Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 75

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1399

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts > Part 75

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In all the public positions he held Governor Crapo showed himself a capable, dis- creet, vigilant and industrious officer. He evinced wonderful vigor in mastering details, and always wrote and spoke intelligently on any subject to which he gave his attention. Michigan never before had a Governor who devoted so much personal attention and painstaking labor to her public duties as he did. His industry was literally amazing. He was not a man of brilliant or showy qualities, but he pos- sessed sharp and remarkably well developed business talents, a clear and practical understanding, sound judgment and unfailing integrity. In all the walks of life there was not a purer man in the State. So faithful, so laborious, so conscientious a man in office is a blessing beyond computation in the healthful influence which he exerts in the midst of the too prevalent corruptions that so lamentably abound in the

War. W. Sapo

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

public service. We have often thought that, in his broad and sterling good sense, Governor Crapo closely resembled the lamented Lincoln. He was a man of the people and most worthily represented them. His decease is an occasion for public mourning and the State has very few men like him and can ill afford to spare such an eminently useful citizen. His death will be profoundly deplored throughout our Commonwealth and a general sympathy will be sincerely extended to the bereaved family.

Mr. Crapo was a member for many years of the Christian Church. He married, June 9, 1825, Mary Ann Slocum, of Dartmouth. His wife, who shared his earlier struggles with him, was a devoted woman and possessed a strong character, combined with hopefulness and courage. They had ten children, a son and nine daughters.

William W. Crapo, only son of Gov. Henry Howland Crapo, was born while his parents resided in Dartmouth, May 16, 1830. His early edu- cation was obtained in the New Bedford public schools; he prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was graduated from Yale College in 1852. Very early in life he decided to make the legal pro- fession his life work, and after leaving college began to read in the office of Gov. John H. Clifford, of New Bedford, and later continued at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge. Like his father, he possessed in abundance those qualities of energy and perseverance which aid in making the successful student and his preparation for the legal profes- sion was most painstaking and thorough. He was admitted to the bar in 1855, at once began practice in New Bedford and has, therefore, now completed a period of forty-three years as a practitioner. Very soon after his admission to the bar Mr. Crapo was appointed city solicitor and held the office twelve years, giving the most conscientious and thorough attention and devotion to all his official duties. His first real work in politics was in behalf of John C. Fremont, the first candidate of the Republican party for president, and during the campaign he won a brilliant reputation as an orator. In the same year (1856) Mr. Crapo was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and in the following year declined to become a candidate for State senator, desir- ing to give more attention to his increasing legal business. It was somewhat remarkable that he so soon attained a leading position at the bar, a success which was in large measure due to his exhaustive legal knowledge, his patient industry and unfailing self-reliance. His qual- ifications rapidly gained recognition and he won to an exceptional de- gree the confidence of the citizens of New Bedford. All measures

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tending to advance the interests of the village, even during his earliest endeavors to secure a firm professional foothold, found in him an earn- est and unselfish supporter. He was chairman of the commission who were in charge of the first public water supply, and from 1865 to 1875 was chairman of the Water Board. With the breaking out of the Civil war he entered heartily into all measures for the support of the gov- ernment, and during the close of the struggle he gave freely of his time, energy and means for the welfare of the cause. Mr. Crapo has never been a man whom the people were disposed to leave out of public service, and he was elected to the Forty fourth Congress to fill a vacancy, and was re-elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses, declining in 1882 to longer accept the nomination. While not attempting in this brief notice to give an adequate account of his work as a legislator, it may be stated that he early took a prominent position in Congress; was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Forty-fifth Congress, and of the Committee on Bank- ing and Currency in the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh. During his last term he was chairman of the last-named committee and much has been said and written in praise of the skillful and efficient manner in which he managed the bill for extending the charters of national banks, a bill which was successfully carried through under his leadership, and against formidable obstacles. In the tariff legislation through which the tax on the capital and deposits of banks was removed, his famil- iarity with the subject was of great service and secured the direct application of the law to the national banks. Mr. Crapo's value in the legislation of the country during the incumbency of the office of con- gressman was recognized not only by his constituents but by the nation. In a short review of Mr. Crapo's life and public services published some time ago, the biographer said:

At the age of fifty Mr. Crapo finds himself well started in political life, in the full maturity of his powers and possessing what some politician has so neatly termed the pecuniary basis. In person he strongly resembles his father, a man of hardy intel- lectual physiognomy. The family is of French origin, regarding which there is a romantic tradition. Both father and son have the style of face which is French rather than English. The strong mental as well as physical resemblance of the son to the father is a striking illustration of Galton's doctrine of heredity.

Mr. Crapo has achieved remarkable success as a lawyer of finance, and as guardian or trustee of individual estates his high character and business talents have brought to him more interests and cases than he

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could attend to. In nearly all of the more prominent business enter- prises of New Bedford his name is found in some capacity, and in the conduct of each his mature advice, his rarely erring judgment and fore- sight, and his entire trustworthiness have been sought and fully appre- ciated. Mr. Crapo has served as president of the Mechanics' National Bank for more than a quarter of a century. He has been prominent in the boards of direction of numerous manufacturing industries, and for many years has been president of the Flint and Père Marquette Rail- road Company, as well as actively associated with the management of several other railroads. To many other departments of business indus- try he has at some period of his life devoted attention, gaining the ripe experience that comes to men of broad powers. He has always been a Republican and an earnest and influential supporter of his party. That he has not in recent years received the nomination for governor of Massachusetts is due more to his reluctance to the employment of the political methods of the day than to any other cause. He is now in his sixty-ninth year, a man of brilliant intellectual ability, high scholarship, comprehensive legal and business knowledge and enjoying to the larg- est degree the confidence and admiration of the people. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Yale College in 1882. Mr. Crapo married, January 22, 1857, Sarah Ann Davis Tappan, and two sons were born to them: Henry Howland Crapo and Stanford Tappan Crapo.

WILLIAM FREDERICK DROWN.

WILLIAM FREDERICK DROWN, who died at his home on County street, New Bedford, in the seventy sixth year of his age, on February 18, 1891, was one of the leading business men of that city. He was born in Rehoboth, December 4, 1815, only son of Ezra and Sally (Lindsey) Drown. The family is of good old Puritan stock, its advent in America dating back to early in the seventeenth century. Mr. Drown's father was born in Rehoboth, February 1, 1788, and was by occupation a farmer. His mother was also a native of Rehoboth, born February 20, 1789. They had seven children, six daughters and a son. Mr. Drown's grandfather, Colonel Frederick Drown, also of Rehoboth, was a prom- inent man in his generation, a soldier of the Revolution, and a man much esteemed by his fellow citizens. For twenty years he held com- 91

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

missions in the military. He served the town of Rehoboth as select- man and overseer of the poor twenty-three years and as assessor four- teen years. He also represented the town in the General Court for eleven years, viz., 1787-1791, and 1799-1804. He died in the latter year of typhoid fever, having reached the age of sixty-two years.

William Frederick Drown spent the earlier years of his life in Attle- borough, whither his parents had removed shortly after his birth. Here he was educated in the public schools, and in 1838 removed to Middle- borough and engaged in the cotton business. Mr. Drown came to New Bedford in 1843 and opened a retail grocery store, which he conducted alone successfully for five years and then formed a copartnership with his brother-in-law, Sylvanus Thomas, under the firm name of William F. Drown & Company. They branched out into a wholesale business and met with abundant and merited success, for both were men of the highest qualities and natural ability. In 1861 Mr. Thomas withdrew from the firm and the business was conducted by Mr. Drown until 1868, when he retired from active service and during the remainder of his life enjoyed a well earned freedom from the cares and responsibilities of active business.

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.

Lloyd S. Ecole

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

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 Swansea, 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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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

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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BIOGRAPHICAL.

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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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

J. H. ESTES & SON.

PLEASANTLY situated in the Maplewood valley, about two miles from the center of Fall River, are the mills of J. H. 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

Sept Pluto irevere

John Do. Estes

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

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 H. Estes, then a barefoot boy, used often to steal rides. High 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 H. 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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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

& 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'- creased threefold. About 6,000 square feet of floor was added to the mill and a large stone storehouse constructed.

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Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 75

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub Publication date: 1899 Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company Number of Pages: 1399

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1399