USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts > Part 77
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Major Horton has long been one of Attleborough's most public spirited and enterprising citizens. Since the war he has taken an active interest in G. A. R. matters, becoming a charter member and several times commander of Post 145, of that city, and serving also as commander of the Bristol County Association of the G. A. R. for about two years. In politics he is an earnest Republican. He has been chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Attleborough several times, commissioner of the Attleborough Water Supply District Sinking Fund for many years, and president of the board of trustees of the Attleborough Public Library since its organization, having been one of its principal founders. He
Andrew& Jennings.
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was long a trustee and the secretary and is now president of the Rich- ardson School Fund, and was one of the organizers in 1876 of the Attle- borough Savings and Loan Association, which he has served continu- ously as a director, and of which he is now president. He is also a vice-president of the Jewelers' Board of Trade, whose headquarters are in Providence, R. I., and has been a member of the Congregational Church for many years. He is a leader in town affairs, a patriotic and progressive citizen, a strong friend, and universally respected and esteemed. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature, House 1891- 92, and Senate 1893; is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of the Royal Arcanum, A. O. U. W., and other kindred societies.
June 12, 1861, Major Horton married Mary Ann, only daughter of Jesse R. and Mary Carpenter, of Attleborough. She died June 12, 1871, leaving one child, Mary Edith, born June 22, 1862, now the wife of Thomas D. Gardiner, of Attleborough, Mass. Major Horton married, second, September 24, 1873, Eliza Dutton Freemont, of Amesbury, Mass., and they have had two children : Gertrude E., born May 29, 1876, and Addie D., who died in infancy.
ANDREW J. JENNINGS.
HON. ANDREW JACKSON JENNINGS, lawyer and district attorney for the Southern District of Massachusetts, is descended from one of the oldest familes of Tiverton, R. I. He is a grandson of Isaac Jennings, of Tiverton, and the third son of Andrew M. Jennings, who was born in Fall River, Mass., in January, 1808, and died in 1882, having been for some thirty-five years the foreman of the machine shop of Hawes, Marvel & Davol; his wife survives him. Their children were Thomas J., who died in 1872; Susan, Elizabeth E., Andrew, and Elizabeth, all of whom died in infancy; Andrew J., the subject of this sketch; George F., superintendent of Bowen's coal yard, of Fall River; and Annie P. (Mrs. J. Densmore Brown), of Milford, Conn.
Andrew Jackson Jennings was born in Fall River, Mass., August 2, 1849, and attended the public and high schools of his native city until 1867, when he entered Mowry & Goff's Classical School at Providence, R. I., from which he was graduated in June, 1868. He then entered Brown University and was graduated from that institution with special honors in 1872. While there he was active and prominent in all athletic
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sports, being captain of the class and university nines. He was prin- cipal of the Warren (R. I) High School from 1872 to 1874, and in July of the latter year began the study of law in the office of Hon. James M. Morton, of Fall River. In January, 1875, he entered Boston Uni- versity Law School, from which he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. in May, 1876, and was at once admitted to the bar in Bristol county. On June 1, 1876, he formed a law partnership with his pre- ceptor, Mr. Morton, which continued until 1890, when the latter was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The firm of Morton & Jennings took a foremost place at the Bristol bar. Mr. Jennings was afterward associated in practice with John S. Brayton, jr., under the style of Jennings & Brayton, for a short time, and in July, 1894, formed a copartnership with James M. Morton, jr., which still continues under the firm name of Jennings & Morton.
Mr. Jennings has achieved prominence at the bar, and is everywhere recognized as an able, painstaking, and energetic lawyer and advocate. He was a member of the Fall River School Board for three years, and served as a member of the House of Representatives in 1878 and 1879 and as State senator in 1882. During his three years in the House and Senate he was an influential member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the joint committee on the removal of Judge Day by ad- dress in 1882. He was active in securing the passage of the civil dam- age law in the House and the introduction of the school house liquor law in the Senate. He is a natural orator, eloquent and pleasing in address, and a public spirited citizen. On the day of General Grant's funeral he was selected to deliver the memorial oration for the city of Fall River, and on other occasions he has been called upon to make important and fitting speeches. Mr. Jennings has been for several years a trustee of Brown University and clerk of the Second Baptist Society of Fall River, and was president of the Brown Alumni in 1891 and 1892. As a lawyer he has conducted a number of important cases. He was counsel for the defendant in the Lizzie A. Borden trial for hom-
icide in 1893. from the outset. In November, 1894, he was elected dis- trict attorney for the Southern District of Massachusetts to fill a vacancy, and in 1895 he was re-elected for a full term of three years. He has been president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Fall River since 1893, and is a director of the Merchants' Mill, the Globe Yarn Mill, and the Sanford Spinning Company, and a trustee of the Union Savings Bank.
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December 25, 1879, Mr. Jennings married Miss Marion G., only daughter of Capt. Seth and Nancy J. (Bosworth) Saunders, of Warren, R. I. They have two children: Oliver Saunders and Marion.
JONATHAN THAYER LINCOLN.
JONATHAN THAYER LINCOLN was for many years recognized as one of the leading business men of Fall River and to his mechanical ingenuity and business sagacity was largely due the successful building up of the firm of Kilburn, Lincoln & Co. He was a son of Caleb and Mercy (Thayer) Lincoln, and was born in Taunton, October 17, 1805. Caleb Lincoln was a farmer and miller, living on a farm in the now village of Westville, Taunton, which had been in the possession of his family since their settlement in the town about the year 1658 and which is still owned and occupied by one of his sons. He was a soldier in the Revolution. Caleb's father was William Lincoln who married Hannah Wade. Children, Zilphy, Sally, Lurana, Rebecca, Deborah, and Caleb. William's father was Thomas Lincoln who married Rebecca Walker. Children, William, Silas, Nathan, and Tabatha. Representatives of the family were among the earliest settlers of Bristol county and re- moved to Taunton from Hingham. It is an interesting fact that nearly all the Lincoln family in the United States trace, with more or less distinctness, their first settlement therein to Hingham. Hon. Solomon Lincoln, in a monograph on the Lincoln families of Massachusetts, claims that all the Lincolns in Massachusetts are descendants of the Lincolns who settled in Hingham in 1636 and 1638. He says: "We have evidence of authentic records that the early settlers of Hingham of the name of Lincoln were four, bearing the name of Thomas, dis- tinguished from each other by their occupations as miller, weaver, cooper and husbandman; Stephen (brother of the husbandman), Daniel, and Samuel (brother of the weaver)." He adds, "Our claim is that the early settlers of Hingham above enumerated were the progenitors of all the Lincolns of the country. From Hingham the Lincolns trace their early home to Norfolk county, England."
Jonathan Thayer Lincoln, the subject of this notice, received his preliminary education in the old red school house at Westville and later studied at the private school of Rev. Alvin Cobb, which then en- joyed considerable local fame. At the age of sixteen he went to work
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in what was called the "Shovel-cake " cotton spinning factory at West- ville. Two years later he was apprenticed to David Perry, who owned a machine shop on the White Birch stream in Dighton. Here he had abundant opportunity to gratify his passion for machinery and learned the trade which had been his choice from boyhood. Having completed his time, and reached his majority, he was given the usual " freedom " payment of an apprentice for his three years service at his trade-fifty dollars in money and a new suit of clothes. He soon made his way to Pawtucket where he found employment in the machine shop of David Wilkinson with whom he remained about three years, having as fellow- workmen, David Fales and Alvin Jencks, afterwards founders of the firm of Fales & Jencks, and Clarke Tompkins, afterwards the success- ful machine maker of Troy, N. Y. After leaving Pawtucket he returned to Taunton and remained a year, during which time he was engaged to change a single color printing machine into a multiple color machine, one of the first probably ever made in this country. In 1829 he came to Fall River and in 1831 was employed as master mechanic by the Massasoit Mill Company, which then leased the mill property on Pocasset street owned by the Watuppa Manufacturing Company. In 1845-46 the Massasoit Company moved its machinery to its new mill on Davol street. The Watuppa Company, of which Linden Cook was agent, decided to fill its mill with improved machinery, and engaged Mr. Lincoln to build a part of the looms, which he did in the machine shop of the mill. The job of looms was divided into three parts. Mr. Lin- coln had at first a third and Mr. John Kilburn a third, with the under- standing with the company that the one who completed his part first should have the remaining part to make. Mr. Lincoln was the success. ful competitor and so made two-thirds of the looms. The style of loom then made was widely known as the "Fall River loom.", In 1844, John Kilburn, a native of New Hampshire, began in Fall River the manufacture of cotton looms and the Fourneyron Turbine, the latter a French invention which was being introduced into the New England mills as a water moter. He had been in business but a short time when his health failed and he died in 1846. After his death a copartnership was formed, comprising his widow, his brother Elijah C., and Mr. Lincoln, which succeeded to the business he had been engaged in es- tablishing. The firm, which was called E. C. Kilburn & Co., manu- factured turbines, shafting, and various kinds of machinery for print works and iron mills. Mr. Kilburn had charge of the office work and
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Mr. Lincoln of the mechanical. Both were industrious, hard working men, and they soon built up a flourishing business. . The firm contin - ued until 1856 when a new firm, Kilburn, Lincoln & Son, was formed, consisting of Mr. Kilburn, Mr. Lincoln, and his oldest son, Henry C. Lincoln. The younger Mr. Lincoln brought into the business a prac- tical knowledge of mechanics and a thorough business training, having been associated with his father in business in various capacities since early manhood.
The firm made a specialty of the "Fourneyron Turbine." This, as improved by them, had a large sale, displacing the lumbering breast- wheels, and utilizing a percentage of power which the best of the latter never rivaled. In 1859 Mr. Lincoln made an extensive business tour through the Southern States, his firm having built up a considerable business with the manufacturers of that section of the country. In 1867 it was found necessary to build a larger machine shop, and it was decided to add an iron foundry to their works. To insure the success of the new feature, Charles P. Dring, who had been associated with the Fall River Iron-Works Company for many years, became associated with them. The name was changed to Kilburn, Lincoln & Co., and they became an incorporated company in 1868 under the Massachusetts General Incorporation Act. Mr. Lincoln's son in-law, Andrew Lus- comb, who had been engaged with them in the manufacture of gun parts for the United States Government, was also admitted. The new works were completed on a tract of three hundred rods of land in an eligible location near railroads and tidewater, and comprised a machine shop, iron and brass foundries, pattern house, paint shop, warehouse, and setting-up shop. Mr. Lincoln was elected president of the corpo ration and held the position until his death, when he was succeeded by his oldest son, Henry C. Lincoln. Mr. Kilburn was elected treasurer and continued as such until 1872, when he was succeeded by Leontine Lincoln, who still serves. At this time Mr. Kilburn withdrew his in - terest and was elected treasurer of the King Philip Mills. In the same year additions were made to the works, with a view to the manufacture of looms on a large scale, and since then the company has been among the largest manufacturers of looms for cotton and silk weaving. It has a capacity of 5,000 looms per annum, besides other kinds of ma- chinery, as shafting, pulleys, dye-works and bleachery machinery, of which it has made a specialty.
Since Mr. Lincoln's death his interest has been held by his family.
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The company is now organized as follows: President, Andrew Lus- comb; treasurer, Leontine Lincoln; directors, Andrew Luscomb, Leon- tine Lincoln, aud Charles H. Dring.
In 1855 Mr. Lincoln became associated with his brother Lorenzo, his nephew James M., and his son Edward Lincoln in a paper manu- facturing enterprise in North Dighton. The firm was called L. Lin- coln & Co., and succeeded to the business, which was established in 1850 by Mr. Lincoln's two brothers, Caleb M. and Lorenzo. He retired from the firm before his death.
Mr. Lincoln had the greatest faith in the success of Fall River as a center for the cotton manufacturing industry, was one of the original stockholders of the Union Mill Company, an owner in several other corporations, and a director in the Tecumseh Mills from the time of the organization of that corporation. Although he took a deep interest in public affairs, Mr. Lincoln was adverse to holding public office, and never held but one, that of member of the Common Council of the city. He was one of the oldest members of Mt. Hope Lodge of Masons, of which lodge he was treasurer for many years. In politics he was a Free-Soil Whig until the formation of the Republican party, when he became an earnest adherent to the principles of that party. He was a man of sunny temperament, earnest of purpose, charitable in judgment, and distinguished in acts of practical benevolence. The Fall River Daily News closed an editorial notice of his death as follows: " Mr. Lincoln was held in great esteem and respect by his fellow citizens generally. He had the reputation of being an ingenious and skillful mechanic, and a business man whose integrity was unquestioned. He was a worthy and valued citizen whose loss must be felt."
LEONTINE LINCOLN.
LEONTINE LINCOLN, son of Jonathan Thayer and Abby (Luscomb) Lincoln, was born in Fall River, December 26, 1846. During his boyhood he attended the Fall River public schools and later a private school at Providence, R. I. Mr. Lincoln began business at the age of nineteen, when he entered the counting room of Kilburn, Lin- coln & Co., of which corporation his father was then president (later succeeded in the presidency by his oldest son, H. C. Lincoln). The firm was then, and still is, a large manufacturer of cotton and silk ma-
GUBELMAN PHOTO-GRAVURE CO
austin Messingen
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
chinery. Mr. Lincoln has been in the direction of some of the leading manufacturing and banking interests of the city, including the Seacon- net, Tecumseh, King Philip, Hargraves, Parker and Arkwright Mills, Barnard Manufacturing Company, Crystal Spring Bleaching and Dye- ing Company, Second National Bank, and a member of the board of investment of the Five Cents Savings Bank; he is also president of the Seaconnet Mills Corporation, president of the Hargraves Mill and the Parker Mills, and of the Second National Bank, and trustee of the Home for Aged People.
In 1872 Mr. Lincoln succeeded E. C. Kilburn as treasurer of the Kilburn, Lincoln & Company Corporation, and still retains this con- nection, which now covers a period of twenty-six years. His active interest in the educational institutions of Fall River has long been manifest, and he has served as a member of the School Committee nineteen years and its chairman eleven years. He is also a member and secretary of the board of trustees of the B. M. C. Durfee High School. He has been a member of the board of trustees of the Public Library for twenty years, during which time he has served as secretary and treasurer of the board. Mr. Lincoln has written and spoken on educational, industrial and political subjects. He has been a member of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity since 1894 and was elected chairman of the board in June, 1898. He is a member of the Old Col- ony Historical Society and the Ameican Librarians' Association; also a member of the New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association; was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1896 at St. Louis, which nominated William McKinley to the presidency.
In 1889 Brown University conferred upon him the honorary degree, A.M. He married, in May, 1868, Amelia S., daughter of John Dun- can, D. D., and Mary A. (Macowen) Duncan, and their children are Jonathan Thayer Lincoln and Leontine Lincoln, jr.
'AUSTIN MESSINGER.
AUSTIN MESSINGER was practically a lifelong resident of Norton, Bris- tol county, Mass., where he was born November 2, 1817, and where he died February 1, 1898. He was descended in the sixth generation from Henry and Sarah Messinger, who settled in Boston prior to Janu- ary 27, 1640, at which time Henry " has a lot of land allowed him at 94
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Muddy river, by town grant, for two heads." Henry Messinger was the first known proprietor of the land on which now stands the build- ings of the Massachusetts Historical Society and Boston Museum. He was a joiner by trade, a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artil- lery Company in 1658, and a freeman in 1665, and probably died in 1681. Of his eleven children, Thomas, the tenth, was born March 22, 1661, married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Martha Mellows, and had three sons and three daughters. Ebenezer Messinger, son of Thomas, was born June 2, 1697, in Boston, and removed to Wrentham, Mass., where his first wife died November 21, 1752, aged fifty-one; she was Rebecca, daughter of Wigglesworth and Ursillear Sweetser, and they were married January 1, 1719, by Rev. Cotton Mather. Novem- ber 3, 1766, he married, second, Hannah Metcalf. He died June 9, 1768. He had eight children, all by his first wife. Sweetser Messin- ger, the seventh child, married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Eliza- beth Smith, and had twelve children, of whom Oliver, the youngest son, was born June 28, 1778. Oliver Messinger moved from Wrentham to a farm in Norton, Bristol county, where he died in January, 1850. He married, first, Patience Miller, who died leaving three children: Albert, James Oliver and Louisa. His second wife was Rhoda, daughter of Elder George Kilton, of Taunton. She was born April 23, 1792, and bore him two children, Austin and Rhoda Maria.
Austin Messinger received a limited common school education in his native town, but being possessed of great force of character and unusual intellectual attainments he very early displayed those strong qualities of head and heart, which ultimately brought him success and honor. By improving the opportunities that fell his way he became a well read, thoroughly posted man, and achieved prominence as the result of his own exertions. . Before he reached his majority he had learned the painter's trade, and at the age of twenty-three he opened a paint shop in Taunton, where he carried on a successful business for several years. His health failing, he returned to Norton in the spring of 1846, and built the house in which he ever afterward resided, and which stands within a few feet of where he was born. A few years later he began to experiment with friction matches, and when, in 1857, the patent on them expired he commenced the manufacture on a small scale, first in a back room of his house. He took the first lot to Providence, R. I., in a sleigh, and disposed of them so advantageously that, upon his re- turn, he erected a small building and employed a few girls, and from
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that modest beginning grew one of the largest match plants in this part of the country. During its many years of success the establishment paid into the government treasury hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue taxes. In 1870 he formed a copartnership with his son-in-law, Andrew H. Sweet, and under the firm name of Messinger & Sweet the concern continued in the manufacture of matches until 1881, when the plant became a part of the Diamond Match Company's property. The firm managed the business in Norton until 1884, when it was dissolved, the machinery being removed to Boston. Afterward until his death Mr. Messinger was not engaged in active business, though he was always ready for any service that he could render.
Mr. Messinger early began to take an active part in politics and prominently identified himself with the Democratic party, casting his first presidential vote for Van Buren in 1840. In 1848 he entered the Free Soil party, and as its candidate was sent in 1851 to represent the town of Norton in the Massachusetts Legislature, being a member of that celebrated house which, after balloting nearly all winter, finally elected Charles Sumner to the United States Senate. Mr. Messinger's last Democratic vote was cast for James K. Polk in 1844. In 1856 he joined the Republican party, being present as a delegate at the famous Massachusetts convention when that party was organized in the State. He was town clerk of Norton from 1861 to 1883, a period of twenty-two years. In 1882 he was again sent to the Legislature, and in 1888 and 1889 was elected State senator from the First Bristol district by the largest majorities ever given a candidate there for that office. Dur- ing these two terms he served on the committees on drainage, towns, public charitable institutions, and parishes and religious societies. For nearly fifty years he was a justice of the peace, and discharged the duties of that office with singular ability and honor. In 1887 he was elected a member of the Board of Selectmen of Norton and served two years, and in the old days of High Sheriff Cobb he was appointed deputy sheriff. In all these positions as well as in business affairs Mr. Messinger exhibited great executive ability and achieved the distinction of leadership. He was a man of indomitable energy, of the highest integrity, and of broad intellectuality, and during a long and eminent career enjoyed the respect and confidence of the entire community. His perseverance is best illustrated in connection with his match busi- ness, in which he was twice burned out, the last time in the summer of 1866. With characteristic enterprise he rebuilt his plant, and by his
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own efforts gained both success and wealth. He was president of the Norton Building and Loan Association and a trustee of the Unitarian Church for many years, and a member of King David Lodge, F. & A. M., of Taunton.
December 24, 1840, he married Selina A. F. Alden, daughter of Jason F. and Keziah Eaton (Shaw) Alden, of Middleborough, and a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens of the Mayflower. She survives him. They had two children: Emma Evelyn, who died in infancy, and Mary Ella, born December 23, 1845, who married, June 8, 1870, Andrew Hodges Sweet, son of Joseph Dana and Abby A. (Hodges) Sweet, of Norton; they have one son, Austin Messinger Sweet, born May 10, 1874, who is associated in busi- ness with his father in Norton, and who married, April 8, 1896, Mary Alice, daughter of Allison J. and Delia M. Cowles, of that town.
ANDREW H. SWEET.
ANDREW H. SWEET was born in Norton, Mass., October 2, 1845, a son of Joseph D. and Abbie A. (Hodges) Sweet. His father was a farmer throughout his life. Mr. Sweet was educated in the public schools of Norton and taught school at Easton and Sharon. He next went into the grocery business, but afterward became identified in Norton in the friction match business under the name of Messinger & Sweet, which was consolidated into The Diamond Match Company, and he was with them for about three years, when he bought back from them the Norton property and started his present business, the manufacture of wooden and paper boxes. From this industry he now supplies the various manufacturers throughout New England and other points in the United States. In 1870 Mr. Sweet married Mary E., daughter of Austin and Salina A. F. Messinger, and they have one son, Austin M. Sweet, who is now interested in the business with his father. Mr. Sweet has been a father of the town; has been on the School Committee; represented his town in the Legislature two terms, and in politics is a Republican. He is a Unitarian and takes a general interest in his town and town's people.
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