USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive and Biographical Record of Bristol County, Massachusetts (Volume 2) > Part 9
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Mr. Drown was one of those men who inspire every one with whom they come in contact with trust, and there was not a particle of trickery or deceit in his composition. By his own energy, thrift, perseverance and good management he built up a competency. He never inherited a single dollar and was entirely the architect of his own fortunes. He had the gift of successful executive management to a large degree and this, combined with sterling good judgment and fine acumen, made him an unusually competent merchant.
Mr. Drown was always ready to aid any cause which he thought would contribute to the intellectual and moral advancement and to the material progress of his adopted city. In politics he affiliated with the Republican party, but being of quiet and retiring disposition, never sought political preferment. He was a prominent member of the North Congregational Church, and liberal in his support of its interests. He was one of the first members of the New Bedford Young Men's Chris- tian Association. His character was based upon principles of upright- ness, business honor and sterling integrity, and in all things his influence was to be found on the side of humanity and justice. To a marked degree Mr. Drown won the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens and maintained an enviable position as a high minded and honorable man throughout his entire life.
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Lloyd S. Earle
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Mr. Drown was a man of extremely modest tastes. His chief pleas- ure he found at the domestic fireside, which possessed for him the most sacred and delightful associations. He was a devoted husband and the tenderest of fathers. His wife, who survives him, was Harriet Jack- son Smith, of Rehoboth. They were married October 14, 1839, and three children were born to them: Harriet Jackson, born May 19, 1845; died August 20 of the same year; William Frederick, born July 6, 1852; died October 18, 1856; and Harriet Maria, born March 17, 1847, now the wife of Charles E. Benton, of Sharon, Conn. They have one child, Harriet Jackson Benton, born December 8, 1885.
LLOYD S. EARLE.
LLOYD SLADE EARLE was for sixty years a prominent and respected citizen of Fall River. He emphasized those sterling qualities of hon- esty, uprightness of character, and manly sobriety which mark the true gentleman, and which distinguished him as one of the nobler sons of New England. Springing from a line of ancestry that dates from the colonial times, he inherited the noblest attributes of manhood and wrought a career full of usefulness and honor. He was descended from (1) Ralph Earle, who came from England and settled in Newport, R. I., as early as 1638, and who by his wife Joan had five children; (2) William Earle, second son of Ralph, married Mary, daughter of John and Katharine Walker, of Portsmouth, and died January 15, 1715; (3) Thomas Earle, one of William's three children, married Mary, daugh- ter of Philip and Mary Taber, of Dartmouth, removed to Dartmouth about 1692, and died April 28, 1727; (4) Oliver Earle, married, June 9, 1720, Rebecca, daughter of Samuel and Martha (Tripp) Sherman, of Portsmouth, settled in Swansea, and died in 1766; (5) Caleb Earle, born in Swansca, Mass., January 30, 1729, married, first, October 5, 1745, O. S., Sarah (born September 1, 1727), daughter of Benjamin and Isabel Buffington, of Swansea, and had six children, and second, in 1769, Hannah (born December 12, 1744, O. S.), daughter of Daniel and Mary Chace, of Swansea, by whom he had eight children, and died November 14, 1812; and (6) Weston Earle, son of Caleb and Sarah (Buffington) Earle, born April 18, 1750, in Swansea, and died Septem- ber 5, 1838. Weston Earle was a lifelong resident of Swansea. He was three times married, and had three children by his first wife, Hep-
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zibeth Terry, three by his second, Sarah Slade, and one by his third, Martha H. Smith. Slade Earle (7), son of Weston and Sarah (Slade) Earle, was born October 16, 1791, in Swansea, and was married early in 1812 to Hannah, daughter of Robert and Martha Gibbs, of Somerset, where he settled. His wife died January 4, 1863. He died in Fall River September 21, 1872. Their children were Lloyd S, the subject of this memoir; Gibbs, born July 20, 1814, married Laura Carpenter, and died January 24, 1857; George W., born April 25, 1818, married, first, Julia A. Vickery and, second, Mary E. Case; Slade W., born January 24, 1820, married, first, Elizabeth W. Winslow and afterward Mary Becknell, and died January 15, 1880; Hannah J., born February 19, 1824, married William Maxam; and John M., born July 3, 1830, married, in 1856, Lucretia A. Simsabaugh. Slade Earle and his wife were members of the Baptist Church in Rehoboth.
Lloyd Slade Earle, the eldest of these six children, was born in Som- erset, Mass., December 11, 1812, and spent his youth in Swansea, working summers and attending the common schools winters. In 1829, when less than seventeen, he went to New Bedford, where he served a four years' apprenticeship at the mason's trade with Pierce & Wheaton, contractors and builders. During this period he thoroughly mastered the business in every detail. Afterward, in 1834, he was employed for a short time by Ephraim G. Woodman, of Fall River, and in the autumn of that year he formed a copartnership with his brother-in-law, Danforth Horton, for the purpose of carrying on the business of contracting and building. Mr. Earle, however, returned to Swansea and taught school in his own district during the winter of 1834-35, and during the next two winters he had a school in Dighton. The firm of Earle & Horton conducted a large and successful business until 1860, when it was dissolved, and thereafter, until about 1880, Mr. Earle continued alone. Early in his career he won a high reputation for honesty and thoroughness as a contractor, and throughout life these were the dominating traits of his character. He built nearly twenty mills in Fall River, including the two Granite Mills and the foundation for No. 3, the American Print Works twice on account of fire, the two Flint Mills, the American Linen Mill, the two Shove Mills, the first Union Mill, the Bourne Mill, the second Wampanoag Mill, the two Globe Yarn Mills, and the first Pocasset Mill. He also built the old First Baptist church, the Granite block, the old City Hall, the Fall River Water Works, and many fine residences. He was very successful
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in contracting for brick and stone work and also for finishing interiors of houses, and for many years he conducted a heavy business.
Mr. Earle was pre eminently a self-made man. Starting in life as a poor boy of seventeen, he devoted every energy to his work, and accu- mulated, unaided by any one, a fortune. He always bore the highest reputation for honesty and integrity. His word was as good as his bond. As a business man and citizen he was universally respected. He was a strong temperance advocate, and never used tobacco or liquor of any kind. In politics he was originally a Free Soil Democrat and afterward a strong Republican from the organization of that party in 1856. He served in the Common Council of Fall River one year and as a member of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1860 and 1861. He was a director of the Shove, Wampanoag, Robeson, and Bourne Mills, president of the Robeson Mill, a director of the Pocasset National Bank, and a trustee of the Citizens Savings Bank and a member of its board of investment. For over forty years he was active as a teacher in the Sunday school of the First Baptist Church, of Fall River, of which his wife and himself were prominent members.
Mr. Earle died August 12, 1895, widely esteemed and respected. His career was a most successful one. He enjoyed the confidence of all who knew him, and as a citizen took a deep interest in all public improvements and in the general welfare of the community. On the 8th of June, 1836, he married Persis P., a very estimable woman, daughter of Carlton and Sarah (Brayton) Sherman, whose other chil- dren were Zeruiah A., Sarah B., and Benjamin B. She was born Jan- uary 23, 1808, in Fall River, and died April 16, 1884. Their only son, Andrew B. Earle, a grocer in Fall River, was born February 27, 1837, and died January 12, 1867. He was married to Hannah E., daughter of Durfee and Grace (Read) Borden, of Fall River, and they had three children: Lloyd B., who died in infancy; Emma P., who was married June 15, 1893, to Dr. Charles W. Connell, of Fall River, and has two children, Clarissa Earle and Grace Connell; and Mary A., who was married April 27, 1886, to Edwin Howard Davis, son of Baylies Davis and Abbie Gibbs, of Somerset. Edwin H. Davis died February 23, 1894, leaving one daughter, Persis Earle Davis.
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J. H. ESTES & SON.
PLEASANTLY situated in the Maplewood valley, about two miles from the center of Fall River, are the mills of J. II. Estes & Son, where an interesting variety of white and colored cotton goods is manufac- tured. The policy of this well-known firm is a progressive one as the present thoroughly equipped and developed condition of its busi- ness will testify. They operate one of the largest cotton twine mills in America, and daily manufacture about 8,000 pounds of wrapping twine, which is shipped to all parts of the United States, and carloads are exported each year. Aside from this well and widely-known prod- uct they manufacture large quantities of carpet warp, yarns, ropes, clothes lines, floor mops, dish mops, caulking cotton and machinery wiping waste, all of which are extensively known in the respective classes of trade to which they belong, as the business has been estab- lished forty years. The latest feature added to their long list of man- ufactures is that of absorbent, bleached and tinted cottons for drug. gists, hospitals, perfumers and jewelers. Their Excelsior brand of absorbent cotton has been pronounced by experts to be the finest they have seen, and meets with ready sale wherever shown.
John H. Estes, the central figure in the cotton manufacturing busi- ness at Maplewood, was born in Tiverton, R. I., June 19, 1835. His father, Job Estes, was a wheelwright, and his carts and wooden plows were famous many miles around. Turning hubs by hand was tedious work, and he conceived the idea that there was power enough in the valley brook to turn his lathe and run his saw, and in 1825 decided to buy the property. He built a small shop, about 15 by 15, to which the motive power of the brook was transmitted by a flutter wheel. In 1834 Oliver Buffinton, the pioneer cotton waste dealer of Fall River, leased the privilege of operating four eighteen inch batting cards in the north end of the shop and Mr. Estes spent a part of his time in running them, while his wife helped in putting up the bats for market. Three years later Jonathan Bridges, formerly superintendent of the Massasoit Cotton Mill in Fall River, proposed utilizing the power for textile pur- poses, and leased the shop and power. A stronger water-wheel was constructed, and the shop greatly enlarged and fitted with wooden shafting, which run about fifty looms weaving sheetings, shirtings and print goods. Experience proved the power to be inadequate for the load and Job Estes built a second water-wheel about thirty rods farther
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down the stream, where a ten-foot fall was obtained, and transmitted this additional power through the woods to the mill by a manilla rope, but the device did not work very well.
Meanwhile Israel Buffinton, who had purchased the batting machin- ery of Oliver Buffinton, being promised the power of the lower water- wheel when the Bridges lease expired, built adjoining the wheel a wooden mill for the manufacture of cotton batting. So anxious was he to get started that he could not wait for the lease to expire, and con- structed a windlass which was turned by a pair of horses, behind which, on the lever, John II. Estes, then a barefoot boy, used often to steal rides. lligh over the heads of the horses from a horizontal fly. wheel about fifteen feet in diameter, a belt conveyed this provisional power to the mill.
Starting without any working capital Mr. Bridges found it up-hill work doing business on a credit basis, and before his lease expired be- came financially embarrassed and his creditors seized all his stock, tools and machinery. Quick to improve this opportunity, Mr. Buffin- ton at the lower mill changed from horse to water power and added five cards, which increased his product to about five hundred pounds daily. So great was the demand for batting that customers in their efforts to secure it remitted months in advance. Within fifteen years he succeeded in accumulating considerable money and built a larger mill of stone upon his own property farther down the stream upon the present site of the Fall River Bleachery. The wooden mill was later changed to a grist mill.
At the upper mill A. & J. Shove succeeded Mr. Bridges and equipped it with machinery for spinning carpet yarns for domestic weaving. It was here that John H. Estes started as a doffer boy and gradually worked his way through every department. When the Shove lease expired Job Estes bought the machinery, and with his children and two or three employees operated the mill for about five years, during which time it was decided to unite the motive power of the two mills by leading the water in a canal to a site where a fall of twenty-five feet could be obtained, and in 1857-8 a two-and-one-half story stone mill, 45 by 70, was constructed and fitted mainly with machinery removed from the upper mill, which burned to the ground in 1872. In 1860 John II. Estes, whose genius as a practical manufacturer had already made itself felt, associated himself with his brother-in-law, Thomas W. Lawton, leased the stone mill and machinery, and the firm of Lawton
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& Estes was formed, which, for about fifteen years, continued to make wrapping twine and carpet warp with about twelve employees. Job Estes died in 1872. Failing to secure another lease of the property the firm was dissolved and the mill stood idle several years. Mean- while Mr. Estes improved his farms and tenement property, and, although never a dabbling politician, served one year as councilman and another as assessor in this city.
In 1880 the mill and adjoining real estate were bought at public auction by Mr. Estes, who, with his brothers, Benjamin F. and Joseph D., formed the firm of J. H. Estes & Bros., which existed for ten years. John H. Estes was manager and largest owner, and during this time his ability and judgment were shown by a series of enlarge- ments and improvements, and by the signal progress which character- ized this decade. In 1883 the mammoth breast wheel of twenty five horse power was supplanted by a modern turbine of forty horse power, and in 1887, to meet the increasing demands of their trade, an engine and boiler of 160 horse power were added and the amount of machinery in- ยท creased threefold. About 6,000 square feet of floor was added to the mill and a large stone storehouse constructed.
By mutual consent, in October, 1890, the partnership was dissolved, and two months later the present firm of J. H. Estes & Son was formed, with J. Edmund Estes the junior partner. Industrial prog- ress and enlargement has been the aim and the result of the present management. In 1892 a large storehouse was built, and a year later another story added to the mill and adjoining buildings. In 1895 a three.story No. 2 mill, 75 by 130, was built, two boilers added to the steam plant and the old engine supplanted by a 420 horse-power, cross- compound, condensing Harris Corliss engine. A large stone office was built, also another storehouse 75 by 125 feet. In 1897 the entire plant was equipped with a thorough system of automatic sprinklers.
Charles Estes, of Warren, R. I., has recently prepared a genealogy of the Estes family, which he traces back to the year 1097, and has found that the name, spelt in different ways, was known in history as remote as 136 years B.C. John H. Estes is a descendant in the sixth generation from Richard Estes, the emigrant, who was born in Dover, England, in 1647, and came to America in 1684. In 1866 John H. Estes married Caroline A. Ling, a local school teacher, and four chil- dren were born to them-J. Edmund, Jennie L., Elmer B., and Ever- ett L.
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John H. Estes is a self-made man. With scanty schooling and train- ing he has by tact, ingenuity, judgment and foresight forged his way to success. Ile learned to do by doing, and not only improved, but made opportunities. Like other self made men he has had many obsta- cles to encounter and overcome, but no disappointment discouraged, and no opposition disheartened. It has been well said that success is the reward of those "who spurn delights and live laborious days," and in the life of Mr. Estes this is notably true. Strict business has been the current of his life. Ile has taken pains to succeed. He is a wealthy and influential citizen, a large real estate owner, vice-president of the Board of Trade and a director in five local corporations.
NATHANIEL JARVIS WYETH FISH.
NATHANIEL. J. W. Fisu, mayor of the city of Taunton, was born in that city, the second son of Capt. Frederick L. and Mary J. (Perry) Fish His father was a master mariner, a native of Rochester, Mass., but sailed from New Bedford and Fairhaven for many years in the days when whalers from these ports were to be found in every quarter of the globe. When Captain Fish retired from the sea he settled in Taunton where he resided until his death. Ile was an honest, upright man and attached many friends. As a whaling captain he was highly successful and made a number of voyages which stand on record as among the most profitable of the period.
Mayor Fish was well grounded in the schools of Taunton and after completing their prescribed courses prepared for the profession of civil engineering. Having a fondness for adventure and travel and a desire to see something of the western country, in 1878 he went to Texas with the intention of engaging in stock raising, which at that time was proving very profitable. After serving for a time as a Texas cowboy, he, in company with others, crossed the plains from Dallas, Texas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The trip was made through what was then a wild country and consumed two months. After a few months in New Mexico he entered the employ of the Chicago, Burling- ton and Quincy Railroad as a civil engineer, and was stationed at Orleans and other points in Nebraska during the construction of the lines which did so much towards opening up for settlement the plains of the Great West. He remained in this capacity nearly two years
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and then returned to the East, his health shattered by malarial fever. He now made an extended tour of the Western Islands (Azores), and upon his return was engaged on surveys at the headwaters of the Cumberland River in Kentucky. Later Mayor Fish was employed by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, and the Grand Island and Wyom- ing Central Railroads (Black Hills extension). He returned to Taun- ton in 1890.
A man broadened by travel and contact with all classes and condi- tions of men, of wide and honorable fraternal connection, and of the most pleasing social qualities, Mayor Fish was well adapted to enter the political arena. He became a candidate for alderman from Ward 4, 1894, and was elected by a surprising majority. He was re elected in 1895, and in both terms served as chairman of the board, giving sub- stantial evidence in this position of marked executive ability and true judgment, which led to a nomination for the mayoralty and which has characterized his administration of that office. The municipal campaign of 1896 was based on several important issues, one being the question of municipal ownership of electric lights. Mayor Fish received the nomination of his party and was elected with practically no opposition. He was again nominated and re elected in 1897, and also in 1898. In all of these terms an unusual number of important questions have been publicly agitated, causing much responsibility to rest upon the executive head of the city government, but his administration has been generally recognized by all-both opponents and coadherents-as able, clean and effective. Mayor Fish has a wide fraternal connection; he is past master of Ionic Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, past high priest of St. Mark's Royal Arch Chapter, and a member of St. John's Com- mandery, Knights Templar. He is also past grand of Sabbatia Lodge of Odd Fellows, and deputy grand master of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows. Mayor Fish is unmarried and resides with his mother at 97 Ingell street, Taunton.
R. HENRY HALL.
RICHARD HENRY HALL., of Taunton, is the eldest son of Richard Hutchens Hall and Mary A. Bates, and was born in Norton, Bristol county, Mass., November 7, 1830. He is a lineal descendant in the eighth generation from George Hall, one of the founders of the town
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of Taunton in 1639 and one of its first Board of Selectmen, through his great-grandfather, Brian Hall, who was was born in Taunton, Mass., July 9, 1727, and who removed to the adjoining town of Norton (form- erly a part of Taunton) about the year 1755. Brian Hall, son of John and Mary Hall, of Taunton, was married in 1751 to Abiah Crossman, of Taunton, the daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Leonard) Crossman, and granddaughter of Thomas and Joanna Leonard. He became a large landowner, and was one of the first to respond to the call to arms in the war for independence, enlisting as lieutenant in Captain Hodges's company, and serving in Rhode Island in 1776. He was also a mem- ber of the Select Committee of Correspondence to take into considera- tion the "confederation of the Union of States," and of the committee to devise means for the formation of a State Constitution. He died December 13, 1778. Both he and his wife were members of the First Congregational Society. Richard IIutchens Hall, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Norton, Mass., May 23, 1810, and for many years was superintendent of the Norton branch of the Taunton Copper Manufacturing Company. He died February 10, 1877. His wife, Mary A., was the daughter of Horatio and Mary (Monroe) Bates, of Providence, R. I., and was born September 8, 1812, and died October 19, 1878. They had ten children, of whom six attained maturity, viz. : Richard Henry, of Taunton; Horatio Hutchens, of Taunton, born September 6, 1833; Mary Jane, born February 14, 1836, married J. Henry Stoddard, of Weymouth; Harriet Augusta, born March 14, 1845, widow of Alfred W. Woodward, of Taunton; George Edwin, born October 1, 1847, of Norton; and Velina Allen, born October 5, 1854, married Albert Eddy, of Norton.
Richard Henry Hall was educated in the public schools of Norton, at the Bristol Academy in Taunton, and at the Pierce Academy in Middleborough. At the age of nineteen he entered the employ of the Taunton Copper Manufacturing Company, with which he remained thirty-four years, filling the various positions of metallurgist, refiner, chemist, superintendent, and director with unusual ability and great satisfaction. The high standard attained by the company in its several lines of manufactured goods was largely due to Mr. Hall's energy and skill, and to the care which he exercised in his departments. In 1884 he resigned and spent some time in foreign travel, principally in Europe, and upon returning home he became, at the earnest solicita- tion of Taunton's business men, the candidate for mayor. He was
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elected and served during 1886, was again elected for 1888, and re- elected without opposition for 1889, being nominated by both the Citi- zens and Republican conventions. During his three years' service as mayor of Taunton he devoted his whole time to municipal work, and in many ways advanced the material interests of the city. ITis arduous labors during the year of the disastrous freshet in 1886 and during the celebration of her 250th anniversary in 1889 are held in grateful and appreciative remembrance.
Mr. Hall is independent in politics, voting and working for the best interests of the community at large, and supporting those movements which promise the widest benefit. For several years he resided in Norton, where he rendered efficient service as a member of the town School Board. In 1861 he removed to Taunton, where he has lived ever since, and where he served for a time in the Common Council prior to his election to the mayoralty. He has been the general superinten- dent of the Revere Copper Company at Canton since 1890. He has been a trustee of the Bristol County Savings Bank of Taunton since 1875, a trustee of the Morton Hospital since its organization, a trustee of the Taunton Public Library since 1893, and a member and vestry- man of St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, Taunton, for many years. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, being a member and past treasurer of Ionic Lodge and member of St. Mark's Royal Arch Chapter, of Taun- ton, an honorary member of Taunton Council, of New Bedford, and a member of St. John's Commandery, No. 1, K. T., of Providence, R. I., and of the Scottish Rite bodies. He is also a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution through his great-grandfather, Lieut. Brian Hall. As a citizen he is public spirited, progressive, and patriotic, imbued with the loftiest sense of honor, and universally re- spected and esteemed. He is methodical, exact, and energetic, a man of the strictest integrity, and a liberal supporter of every worthy enter- prise.
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