USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916 > Part 31
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Edgar M. Wood, a successful lawyer who was born in Ches- hire, Massachusetts, in 1832 and died in Pittsfield, June second, 1906, tried more cases, it is believed, than any other Pittsfield, or even Massachusetts, attorney contemporary with him. He was educated at Williams and at Union, was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1859, and was the local United States com- missioner from 1868 until his death. Mr. Wood was a self- contained man of rigorous industry, singleness of purpose, and aggressive force, fond both of the give-and-take clash of legal combat and of the quiet of his home and his library.
One of the city's public schools was named appropriately for Franklin F. Read, who served as a member of the school com- mittee for a number of years. He was born in Windsor in 1827 and came to Pittsfield with his father in 1838. Part of his youth was spent in California, but in 1853 he was established as a provision merchant in Pittsfield, and there spent the rest of his life. He was prominent in town affairs and as an administra- tor of private trusts. Mr. Read died on December thirty-first, 1906.
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During the final years of the town and fire district govern- ments, Pittsfield elected few public servants who were more energetic and competent than Frank W. Hinsdale. He was born in the neighboring town of Hinsdale in 1826, and there, in 1853, he began the business of woolen manufacturing, making his home, however, in Pittsfield, where he died, October third, 1906. He was president of the Berkshire Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany; and in the course of his experience of nearly half a century as a Berkshire manufacturer he acquired a peculiarly intimate knowledge of men and affairs throughout the county. Mr. Hinsdale was a companionable, humorsome man, who cherished anecdotes of Pittsfield life and Pittsfield characters with ap- preciative delight, and whose likes and dislikes were strongly marked.
The career at the Berkshire bar of Marshall Wilcox was out of the ordinary because of its duration as well as because of its distinction. He was born in Stockbridge, March nineteenth, 1821, was admitted to the bar in 1847, and continued in the practice of the law until his death at Pittsfield, October four- teenth, 1906. Having been graduated from Williams College in 1844, he lived in Otis and in Lee before he became a resident of Pittsfield in 1871. For a period of forty years, the name of no Berkshire attorney appears more frequently than his in the re- ports of the Commonwealth's highest court. His talent and his assiduity were inspired by a respect for his profession which seemed to be almost reverence, and he labored in it with a whole- hearted zest not unlike that of a religious devotee. Acquired in this spirit, his legal learning was profound and wide, and he utilized it with faithful integrity. An old-fashioned New Eng- lander, Mr. Wilcox took an active part in town meetings, and his opinions were attentively considered by the voters and the town officials. His demcanor was grave, deliberate, and courtly; but he could be moved to vigorous scorn, in public and in private, by insincerity, pretension, or wastefulness, and he could express his scorn with biting sarcasm, which occasionally employed a vocabulary humorously at variance with his austere aspect. Idlers and shirkers he regarded with disdain, and on the other hand he was ready with kindly help and encouragement for all,
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and especially for all young men, who labored in earnest and who respected their work.
A quiet, but active, factor of assistance in local business and public affairs was Charles W. Kellogg. He was born at West Pittsfield, October eighth, 1847. For a long period after 1870 he was a partner of Oliver W. Robbins in the manufacture of shoes, and he was prominent in organizing the Berkshire Loan and Trust Company, of which he was the first treasurer, and the president at the time of his death. Mr. Kellogg was a member of the important commission which began the construction of the city's modern system of sewers. He had a cultivated mind, with a taste for research and statistical information of all sorts; and he was one of the trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum. He died at Pittsfield, April nineteenth, 1907.
Charles T. Plunkett, major of the Forty-ninth Massachusetts regiment during the Civil War, was born in Pittsfield in 1839, and died there, November tenth, 1907, having spent the final fourteen years of his life in his birthplace. His father was Thomas F. Plunkett. Major Plunkett was a placid, unassuming, amiable veteran of gigantic stature, who seemed to have literally no enemies in the city. At the time of his death he was the probation officer attached to the District Court of Central Berkshire.
Dr. William M. Mercer, a beloved physician and a citizen of extended and worthily directed influence, practiced his profession in Pittsfield for forty years. He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1842, and came to this country in 1857. The circumstances of his boyhood were humble, but his ambition was stalwart; and he resolutely worked his way through the Harvard Medical School. There he was graduated in 1866. In the next year he began practice in Pittsfield, where he died, June tenth, 1908. He had a high ideal of his vocation, wherein he was skilled and charitable. It is likely that for a long period his patients outnumbered those of any other Pittsfield doctor. His support and his labor, given constantly to the House of Mercy hospital, were of essential importance to the growth of the institution. Although his professional toil was arduous, Dr. Mercer otherwise served Pittsfield conspicuously. For thirty-four years, under
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the town and city governments, he was a faithful member of the school committee. He had fought hard for his own education; and he championed earnestly the cause of the public schools of Pittsfield. That cause had few advocates more popular and convincing. As a trustee of the Berkshire Athenaeum, he was most instrumental in bringing home to the people of the town a correct understanding of the mission of the library. Dr. Mercer was gentle-hearted, sympathetic, and quietly firm in his con- victions. He was a devout member of St. Joseph's Church.
Franklin W. Russell, the youngest son of Solomon L. Russell, was born in Pittsfield in 1841, and died there, November seven- teenth, 1908. From 1865 until 1895 he was a resident of New York; he returned to Pittsfield in 1895; and in 1899, after the death of his brother, Solomon N., he was chosen president of the S. N. and C. Russell Manufacturing Company. Mr. Russell served as a member of Pittsfield's board of aldermen and school committee, and he was elected to the governor's council in 1906. He was an energetic man of strong purpose and forcible speech, who found joy in thorough and speedy accomplishment and no satisfaction in compromises or halfway measures. The Pilgrim Memorial Church, the Y. M. C. A., and the Boys' Club were in- debted to him for especially generous help; but his philanthropy and his public spirit were catholic, and he liberally supported many worthy causes.
John H. Manning, born in Ellington, Connecticut, July twenty-third, 1846, came to Pittsfield with his parents when he was ten years old. His business was that of a druggist, and his thorough knowledge of it justified his appointment to the Massa- chusetts pharmacy commission. In 1885, however, the voters of Berkshire elected him a county commissioner, and thereafter he devoted himself chiefly to public works, particularly to the construction of highways. In 1900 he was appointed by the governor to the state highway commission, and he died in office, June second, 1909. Mr. Manning was both a careful student and a vigorous executive, enthusiastic in investigation as he was in action. He was a bright, attractive talker. His popularity was abundant, and he held the office of county commissioner for twelve years. Ardently patriotic, he delighted in the study of
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American history, wherein his interest was not merely bookish; and he believed heartily in the preservation of the ideals of our national heroes and of visible memorials of their deeds.
A conspicuous part in town politics was taken by Thomas A. Oman, who made his home in Pittsfield in 1872, having pre- viously to that year been a store-keeper in Lee. He was born in Albany, New York, in 1824, and he died in Pittsfield, March thirty-first, 1909. Mr. Oman represented Pittsfield in the Gen- eral Court and was chosen one of the town's selectmen in 1881, 1882, and 1884. He was conservative and discreet, and inclined to deem improper or imprudent that which was foreign to his experience; both his personal likes and dislikes were strongly marked, and he pertinaciously retained them. In his pleasant old age, when Pittsfield had outgrown its village ways, Mr. Oman's village ways were unchanged, and he personified a certain type of old-fashioned villager-methodical and placid, contented with the neighborly intercourse of old friends, proud of his town, fond of local reminiscence, and not desirous of the bustle of city life.
Dr. Walter H. Wentworth was born in Stockbridge, in 1841, and began the practice of medicine in Pittsfield in 1869, having been graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1863, and having served as a military surgeon dur- ing the Civil War. On December seventh, 1910, he died at Pittsfield. Affectionately esteemed in many Pittsfield house- holds for forty years, Dr. Wentworth was a man of refined and literary tastes, companionable, stoutly patriotic, and a sincere appreciator of the good qualities of his fellow citizens. He de- lighted in the use of fowling gun and fishing rod; and the beauty of Berkshire's hills had no more ardent admirer.
Another well-known physician was Dr. Oscar S. Roberts, who was born at Whitingham, Vermont, in 1837, and first came to Pittsfield in 1861, for the purpose of attending lectures at the Berkshire Medical College. He received his medical degree, however, from the University of Vermont in 1864, and after practicing his profession in Belchertown became a resident of Pittsfield in 1869 and remained there until his death, on January fourth, 1911. Dr. Roberts was a cheerful, optimistic, hospitable
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man and a trusted physician, serving the town efficiently as a member of the board of health. He was fond of books and music; one of his less important traits was a curious liking for novel devices of various sorts; and he is believed to have been the first person in the city to own a motor car.
The active connection of Robert W. Adam with the Berkshire County Savings Bank as its treasurer, which began in 1865, span- ned a period of forty-six years. He was born, September twenty-eighth, 1825, in North Canaan, Connecticut, was gradu- ated from Williams College in 1845, and came to Pittsfield in order to enroll himself on the roster of that company of students in the law-office of Rockwell and Colt from which the Berkshire bar was so importantly recruited. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and began practice in Pittsfield. There, in 1852, he was married to Miss Sarah P. Brewster. The date of his death was June eighteenth, 1911.
Mr. Adam had little taste for public life, but he served the town as a representative to the General Court, and the city as president of the board of aldermen. His services to the people of Pittsfield lay chiefly, however, in his accurate management of financial trusts, for his exactness was thorough and imperturb- able. He was identified, more or less closely, with several busi- ness interests of local importance, such as the Agricultural National Bank, the Berkshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and the Pittsfield Coal Gas Company; but it was to the Berk- shire County Savings Bank that he daily devoted his careful thought and scrupulous labor for nearly half a century. While it was thus under his direction, the business of the bank increased thirteenfold.
Conscientious in the performance of professional duty, he did not allow it to possess him completely. Mr. Adam was of the sort which loves a trout brook, a stretch of hilly woodland, a winding country road. He was an affectionate and constant comrade of worthy books, and the yield of his own diffident pen was charming and felicitous. His wit was proverbial in Pitts- field. He was a master of the art of amiable banter, and his humor would sparkle and shine suddenly from behind a screen of grave courtliness. In business transactions, in public or in
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social life, and in his church, Mr. Adam's obvious desire was not only to see the right thing done, but also to see the right thing done amicably; and to meet him was to be conscious of a serene and sunny influence.
James W. Hull served the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, as treasurer, secretary, and president, for nearly forty years. He was born in New Lebanon, in the state of New York, Sep- tember twentieth, 1842. In 1865 he came to Pittsfield to enter the employ of the Pittsfield National Bank, and he began his service with the Berkshire Life Insurance Company in 1872. On February second, 1911, he died at Pittsfield. In 1876 he had been married to Miss Helen Edwards Plunkett, daughter of Thomas F. Plunkett.
The watchfulness and industry with which he applied himself to his business employment might well have utilized completely the energies of one less vigorously minded. But his intellect, to an uncommon degree, was accumulative, always reaching out for new ideas; he was, in rural phrase, full of schemes; and the result of this was that Mr. Hull either originated or stimulated many local projects of many different sorts of value. Especially noteworthy were his progressive leadership of the town's school committee and his co-operation in obtaining for Pittsfield the convenience of street railways; and continuously after 1894 he served the Commonwealth as a member of its board of health.
Though his mind was busily productive of schemes, it was not fanciful; and his faculty of choosing schemes and of carrying them into effect was guided by prudence and common sense. His memory was tenacious, and his long and close acquaintance with the characters of important Pittsfield men and their doings gave him a pleasant fund of local anecdote, in which was plenti- fully manifest his pride in the town and in its citizenry. His stature was commanding, and his face and tall, erect figure were not easily forgotten. Mr. Hull was a man of strong personal attachments whose intimates were few. Lifelong devotion to a weighty financial trust did not tend to make him demonstrative. People in difficulty, however, sought his aid with confidence, and his practical kindnesses were frequent and unostentatious. Of an aggressive temperament and trained hardily in the con-
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tentions of business life, he was at the same time deeply sympa- thetic with the aspirations of others and with the public spirit of the community.
Jacob Gimlich, born at Weisenheim, Bavaria, October fourth, 1845, came to Pittsfield in 1860. The portion of his youth was one of self-denial and rigorous toil, and after he had become a man of means and influence, he retained an understanding sympathy with the toilers and with the poor. The successful brewery, which he conducted for more than forty years in associa- tion with John White, did not monopolize his keen business ac- tivity. Mr. Gimlich was importantly connected with organizing the Berkshire Loan and Trust Company, the City Savings Bank, and the Musgrove Knitting Company. In 1884 and in 1885 he represented the town in the state legislature. He died at Pitts- field, January twenty-first, 1912. He was an energetic, frank, generous man, with a simple affection, characteristic of his race, for music, and companionship, and home life; and his devout and enthusiastic support of the German Lutheran Church was of great assistance to that society. Family ties had bound him closely in his boyhood to soldiers of our Civil War, and American patriotism was always in him a dominant trait, nor were his civic patriotism and neighborly spirit less noteworthy.
An especially efficient water commissioner under the old fire district government was John Feeley, who died in Pittsfield, January second, 1915. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1825, began to learn the tinner's trade in Pittsfield in 1846, and for forty-two years conducted a shop on North Street for the sale of heating and plumbing appliances. He was chosen water commissioner in 1864, and served until the town became a city. Keen-minded, progressive, and public-spirited, Mr. Feeley pos- sessed an unusual faculty of recollection, and in his old age he was a valued source of information regarding earlier days. Beginning in 1870, he was for three years chief of the fire depart- ment.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN 1911
P ITTSFIELD, both as town and city, has been strongly addicted to the pleasant custom of holding public cele- brations and of making the most of them. The peace party of 1783, the reception to Lafayette in 1825, the Berkshire Jubilee in 1844, the return of the Forty-ninth regiment in 1863, the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in 1872, each elicited enthusiastic and hospitable public spirit; and the same may be said of scores of Independence Day celebrations, and firemen's musters. But Pittsfield seems not to have been moved until 1911 to observe an anniversary in her own history, nor to cele- brate herself, so to speak, with the notable exception of the ob- servance of the inauguration of the first city government. The town was born in 1761, and accordingly both her fiftieth and her one hundredth birthdays fell at a time when the Republic was on the brink of war and when Pittsfield people were in a mood too stern for self-congratulation.
In 1911, however, circumstances were peculiarly auspicious for an adequate observance of the 150th anniversary of the in- corporation of the town. The nation was at peace. The city had recently attained a prosperity unexampled in its history. Local pride was reasonably exalted. Moreover, it should be noted that, within a few years, the Merchants' Association and the Board of Trade had conducted Fourth of July and other celebrations on a novelly elaborate scale and that thus many citizens had become somewhat trained in managing such events so as to secure safety, general co-operation, and impressive effect.
It was formally pursuant to a request from the Board of Trade that the mayor, in February, 1911, designated a com- mittee, composed of members of the city government and of private citizens, "to consider the observance of the 150th anni-
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versary of the founding of Pittsfield, and a Fourth of July cele- bration." The committee consisted of John Nicholson, Henry Traver, Jr., Edward Rosenbaum, William L. Adam, Edward Boltwood, George H. Cooper, and William H. Eaton. John Nicholson was the chairman, and the mayor, Kelton B. Miller, served on the committee as chairman ex officio. William F. Francis was chosen secretary. The first meeting of the com- mittee was held on February twenty-third, and the members viewed the subject of their consideration with such favor that they immediately proceeded to the organization of an executive committee to plan and carry out the details of the proposed ob- servance. As finally constituted, this executive committee in charge of the 150th anniversary celebration was composed of Kelton B. Miller, (chairman ex officio), John Nicholson (chair- man), William F. Francis (secretary), Henry Traver, Jr., Henry A. Brewster, Edward Rosenbaum, J. H. Enright, John White, William Russell Allen, Henry R. Peirson, H. B. Sees, George H. Cooper, E. J. Spall, William H. Eaton, Luke J. Minahan, William L. Adam, Freeman M. Miller, Clement F. Coogan, Chester E. Gleason, A. M. Stronach, William J. Mercer, David J. Gimlich, Dr. M. W. Flynn, Daniel England, P. H. O'Donnell, S. Chester Lyon, A. J. Newman, L. W. Harger, Sydney T. Braman, Edward N. Huntress, Edward Boltwood, and Robert D. Bardwell. Twenty sub-committees were appointed, of which about five hundred people were members and each of which was under the leadership of a member of the executive committee as chairman. The scope of the celebration is indicated by the titles of the sub- committees-ecclesiastical services, music, historical, decora- tions, finance, entertainment, educational, parade, industrial, fireworks, commercial, illuminations, societies, invitations, or- ganizations, printing, reception, aviation, publicity, and trans- portation.
Beginning early in March, the executive committee held weekly meetings at the city hall. To defray the expenses of the celebration, an appropriation of $4,000 was made by the mu- nicipal government, and a public subscription and sale of souve- nirs, conducted by the finance committee, resulted in the addi- tion of $8,200 to the fund. The date set for beginning the cele-
JOSEPH TUCKER 1832-1907
WILLIAM A. WHITTLESEY 1849-1906
JOSEPH E. A. SMITH 1822-1896
HEZEKIAH S. RUSSELL 1835-1914
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bration was Sunday, July second. A month or two before that day, popular interest had been aroused by the publication of a long series of newspaper articles, treating of Pittsfield history and arranged by the publicity committee; and the committee on invitations had invited the attendance of the President of the United States, the governor of the Commonwealth, the mayors of Massachusetts cities, the selectmen of Berkshire County towns, several hundred former citizens of Pittsfield, and the English descendants of William Pitt.
In the last week of June, a loan collection of portraits and memorabilia, consisting of several hundred items, was placed on exhibition in the Museum on South Street. Arranged by the historical committee, this collection, including contributions from scores of homes, was of exceptional attractiveness and was probably the most complete assemblage of the sort ever seen in Pittsfield. Especially interesting were about fifty photographs picturing the town from 1854 to 1880, lent from the valuable collection of Erwin H. Kennedy. The exhibition remained on view for a month. The marking of historical sites was another preliminary work of the anniversary celebration. Thirty-eight places of historic interest within a short radius of the Park were studiously identified and designated by temporary markers. Some of these sites may here be enumerated for the benefit of the curious antiquarian. They included the site of the first public school, immediately west of St. Stephen's Church; of the first meeting house, fifty feet south of the First Church; of Capt. Dickinson's tavern (1798), on the corner of North and West Streets; of the Pittsfield Coffee-house, where now stands Martin's block on Bank Row; and of the Berkshire Bank, the first Agri- cultural Bank, and the Pittsfield Female Academy, on the land of the Berkshire Athenaeum. At the south corner of North and Depot Streets a marker was placed indicating that one hundred feet to the west stood the home of John Brown, Pittsfield's most distinguished soldier in the Revolution. The site of the first fire engine house was designated, on School Street next the Baptist Church; and that of the town powder house, which stood near the present hose tower and was mischievously blown up in 1838, with disastrous results. Markers also indicated the sites of the
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original railroad station at the railroad bridge on North Street, and of the first post office, on the east corner of East and Second Streets. The former homes of famous citizens were marked, like the house of William Francis Bartlett on Wendell Avenue and of Henry Laurens Dawes on Elm Street. Where Elm Street crosses the river and where was built the first bridge in Pittsfield, a marker pointed out that nearby was the site of the first mill dam and of the house where the first town meeting assembled. Far- ther down the stream, near the intersection of High Street and Appleton Avenue, a marker indicated the site of the house of Patrick Daley, where, in 1835, religious services according to the rites of the Roman Catholic church were celebrated for the first time in Berkshire County.
The preparatory labors of appropriate committees included also the decoration and illumination of the streets and public buildings. In the task of street decoration, the committeemen were, of course, greatly assisted by private effort. Much was made of electrical illumination. A reviewing stand, seating seven hundred people, was erected on the lawn in front of the Museum on South Street. The Park was elaborately arrayed, with pillars, shields, and bunting, as a "court of honor", in proper recognition of its being the historic center, hallowed by tradition, of Pittsfield life. Here the electrical display was note- worthy, for about 4,000 lamps were utilized.
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