufacturing contingent. Through the town runs the Assabet River, which heightens the scenic beauty of the place, beside affording water power to several manufacturing establishments.
Very easy of access are the schools of the town, all of which are within a radius of half a mile. Gradually the new school-houses have supplanted the old, and to-day Hudson has as fine school buildings as any town of its class in the State. The standard has been growing higher and higher, until the average rate is passed, and still the standard desired is not reached. The average cost of Hudson's latest school buildings is about $24,000 each. The inhabitants likewise pride themselves upon their system of water works, which cost the people the sum of $120,000. Unless the town should happen to grow to a size not today dreamed of by the most sanguine of its admirers, its water supply is inexhaustible, and the quality of its water is of the best. What seems to be a special satisfaction of the people is its fire department, which is unusually well organized, thoroughly equipped with need- ful appliances. Its efficiency is generally recognized. Hudson's general air of enterprise and ambitious desire is unquestionably given to it by the handsome business blocks that mark its mercantile centre.
A particularly striking feature of the town is the neat and tidy surroundings that characterize the homes of her denizens, and in this respect neighbor seems to vie with neighbor for the most pleasing results. What is likely to impress a visitor very strongly is the large number of cottages to be seen on every side, each having the appear- ance and indication of being the home of a well-to-do and ambitious artisan ; and, on the other hand, scattered about are many residences of striking architectural beauty. The religious part of the community seeks its ecclesi- astical instruction either with the Baptist, Congregational, Methodist or Unitarian societies, or with St. Michael's Roman Catholic parish. The industries of the town comprise shoc, rubber and box manufactories, and machine shops.
605
HUDSON.
V ERY rarely can a better illustration of the " self- made man of our times" be found than is fur- nished by the life of Lewis D. Apsley, who came to Hudson seven years ago without pecuniary resources, having as capital only a keen business sagacity, a restless energy of body and a diligent and deter- mined character. Yet in this brief period Mr. Apsley has made a comfortable fortune, is at the head of the largest works of their kind in the country and is congressman a elect. Lewis D. Aps- ley was born in Northumberland, Pa., on the 29th of Sep- tember, 1 8 5 2, and he resided there until he was nine years of age, when he went to Lock- haven, Pa. At the age of sixteen years he joined the large, good-humored cara- van of travelling salesmen, the advance guard or inspiring drummers of the peaceful army of commerce. When only twenty-six Mr. Apsley had become superintendent of the rubber goods de- partment in the famous store of John Wanamaker in Phila- delphia. Later he associated himself with the Gossamer Rubber Clothing Company of Boston, representing that house on the road, and, parenthetically, it might be noted that as a salesman he earned and held the reputation of being unusually successful. After remaining with that com- pany six years, in 1885 he came to Hudson, took an abandoned gossamer plant and began the manufacture of rubber gossamer goods under the name of the Good- year Gossamer Company, starting with limited facilities and employing but few assistants. Three times in five
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