USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive and Biographical Record of Bristol County, Massachusetts (Volume 2) > Part 13
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Gabelmor Phes Birey
A former Pinner
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people. The company is known not only in this country, but in all . other lands with which we trade, and is composed of Henry G. Reed, George Brabrook, and the representatives of the estate of Henry H. Fish.
Mr. Reed is one of the leading manufacturers of southeastern Mas- sachusetts, and is probably the oldest engaged in active business. Seventy years ago he became an apprentice, and for sixty-three years he has been a proprietor, furnishing employment to hundreds of oper- atives, and distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars among his fellow citizens. He has never held political office, but has always taken an active interest in the growth and prosperity of his native town, and has held several positions of trust and responsibility. He has been a director of the Taunton National bank since 1851, a trustee of the Taunton Savings Bank since its organization in 1869, a director of the Taunton City Mission and Associated Charities from their be- ginning, and president of the Reed Family Association of Taunton since 1873. He is also an interested and liberal life member of the Old Colony Historical Society. He is a public spirited, enterprising and patriotic citizen, imbued with the highest sense of honor, and en- dowed with rare business and executive ability. He is a man of un- questioned integrity, and has always enjoyed the confidence and re- spect of the entire community.
Mr. Reed has been married three times: first to Clara, daughter of Isaac White, of Mansfield, Mass., who died September 27, 1847; sec- ond to Frances Lee Williams, daughter of Jared Williams, of Dighton, Bristol county, who died May 9, 1857; and third, October 27, 1858, to Delight R., daughter of Christopher Carpenter, of Rehoboth, Mass. His children are Clara Isabel, wife of Dr. Charles T. Hubbard, a lead- ing physician of Taunton; Henry Arthur, deceased; Ida Frances, de- ceased; Fannie Lee, wife of William Bradford Homer Dowse, esq., of West Newton; and Henry Francis, of Taunton, Mass.
A. HOMER SKINNER.
A. HOMER SKINNER, lumber merchant, is the second son of Herbert Allen Skinner and Sarah Chace, his wife, and was born in Fall River, Mass., December 10, 1858. Herber A. Skinner, a native of Mansfield, Mass., was reared on a farm in Norton, and after coming to Fall River was for many years a leading carpenter and builder, being the senior
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member of the firm of Skinner & Freeborn, whose shop was located on Pleasant street in the rear of the Coffee Tavern, where the city scales now stand. He served in the Common Council, was for several years surveyor-general of lumber of Fall River, and is now associated with his son, A. Homer. He has had four children: Herbert M. C., of Fall River, formerly superintendent of the New York Locomotive Works at Rome; Minnie, who died young; and A. Homer and H. Emma. Miller Chace, A. Homer Skinner's maternal grandfather, was a prominent citizen of Fall River. He operated a large grist mill near the site of the present Pocasset Mill office, using the waters of Quequechan River as a motive power. He died at the advanced age of ninety two.
A. Homer Skinner obtained his education in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the Fall River High School at the age of sixteen. He then took a sea voyage to South Carolina and Georgia, and upon his return entered the employ of the Pocasset Coal Company, as an office boy and weigher of coal, at $3 a week. He remained in this position until 1878, and then became bookkeeper for S. R. Buffin- ton & Co., serving in that position three years, when he received an offer to become bookkeeper for Cook Borden & Co., lumber dealers. After three years of service in that capacity the senior member of the firm transferred him to the yard to teach him the lumber business, and gave him charge of receiving and assorting the lumber. He was em- ployed with this firm until 1883, and during the summer of that year assisted his father in surveying lumber as it came into the city. In December, 1883, he leased some land of the Union Cotton Manufactur- ing Company, at the corner of Pleasant street and Eddy's avenue, built some sheds, and began his career in the lumber business. He worked hard and diligently at first, and by dint of his own perseverance and close attention to business prospered abundantly. In 1888, owing to the gradual increase of his trade, he was compelled to buy additional land and secured an acre on Danforth street, between Maple and Wal- nut, where he built sheds and laid out the premises for a permanent yard. In 1893 he purchased the wharf formerly owned by Benjamin Barker, on Davol street. The same year the Union Cotton Mill Com- pany notified him that he must give up his property on Pleasant street for the site of a new cotton mill. Mr. Skinner then bought of the Troy Mill Company a tract of 100 rods on Sixth street, where he built offices and sheds, after first removing six old buildings from the land. These sheds have a capacity of 200,000 feet of seasoned lumber. Mr. Skinner
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has three. places of business in Fall River, and by his energy, enter- prise, and correct business methods has constantly increased his trade and extended his importance and influence as a lumber merchant in his native city. He keeps on hand a complete stock of spruce, hem- lock, hard wood, white wood, hard pine and pine lumber. He has suc- ceeded in building up a large trade with a good class of customers who continue to patronize him because of his success in providing them with the best lumber in the market.
Mr. Skinner is a member of the board of investment of the Union Savings Bank of Fall River, and holds the office of justice of peace under appointment of Governor Ames. He resides at South Swansea, where he owns an elegant residence with all the comforts of a perfect home. In 1886 he married Kate B., daughter of Nathaniel A. and Mary Pearce, of Fall River, and they have one daughter, Bertha Louise.
RUFUS A. SOULE.
HON. RUFUS ALBERTSON SOULE was the second of the five children of Thomas Howard and Margaret Albertson (Dunham) Soule, born in Mattapoisett, Plymouth county, March 16, 1839. He is a direct de- scendant of George Soule, who came over in the Mayflower, and of the Albertsons and Dunhams, early settlers in Plymouth Colony. George Dunham, his maternal great-grandfather, was an officer of the Con- tinental army, and George Dunham, his grandfather, an officer in the war of 1812. Mr. Soule was but two years of age when his parents moved to New Bedford. He attended the public schools, but before his course in the High School was completed felt constrained to give up his studies and secure employment. He has never been seriously hampered, however, by this lack of early educational training, for it is men of his ability to overcome obstacles who form that large class of broad minded intelligent scholars who by reading, application, and the exactions of business life become self-educated. His first employment was as a carrier boy of the New Bedford Standard and later he became a clerk in Samuel Bennett's crockery store, leaving in the spring of 1857 to go to Attleborough, with an idea of learning the jeweler's trade. Ilc had been there but a few months when the business was completely prostrated by the panic of that year. Returning to New Bedford he was for a time employed on Paulding's Boston express, by the way of
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the ferry across the Acushnet River and via the Fairhaven Branch Railroad. The great convenience which this ferry was found to be no doubt inspired much of Mr. Soule's enthusiasm in the advocacy for its restoration. In the spring of 1858 Mr. Soule entered the employ of the Union Boot and Shoe Company of New Bedford and there gained his first experience in the shoe trade.
During the Civil war New Bedford placed a larger quota of troops in the field for her population than any other city in the Commonwealth, and there were many remarkable instances of family patriotism. Prob- ably none can surpass, and few can equal, the record of the Soule fam- ily, in which were four sons, all of whom enlisted. The oldest son, William T., was a member of the 1st and later the 4th Mass. Cavalry, and before the close of the war was brevetted captain. The second son, Rufus A., was a member of Co. E, 3d Regiment of Infantry, M. V. M. The third son, Henry W., in the noted 5th Battery of Massachusetts, Light Artillery, and was killed in action on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg. The youngest son, Thomas H., served in the navy and was with Farragut at the capture of Fort Morgan at the entrance of Mobile Bay.
In the same command with Rufus A. Soule was one of the highest types of business men that New Bedford has produced-the late Savory C. Hathaway. They were warm friends and destined to become asso- ciated in a long and honorable business career. After the war (in July, 1865) Mr. Hathaway began the manufacture of shoes in a small build- ing on Hillman street, where he made use of a room which had a floor space of 14 by 20 feet, all of the work being done by hand, except what could be accomplished with one sewing machine run by foot power. He was joined, September 1 of the same year, by Mr. Soule, and the firm name became S. C. Hathaway & Co., Mr. Soule remaining in the employ of the Union Boot and Shoe Company until the following year, when he became an active partner and the firm name changed to Hath- away & Soule.
In December, 1865, they moved to the brick building on Pleasant street, corner of Mechanics' lane. Only one floor was occupied at first, but soon after the whole building was leased, and finally a wooden ad- dition at the north was built and occupied. In 1872 Herbert A. IIar- rington, of Boston, was admitted, and the firm became Hathaway, Soule & Harrington. From this time on additions were frequently found indispensable and the working force and output were proportionately
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increased. In 1885 the factory was built at Middleborough and the firm was for some years a joint owner in a factory at Campello. A stock company was organized in June, 1890, under the title of Hatha- way, Soule & Harrington, Incorporated, with Mr. Hathaway as presi- dent, Mr. Soule, vice-president, and Mr. Harrington, treasurer; the three constituting the board of directors.
From that modest beginning the company has become one of the largest concerns in the trade, selling direct to the retail dealers. About 550 hands are employed, making an average of 400,000 pairs of shoes annually, the sales of the corporation each year being over $1,000, 000. Its factories are now in New Bedford and Middleborough, the main office in Boston, and a salesroom in New York. Interest is held in retail stores in Washington, Chicago and St. Louis, as well as in sev- eral New England cities-Springfield, New London, Conn., and Bridge- port, Conn. It is no idle compliment to say that all the members of the firm have been men of the highest business qualifications, basing all their actions on principles of integrity and probity. A high class of workmen has always been employed and many men have gone from their factories to accept responsible positions elsewhere. Mr. Soule succeeded Mr. Hathaway as president of the corporation.
Very early in his career Mr. Soule began to take an active interest in politics, and was a member of the Republican City Committee for several years. Personally he is energetic; a true American, full of life and vigor, and possessed of a remarkable personal magnetism, which wins for him many friends and devoted followers, while his honesty and fearlessness command the respect of his opponents. He is a man of zeal, judgment and executive ability, and has a long record of faithful and efficient public service. He was a member of the New Bedford Common Council in 1869-70-71-74-75, and in 1874 was unanimously elected president of the Council, just missing re- election in the following year, although the administration was in op- position to him and had a large majority of the members. In 1878 and 1879 he represented his district in the Legislature, serving both terms on the committee on railroads. At the time of his first election the district went Democratic by seventy-five plurality for almost the only time in its history, and his election was a marked tribute to his popularity. The following year his plurality was the largest ever given in New Bedford up to that time to a candidate for representative hon- ors. In 1894 he was appointed chairman of the Board of License Com-
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missioners of New Bedford, his appointment meeting the approbation of both parties, and only being accepted by him on the platform that politics should not enter into matters relating to the conduct of the board. He resigned early in the following year owing to non-sympathy with the administration.
In 1895 he was nominated unanimously as the Republican candidate for senator in the Third Bristol District, and was elected by a plurality of 3,156. He was renominated and elected in 1896, 1897 and 1898, receiving the nomination in each year without an opposing vote, this being also true on the occasion of his nomination to the Legislature- a high tribute, not only to his worth, but to his popularity in the Re- publican party of his district. In the Senate of 1896 Mr. Soule was chairman of the committee on banks and banking; on the committees on drainage and railroads; and also on the committee to redistrict the State. In the Senate of 1897 he was chairman of the committee on railroads; and on the committee on printing, and State House. In the Senate of 1898 he was again chairman of the committee on railroads; and on the committee on banks and banking, and State House. IIe is universally conceded to have made a good senator; alert and clear headed, he has carried into his work a genuine enthusiasm, manifest- ing an earnest desire to serve his district and the Commonwealth well. Upon the death of Congressman Simpkins his name was urged from many quarters, both by the press and public, as a man well fitted to fill the vacancy; the New Bedford Standard paying him the following tribute in an editorial: "We suggest the selection of Rufus A. Soule as the man who of all other men in this district appears as the best fitted to discharge the important duties of the hour. . He is a successful business man. He has served this community admirably in many places of trust. He is now one of the most influential members of the State Senate. He has a wide acquaintance with men. He is indefatigable in any work which he undertakes. He has energy, per- sistency and push, while his ability no one can dispute. If this district wants a man who will take up the work of caring for its interests with an undivided zeal, forgetful of himself, and mindful only of the task which is imposed upon him, it will find such a man in Rufus A. Soule." Mr. Soule declined to allow the use of his name.
Mr. Soule has many varied and important business trusts and inter- ests; he is a director and an ex president of the New Bedford Board of Trade; vice-president of the New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust
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JOB SWEET.
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Company; president of the Dartmouth Mills; director of the City Man- ufacturing Corporation, the Bristol Mills, and the A. L. Blackmer Cut Glass Co .; president of the Acushnet Co-operative Bank; and director of the New Bedford Co-operative Bank, and the New Bedford, Middle- borough and Brockton Street Railway Company. He is a member of the Loyal Legion; past commander of R. A. Peirce Post No. 190, G, A. R .; and served as commander of the Bristol County Association of the G. A. R., 1897-98; a member of long standing and an ex president of the New Bedford Veteran Firemen's Association; and also a member of Sutton Commandery, Knights Templar, Adoniram Royal Arch Chap- ter, and Star in the East Lodge of Masons; of the Wamsutta and Dart- mouth Clubs of New Bedford, and the Yacht Club and Saturday Night Club of Hyannis, Mass., where he has a summer home.
Mr. Soule married, August 28, 1860, Miss Susan C. Nesmith, daugh- ter of Carver and Eleanor (Williams) Nesmith, of Brooks, Me. Their children are Margaret H., wife of Garry De N. Hough, M. D .; Lois M., wife of Alexander T. Smith; and Rufus A. Soule, jr., a senior at Brown University.
JOB SWEET, M. D.
DR. JON SWEET is the eldest son of Dr. William and Martha (Tourgee) Sweet, and was born in Wakefield, South Kingston, Washington county, R. I., October 13, 1828. His father was a prominent bone-setter in South Kingston, and was called in his profession from various parts of the country; he died at the ripe old age of eighty-four."
Job Sweet, during his boyhood days, attended the schools in the vicinity and assisted his father in, surgical cases, for which he had a natural liking, and decided very early in his career to follow this spe. cialty, and in order to have a wider field for his chosen profession, in 1847 he came to New Bedford, Mass., to assist Dr. Jonathan Sweet, his father's brother, who was in feeble health.
After his death he remained in New Bedford and has been in active and highly successful practice for over fifty years, and has acquired a distinguished reputation for his skill in saving cases of fractures, dis- locations, sprains, etc., which had been considered hopeless by other surgeons. Ilis practice has required from one to two assistants; he now has for an assistant his grandson, John H. Sweet, jr., a graduate
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of Harvard in Medicine and Surgery, who will succeed him in New Bedford.
Dr. Sweet has been twice married-first, in 1849, to Sarah H., daughter of Alexander and Eunice Swain, of Nantucket, of which union two children were born; John H. and Kate Sweet. For his second wife he married Nannie P., daughter of Capt. William M. and Emeline Hadley Blye, of Bristol, R. I., and they have one daughter, Daisy A.
SYLVANUS THOMAS.
SYLVANUS THOMAS was a native of Middleborough, Mass., where he was born in 1818. After availing himself of the somewhat limited ed- ucational advantages of his native place, he began his business life in the store of Hon. Peter H. Pierce of Middleborough. But he soon (about 1838) removed to New Bedford, where his long business carcer was a marked success. Beginning trade in a small way in domestic goods he afterwards expanded into the West India trade. Later he engaged in the whaling business and maufacture of oil. For many years, and until the death of Colonel Pierce, that gentleman and Elisha Tucker of Middleborough were associated with Mr. Thomas in business, but the greater share of the burden of the extensive opera- tions of the firm fell upon the latter. He was eminently capable of fulfilling his trust and both of his partners had unbounded confidence in his capacity and his integrity.
One who knew him well wrote of him soon after his death as follows: "No merchant of this city (New Bedford) ever devoted himself more assiduously to business than Mr. Thomas, and none can leave behind a more unspotted reputation. No man could be more missed by the mercantile community, especially by the dealers in its great staple; for no one was ever more active, bold, or successful in the purchase and sale of oil. For many years his annual transactions in that article were immense, and the importers were, of course, greatly benefited by his energy and enterprise. His death is a severe loss to our city-the loss of a man of extraordinary perseverance, of public spirit, of great prob- ity, and of most estimable character in all the relations he bore to his fellows. He was a good man, ever ready to aid in maintaining every good cause, and recognizing and discharging the obligations which in- creasing wealth create."
The formation of many of the earliest manufacturing enterprises of
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New Bedford was due in a large measure to his influence and energy, even when his means were not directly invested; while in all matters pertaining to the prosperity of the city he was among the foremost. His career was based upon the principles of Christianity and he was long a member of the First Baptist Church. Mr. Thomas died on the 20th of November, 1866.
He was married in 1840 to Agnes J. Martin of Rehoboth, and they had three children: S. M. Thomas, an attorney of Taunton, and two daughters.
GEORGE A. WASHBURN.
GEORGE ALBERT WASHBURN, president of the Taunton National Bank, is the son of George and Diana Northam (Mason) Washburn, and was born in Swansea, Bristol county, Mass., February 5, 1836. He is a lincal descendant of John and Margaret Washburn, who came from Stratford-on-Avon, England, to Duxbury, Mass., in 1632, and who were the ancestors of all the Washburns in this State, and also of the noted family, children of Israel Washburn, of Maine. John Washburn was a member of Capt. Myles Standish's military company, and one of the original proprietors of ancient Bridgewater. Isaac Washburn, grandfather of George A., was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and moved from Middleboro to Taunton, where he established a furniture business that has ever since remained in his family. He died Novem- ber 2, 1832. He was married three times and had eighteen children, of whom George was a son by the third wife, Elizabeth Richmond, daugh- ter of William Richmond. of Providence, R. I. George married Diana Northam Mason, a direct descendant of Sampson Mason, a soldier in Cromwell's army, who, on the ascent of Charles II to the throne of England, fled to this country and settled in Rehoboth, Mass. Sampson Mason's descendants were known for 108 years as the " Mason Elders," and during that period served continuously in the pastorate of the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts.
Mr. Washburn thus represents two of the oldest and most prominent families in New England. In 1841 he removed with his parents to Taunton, where he has ever since resided, and where he received a good public and private school education. When sixteen years old he became a clerk in the hardware, iron, and steel store of Albert G. Washburn; afterward he entered the employ of Wood & Washburn, who were en- gaged in the same business. In 1857 he was admitted as a partner in
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the firm, which was known as Hunt, Harris & Co .. and later as John Hunt & Co. He gained a valuable experience in these capacities, and laid the foundation for a substantial and successful career. His mer- cantile life ended, however, on the breaking out of the war of the Re- bellion, which at once aroused his patriotic spirit and caused him to promptly offer his services to the Union. On April 16, 1861, he left his business and responded to the first call for troops, enlisting in Co. G, 4th Mass. Vols., which arrived at Fortress Monroe April 20. This was the first company to leave Taunton, and also the first company of the first regiment to leave Massachusetts for the front. By a singular coincidence his paternal grandfather, Isaac Washburn, a "minute- man," was in the first company to leave Taunton in the Revolutionary war, departing, April 20, 1775, just eighty-six years before. Mr. Washburn went out as a sergeant, served three months, or until the expiration of his term of enlistment, and immediately re-entered the service as first lieutenant in the 22d Mass. Vols., for three years, Col. Henry Wilson, commanding. Attached to the First Division, First Brigade, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, he was wounded at the battle of Gaine's Mill, Va., June 27. 1862, and taken prisoner, and for some time suffered the terrible confinement of Libby prison. He was promoted captain to date from July 11, 1862, and was mustered out of service to date from January 5, 1863.
Mr. Washburn received official notice of honorable discharge March 8, 1863, and the next day was elected treasurer and collector of taxes of Taunton, which office he filled with great credit and satisfaction for twenty-nine consecutive years, resigning December 24, 1891. Since then he has been president of the Taunton National Bank. He was also clerk of the Overseers of the Poor from 1865 to 1882 inclusive, a member of that body from 1883 to March, 1891, clerk of the Board of Assessors from 1869 to 1875, and member of the City Council in 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895,1896 and 1897. He was secretary and treasurer of the Board of Sink- ing Fund Commissioners of Taunton from 1878 to 1892, and secretary from 1892 to 1898 and in January, 1898, was elected its chairman. He is also a trustee of the Morton Hospital and of the Taunton Savings Bank, a member of the investment committee of the last named insti- tution, and a director of the Taunton Street Railway Company. Mr. Taunton is an able business man, a public spirited, progressive citizen, and a worthy representative of one of Taunton's oldest and most re- spected families. His long and valuable services as treasurer and tax
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