USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
599
BIOGRAPHIES.
metal boxes, pail and can covers were made of two or more pieces, either soldered or locked. To produce them by a single operation Mr. Bray was compelled to make a most careful study of the drawing of metals, and was obliged to overcome many difficulties. The full value of this invention, however, was lost to Mr. Bray by a trivial omission in his application for a patent. Had his application contained the term, "a seamless, beaded box," he would have been enabled to have controlled the entire manufacture of boxes by this process. An im- mense fortune was thus lost by merely a slight oversight. This single invention would have been sufficient to have given Mr. Bray promi- nence among inventors, but his claims for recognition by no means rest on any one invention. The range of his inventive genius has been wide, the patent office reports showing that to him have been granted no less than one hundred and sixty patents. By no means have all of them been financially successful, nor all even of practical utility, but they bear evidence of the wide scope of his mind and how great a toiler he has been in the field of mechanical ingenuity.
Mr. Bray's most successful inventions have been in connection with appliances used principally in boot and shoe making. Soon after his location in Boston his attention was drawn to the desirability of a new method of lacing shoes. The old style of lacing through a common eyelet was slow and bothersome. Discovering the need or necessity for improvement, he was not content until he had devised a way to accom- plish it. This was secured by an invention upon which he secured a patent under date of May 2, 1865. This was a shoe lacing with a loop riveted to either side of the upper through which the lacing passed. By a single draft on the lacing the front of the shoe was closed. This simple invention, which he subsequently sold, was in itself valuable, but more especially so from the ideas it suggested, which were success- fully carried out by Mr. Bray. From the rivet used for attaching this lacing or loop came to him the idea of the tubular rivet, an invention which is now an important factor in the manufacture of boots, shoes, harness, trunks, saddles, and various other purposes. This was fol- lowed by the lacing stud, now so generally used in connection with shoes and gloves. One who looks upon these simple yet so eminently useful devices can scarcely realize the complicated and ingenious ma- chinery required for making and applying them. The machines now employed in their production required years of experiment, and in- volved an expenditure of fully $150,000. To one less courageous than
600
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Mr. Bray, the attainment of the object he had in view, through all the discouragements.he had to encounter, would hardly have been accom- plished. To-day the manufacture of tubular rivets, lacing studs and hooks, in connection with the making of machines for applying them, has become an industry by itself which engages the attention of hiin- dreds of workmen. The finely equipped manufacturing plant for this purpose is located at Wallaston, Mass., and in many respects forms one of the most interesting industrial enterprises in New England. Here, daily, six tons of metal are worked up into rivets and studs by auto- miatic machinery of delicate and intricate construction which seem al- most human in the precision and regularity of their operation. Here can be seen all the processes of manufacturing, from the plain wire or strips of metal to the finished product ; the different stages of evolution, even to the japanning, being effected by automatic machinery, every portion of which represents the inventive genius of Mr. Bray. To con- ceive and bring to the requisite perfection these many mechanical de- vices, it is perhaps needless to say, has been the hard work of years, requiring an amount of patience and strength of purpose few men possess. Every step forward involved costly experiments, vexatious delays, and at times the way to a desired end seemed beset with most discouraging results. Even now, when it would seem that Mr. Bray had reached perfection in the machinery required for his purpose, he is constantly at work devising new improvements, so as to be able to meet the demands of the trade as well as to be fortified against possible competition.
After the completion of his inventions for producing the tubular rivet and lacing stud, their introduction and the creating of a demand for their use was a labor of no small magnitude, and called for a high order of business generalship. For some years Mr. Bray conducted a glove manufactory in France for the sole purpose of introducing gloves provided with his lacing stud, which is now so generally used for this purpose. In this, and other ways no less effective, he was forced to adopt means to introduce his products, but which to-day find a ready market in every part of the United States, while large quantities are exported to England, Germany, France, Austria and Mexico.
The manufacture of the tubular rivet and lacing stud was for several years successfully conducted by Mr. Bray under two separate organiza- tions known as the Tubular Rivet Company and the Lacing Stud Com- pany. These two companies were consolidated March 1, 1893, and
601
BIOGRAPHIES.
now form a new corporation known as the Tubular Rivet and Stud Company, of which Mr. Bray continues as manager and directing spirit. Mr. Bray possesses, what is rare among men of inventive genius, ex- cellent business ability, and while he has devoted himself oftentimes beyond his strength in his labors upon his inventions, he has in no sense failed to admirably manage his business interests. The mental and physical tax upon his powers of endurance has indeed often been greater than he should have borne, and had it not been for an inherited constitution of great strength, he would have been unable to have stood the strain. Few have labored more industriously, and the high degree of success he has attained is in every way richly deserved.
Mr. Bray was married in 1850 to Persis Temple Gross, of Turner, Me. They have had four children, three of whom are living: Persis Davis, Mellen Newton, and William Claxton Bray. Both of the sons are associated with their father in his business enterprises, and upon them largely devolves the management of the manufacturing and busi- ness details. Mr. Bray's residence is at Newton Centre, where he has continuously resided since 1863.
GEORGE H. P. FLAGG.
DR. GEORGE H. P. FLAGG, who of late years has held a prominent place among the manufacturers of boot and shoe machinery, was born in Needham, now Wellesley, Mass., March 12, 1830, and is a son of Solomon and Eliza (Hall) Flagg. He is of English descent, the first of the family in America being Thomas Flagg, who came from England prior to 1643 and settled at Watertown. He was selectman of that town in 1671, 1674-78, and died in 1697. The great-grandfather of our sub- ject, Solomon Flagg, was at the battle of Lexington and served at other points during the War of the Revolution. He held offices in the town of Needham.
Solomon Flagg, the father of our subject, was born in Boston, August 24, 1804, but his entire life was practically spent at Needham, whither his parents moved shortly after his birth. He was school teacher in Needham, Dover, Natick and Sherborn for thirty-eight years, and had an extended acquaintance throughout a wide territory. He had much to do in shaping the affairs of his town and village, and perhaps no man
76
602
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
in Norfolk county, and possibly in the State, held public office so many years in the aggregate as Mr. Flagg. He was selectman of the town of Needham in 1833, 1842, 1843, 1846-49, seven years in all; assessor of Needham, 1832, 1833, 1839, 1845, 1854-59, 1861-64, 1866-74, twenty years in all; member of school committee, 1831, 1845-51, 1854-61, 1864-62, 1870-80, twenty-eight years in all. He was appointed town clerk August 19, 1850, and held the office till the incorporation of Wellesley (1881), over thirty years, and was elected town clerk of Welles- ley upon the organization of the town and held it until 1882. He was appointed treasurer of the town of Needham, May 14, 1859, and elected every year until the incorporation of Wellesley, twenty-one years. He was elected as representative to the General Court in 1834 and again in 1861, when he assisted in patriotic preparation for resistance to rebel- lion. He thus aggregated one hundred and fourteen years of service in public elective office; a record surely seldom equaled. Mr. Flagg was a man of fixed opinions and beliefs, religious in his bearing and habits, yet very fond of fun and good cheer. No citizen of Needham was more popular or better beloved for his sterling traits of character and natural kindliness of heart. He died in May, 1892, surviving his wife for sev- eral years, she having died in 1875.
The boyhood of our subject was passed with his parents at Needham, now Wellesley, where his preliminary education was received in the common school. Later on he attended Day's Academy at Prentham, Mass., and after completing the course at this institution he came to Boston, in his twentieth year, and began the study of dentistry in the office of Dr. W. T. G. Morton, the distinguished discoverer of the anes- thetic properties of ether. He remained in Dr. Morton's office for about five years, when, in 1855, he formed a partnership with Dr. J. A. Cum- mings and began the practice of his profession. Success attended him in his work and he soon secured a profitable practice. In the fall of 1859 he purchased his partner's interest in the business, and for about two years conducted it alone. He then formed a partnership with Dr. H. D. Osgood, which continued until Dr. Flagg retired wholly from professional work. During this period, representing more than a quarter of a cen- tury, Dr. Flagg held an enviable reputation in his profession and had a large and lucrative practice, accumulating a competency from his labors. His achievements, however, in the development and manufacture of boot and shoe machinery have given him such deserved prominence in the industrial history of New England, as to have made his professional
603
BIOGRAPHIES.
career, creditable as it was, seem of secondary importance. His atten- tion was first directed in the line of patents about 1862, when with Dr. Cummings he became interested in a process for preparing rubber plate for the insertion of artificial teeth, which eventually resulted in the formation of the Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company. This proved a very valuable patent and a great financial success.
In 18:3 he formed a partnership with C. H. Helms, the inventor of the Helms burnishing machine, under the style of C. H. Helms & Co. Shortly thereafter the Tapley Machine Company sued the new firm for infringement of their patents. The case was decided in favor of the defendants. The Tapley Company soon after purchased the en- tire interest of C. H. Helms & Co. The success of his undertaking in this line induced Dr. Flagg in 1875 to start a company to manufacture the Union edge setter, which is now entirely owned by him, the merits of which are widely known to the trade. It has been greatly improved since it was first introduced, a Twin setter being the latest production. Soon after the Globe buffer and the Globe heel scourer were added to the business, and the doctor opened an office on Tremont street, Bos- ton, but still kept up the practice of dentistry. In connection with the Globe buffer the manufacture of molded sandpaper was undertaken, a branch of the business which has since grown to large proportions. Dr. Flagg, in 1887, laid the foundation for a six story brick building on Lincoln street, corner of Tufts street, and the following year this was completed. This building was destroyed by fire in 1893, since which a new building has been erected on its site. On the removal of the business to this location in 1888, the doctor sold out his interest in the dental establishment and has since applied his entire time and energies to the machinery business. He started with two machinists, and now over one hundred are constantly employed to meet the demand for his various patent appliances for the manufacture of boots and shoes. In 1889 Dr. Flagg became largely interested in the Boston lasting machine, and after a stubborn fight in the shoe factories of Lynn, obtained a foot- ing in that city that has never been shaken. The sale of the machine has increased until over thirteen hundred are now in use, a striking exam- ple of success. Consecutively have been added to the business the Union cementer, the Rapid inseam trimmer, and the Webster leather cleaning machine, while the Union rounder and three other machines, patents for which have recently been taken out and are under way, will soon be in- troduced to the trade.
604
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
The growth and development of machinery for the manufacture of boots and shoes shows no example of more rapid rise than has been illustrated in the career of Dr. Flagg. The success he has attained against great odds and strong competition has been in many ways re- markable. He is a man of quick perception, and when once convinced of the practicability of an enterprise, possesses the courage to prosecute the undertaking to a conclusion. He naturally inherits mechanical in- genuity, and is quick to perceive the merits and possibilities of me- chanical appliances. His unerring judgment in this regard, formed often against the advice of experts, has been proven on many occasions, and is best evidenced from the fact that he has not yet scored a failure. Naturally such a man inspires confidence, and to-day he is enabled to enlist men and capital in any enterprise which receives his endorse- ment.
WILLIAM D. BRACKETT.
WILLIAM D. BRACKETT, one of the successful boot and shoe manu- facturers of New England and the founder of the well known firm of WV. D. Brackett & Co., was born in Londonderry, N. H., June 9, 1840, and is a son of William D. and Almiria (Brown) Brackett. His father for many years was a successful merchant of Swampscot, Mass., where the youth and early manhood of our subject was passed. His education was confined to the common school, and at the early age of twelve he began his business career in his father's store. He manifested a natural aptitude for business, and the multitudinous duties which fell to his lot in the conduct of a general country store resulted in a business experience of great value. The responsibilities of the entire management of the business was early shifted to his shoulders, and the young merchant proved in every way equal to the many requirements of the position. When he arrived at the age of twenty his father sold out the business to him and he undertook its management on his own account, assuming at the time quite heavy financial obligations, but with good judgment and business tact he met every obligation and was enabled to accumulate a fair surplus. The war of the Rebellion inter- rupted for a time his business plans. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and served
Im DBrackett.
605
BIOGRAPHIES.
for nine months, when his period of enlistment expired. During this time his father continued the business for him, but upon his return he again assumed its charge, prosecuting it with constantly increasing success until 1865. Up to this time Mr. Brackett had amassed, through careful and judicious management, quite a capital for a man of his years and comparitively brief business career. Believing he was equal to a wider field of operation, and naturally ambitious, he came to Bos- ton, and with J. L. Goldthwait embarked in the boot and shoe busi- ness as retailers and jobbers under the firm name of Goldthwait, Brackett & Co., continuing, however, at the same time for a year thereafter his store at 'Swampscot, when he disposed of his business there to devote his entire time to his boot and shoe interest. Success attended his Boston venture, but two years and a half later Mr. Gold- thwait died, and in the fall of 1867 Mr. Brackett formed the copartner- ship of Cressy, Brackett & Co., and commenced the manufacturing and wholesaling of boots and shoes, in which he has since continued with uniform and gratifying success up to the present time. In 1869 E. Mann was admitted as a partner, when the firm became Cressy, Mann & Brackett. In 1870 Mr. Cressy, on account of ill health, sold out his interest, and the business was thereafter continued until 1880 under the firm name of Mann & Brackett. At the latter date Mr. Brackett purchased Mr. Mann's interest, and from that time to the present the business has been conducted under the name of W. D. Brackett & Co. In 1889 Mr. Brackett's son, Forrest G. Brackett, and W. Hobart Emerson were admitted as partners.
During the existence of more than a quarter of a century of this firm Mr. Brackett has been unreservedly devoted to its interest and success. With especial capacity for detail, he has been particularly watchful of the manufacturing part of the business, and to his unre- mitting endeavors in this line the high standing the house has always enjoyed, has been largely due. He is a thorough-going, practical business man, taking pride and pleasure in his work and pursuing his plans with directness and singleness of purpose. He has always been a hard worker, is a strict disciplinarian, punctilious in all matters of business, and jealous of his commercial standing. The business has shown a healthy and substantial growth from year to year and now reaches the sum of over one million dollars annually. The firm now operates three factories: one at Stoneham, Mass. ; another at Windsor, Vt., and a third factory at Nashua, N. H., where a large brick factory
606
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
building was erected in 1889, and is considered one of the best equipped and miost substantial structures of its kind in New England. Since it began operation the firm, however, has operated factories at different times in various localities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ver- mont.
Mr. Brackett was married in 1865 to Sarah A. Lee, of Lowell. They have two children, a son, Forrest G., already referred to as a partner in his father's business, and a daughter named Blanche. In 1872 Mr. Brackett removed his residence to Stoneham to be able to more care- fully look after his manufacturing interest, where he has since continued to reside and has recently erected a fine home.
FRANCIS F. EMERY.
FRANCIS FAULKNER EMERY was born in Boston, March 26, 1830, and is a son of Francis Welch Roberts and Sophronia (Faulkner) Emery. He is a representative of sturdy English ancestry, a descendant of those stout hearted, independent men and women who in the fore part of the seventeenth century came to New England and here founded a commu- nity, the influence of which has been so strongly felt in the establishment and maintenance of our free institutions. The genealogy of the family both on the paternal and maternal side has been carefully and authentic- ally traced for many generations, but it is only possible in a work such as this to allude but briefly to this interesting field of investiga- tion.
The name of Emery figures quite prominently in English history. The name was originally spelled in various ways, as Amery, D'Amerie, D'Amery and Aamery. The first ancestor in England was Gilbert D'Amery, a Norman knight of Tours, who in 1066 fought at Hastings with William the Conqueror, from whom he received large landed es- tates. He owned Thackingdon, and held a dozen manors near Oxford, which were retained by his descendants until 1376, when the third Baron D'Amery died. Descendants of Gilbert D'Amery long dwelt at Berkwell Manor, ten miles from Oxford, where still stands the church they built.
The first of the family in America was John Emery, from whom our subject is descended in the eighth generation. This progenitor of the
60%
BIOGRAPHIES.
family in the New World was born in Romsey, in Hampshire (Hauts), England, in 1598. He with his wife, two children, and a younger brother named Anthony, arrived in Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1635, having made the voyage from Southampton, England, in the ship James. Soon after their arrival they proceeded to Ipswich, and thence to New- bury, where John settled in the same month of his arrival in America. Three years later Anthony located in Portsmouth, R. I., afterwards in Dover, N. H., and again in Kittery, Me. He finally, however, re- turned to Portsmouth, where he died. (A large proportion of the Em- erys at present found in Maine and New Hampshire are his descend- ants. )
John, upon settling at Newbury, secured a grant of land on the south- erly side of the main road leading to the bridge over the river Parker (a short distance above the "lower green " in the old town). He was a carpenter by trade, representatives of which craft were at that time particularly welcome in the New World. His name appears frequently in connection with public enterprises in the earliest annals of Newbury, showing that he was a man of prominence and importance among his fellows. The second grist mill established in Newbury was built by him and Samuel Scullard. That he was a man of humane instincts and of independent nature and above the bigotry and prejudice of his day is evinced from the record found at the court-house in Salem, dated May 5, 1663, stating that he was fined £4 for entertaining Quakers. His offense consisted in granting food and lodging to two men and two women of this religious sect who were traveling through Newbury. At this period one can scarcely depict the commotion caused by such an incident, or appreciate the courage evinced by John Emery in thus rising above the popular prejudice and fanatical bigotry and intoler- ance then almost universally entertained toward the Quakers by the men and women of New England. John Emery also figured promi- nently in the celebrated ecclesiastical case at Newbury, relating to church discipline, which is mentioned in Johnson's " Wonder Working Providence," and which was finally settled by an appeal to the civil authority. Both John Emery and his son John were members of the Woodman party, led by Edward Woodman, which denied the right of the elders of the church assuming wholly to themselves the power of admitting members, or of imposing church censure, believing that the church in its corporate capacity alone had the right and was under sacred obligation to manage its own affairs. The contest was a bitter
608
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
one, beginning prior to 1656, and was finally settled by the court at Ips- wich, May 29, 1647, which decided against the Woodman party, impos- ing a fine on most of them, among those thus fined being John Emery and his son. Most of the Woodman party afterwards relented, but Emery always remained firm and defended his position. He died No- vember 3, 1683. He was twice married. The name of his first wife is not known. She died in April, 1645. His second wife was Mary (Spats- well) Webster, widow of John Webster, of Ipswich, whom he married October 29, 1650. She died August 28, 1694. There were three chil- dren by the first marriage, John, jr. (known as Sargent), Ann and Eben-
ezer. By the second marriage the issue was one son, Jonathan, born May 13, 1652, the progenitor in a direct line of our subject. Jonathan was engaged in the King Philip's Indian War, and was wounded at the celebrated Narragansett fight, December 19, 1675. His company was the renowned " Flower of Essex," a company of picked men, carefully selected from the most eligible young men of the different towns con- stituting Essex county. He was with this company at the sanguinary battle of Bloody Brook at South Deerfield, September 18, 1675, in which all of the company, with the exception of seven or eight men, were killed. He was married, November 29, 1676, to Mary Woodman, daughter of Edward Woodman, jr. They had nine children, seven sons and two daughters. His eldest son, also named Jonathan, was born February 2, 1649, and was twice married, first to Hannah Morse, March 1, 1705, who died October 1, 1732. His second wife was Rebecca Walker, whom he married in 1433. He had eight children, three sons and five daughters. Joshua, the eldest son, born March 21, 1208, was also twice married. He also had a son named Joshua. The latter's son, also named Joshua, was the grandfather of our subject. He was born September 16, 1144, at Atkinson, N. H. He was a house builder and contractor by profession and lived for several years at Newbury- port, where he accumulated a competency which was swept away by the great fire in that city in 1811. He afterwards became the steward of Phillips Andover Theological Seminary, having charge of the common and the farm belonging to the institution, a position he held most ac- ceptably for nineteen years. He married Elizabeth Welch, of Plaston, N. H., February 1, 1801. She was a women of remarkable activity, energy and ability. They had six sons, the second of whom, Francis Welch Roberts Emery, was the father of our subject. He was born at Newburyport, May 31, 1806, and came to Boston in 1824, where he
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.