USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume III > Part 18
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He settled down to practice in Danvers on the first of March, 1887 and has been in active practice there ever since. He has never belonged to any fraternal orders and has held but few public offices. During a considerable period some years ago he was chairman of the Danvers Board of Health, during which time he was interested in the study of the disposal of sewage-especially of tannery sewage. Experiments were car- ried on by this local board in cooperation with the State Board of Health.
During his years of practice in Danvers he has attended most of the old families in
the town and there are very few houses into which he has not entered as a physician.
In 1928 the late Miss Kate Hunt left $100,- 000 to the town of Danvers for the purpose of establishing a hospital in memory of her father, Dr. Ebenezer Hunt, a local physician of the Civil War period. At the same time Walter and Isabel Tapley donated their fam- ily homestead on High Street for use as a hospital in connection with the Hunt fund. A committee of seven, with Dr. Baldwin as chairman, and appointed by the town, took the matter in charge and established a small hospital of eighteen beds. The hospital has been in successful operation ever since and is valued at about $50,000 aside from the Hunt endowment fund of $100,000 which serves as a back log. Since the organiza- tion of the hospital Dr. Baldwin has been chairman of the board of trustees and of the medical staff. In addition to his affiliation with the Hunt Memorial Hospital in Dan- vers he is also a member of the associate staff of the Beverly Hospital. Profession- ally he is a member of the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society, in the latter having held several offices in the Essex County South Branch and was at one time president. He is now a member of the Council of the Massachu- setts Medical Society.
He is unmarried and has no family of his own but he is deeply interested in his sister, Mrs. Walter Page Weston, and her son and three daughters, all of whom are as of one family.
By association and by choice he has been a Republican in politics and by education and by habit of thought he is a liberal in both politics and religion. At the age of sixteen he became interested in the works of Darwin, Tyndall, Balfour, Stewart and Car- lyle, at which early period his habits of thought and scientific trend were formed, which later led to the study of medicine.
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HENRY D. ROCKWELL-In the busi- ness affairs of Massachusetts, Henry D. Rockwell has for many years taken a lively part. He is now treasurer of the Merrimac Card Clothing Company, of Andover, this State, and as such is highly esteemed and honored among his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Rockwell was born in Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts, on September 6, 1876, son of Francis W. and Mary Gilbert (Davis) Rock- well. The father was a lawyer and political leader of the Bay State. For four terms he represented his district in Congress, and had previously served in the Massachusetts State Legislature, both as Senator and Repre- sentative. So it was that he had much to do with shaping the laws of the Commonwealth and of the Nation. He died in June, 1929, aged eighty-five.
In the public schools of Pittsfield, his birthplace, Henry D. Rockwell received his early education, afterward attending East- man Business College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, and night sessions at Lowell Textile Institute. At the textile school he obtained a thorough grounding in matters having to do with textiles and the textile industry, and found his first employment with Robbins, Gammell and Company, of Pittsfield. For two years he remained with them, until, in 1899, he became associated with the Davis and Furber Machine Com- pany. His connection with this company lasted twenty-three years, and he rose in its service, becoming a stockholder and a direc- tor. He believed, however, that he could more directly benefit himself by engaging in business independently, and, accordingly, resigned and organized the Merrimac Card Clothing Company. Building up a large business, he established this company as a manufacturer of card clothing and Napper clothing which were widely known. Patron- age increased year by year, with the result that Mr. Rockwell's business prestige is im-
portant in the Andover community and throughout the textile industry.
Confining his attention by no means to this one endeavor, Mr. Rockwell rather directed his interests into many channels. Recognizing the obligations of citizenship, he has striven forward toward improvement and constant betterment. For twenty years he was a member of the North Andover Re- publican town committee, and for two terms of one year each was a member of the State committee of his party. For six years he served on the executive committee of the Republican Club of Massachusetts, of which he was one of the vice-presidents. For two . terms he was chairman of the board of selectmen of North Andover, and in 1926 was elected to the State Legislature for a two-year term. While so serving, he was on the committee of labor and industry and the special Reading investigating commit-
tee. He was also the North Andover coun- cillor of the Essex Club, which is the Re- publican club of the county. At all times Mr. Rockwell has sought to promote those projects and principles that he has believed worthiest of adoption, and so has won the high esteem and respect of his contempo- raries.
On April 19, 1905, Henry D. Rockwell married Florence L. Sutcliffe, of Rochester, New Hampshire. To them three children were born: I. Henry D., Jr. 2. Ruth W. 3. Robert S. The Rockwells are widely known in Essex County, especially in North Andover, where the family home is situated. Mr. Rockwell, along with his other activi- ties, holds the thirty-second degree of An- cient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, and is an initiate in Aleppo Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
WILLIAM ALBERT TROW-During a long and distinguished career William Al- bert Trow has emulated his illustrious fore-
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bears in the position he has maintained in the life and development of his surround- ings. Throughout this period he not only has come to be regarded as one of the fore- most business men of his community, but also has come to assume a leading rôle in social and civic affairs, being prominently identified with many leading organizations and through his interest and ability, winning the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Trow was born in Andover, January 6, 1868, the son of Daniel Lamson and Phoebe Chandler (Grant) Trow, the former a native of this place and the latter of Green- field, New Hampshire. The Trow family were among the earliest settlers in the State of Massachusetts, its first representatives settling in Salem at an early date. It was here that George Trow married Sarah Co- nant, a daughter of Roger Conant, early pio- neer settler of that community. The line- age is then traced through their son Josiah, who in 1706, married Experience Trask, of Salem. Their son John, who was born in 1746, saw service in the Revolutionary War and married Hannah Dodge in 1768. This couple came to Andover from Beverly in 1792, where John purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres on the shores of Haggety Pond. He worked this property and was a shoemaker by trade. To this union was born Daniel, who, shortly after his birth, came to this community with his parents. He saw service in the War of 1812, being commissioned in 1813 a first lieutenant by Governor Caleb Strong, and the following year attaining the rank of cap- tain, which he held until he was honorably discharged in 1816. His son, Daniel Lam- son, who was the father of William Albert, of this review, was born August 6, 1818, spent the early part of his career pursuing the shoemaking trade and later inherited the farm, which he worked until his death on
May 7, 1897. His wife passed away July 26, 1889.
William Albert Trow received a general education in the public schools of Andover and then entered the Punchard Free School, from which he was graduated in 1886. After completing his studies, he became associated with the firm of Brown, Durell and Com- pany, of Boston, a small ware wholesale house, and worked there eighteen years, be- coming assistant buyer and finally buyer of this concern. At the expiration of this period he became a member of the executive staff of the Armstrong Knitting Mills in Boston, directed the activities of the Hub City office as manager, and was a director and stock- holder. He remained with this company for twenty years, retiring in 1932. Since that time he has resided in Shawsheen Village.
During his life in Andover he took a keen and active interest in the social and civic life of this community, where, between 1900 and 1907, he served on the school board, be- came clerk of the West Parish and served in this capacity from 1911 to 1926. He has also been president of the board of trustees of West Parish since 1926, vice-president of the Andover Historical Society and vice- president of the Andover Home for the Aged. In religion he is a member of the Congregational Church, of which, in 1908, he became a deacon and is now senior deacon.
On October 19, 1899, Mr. Trow married Amy Frances Battles, who died May 2, 1929.
DAVIS AND FURBER MACHINE COMPANY-Of all the industries in Essex County there are few better known through- out the country, and throughout the world, than the Davis and Furber Machine Com- pany of North Andover. Its name plate will be found on equipment in every woolen and worsted manufacturing community in the United States, in Canada, Mexico, South
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America, Europe and Asia. The company is starting its second century of achievement in the building of textile equipment under the guidance of men from the same families as the pioneers who made its name promi- nent in textile machinery building lines.
The manufacture of woolen machinery was started in Andover in 1832. Among the famous textile names connected with the enterprise in its early days were . Charles Barnes, George H. Gilbert and Benjamin Whitney Gleason. At first the owners bent all their energies to the making of cards and spinning jacks. The carding machines, as can easily be imagined, were nothing like the massive, wonderfully efficient construc- tions that are built today, but they provided the foundation of experience on which the modern machines are built. The develop- ment of other machinery was undertaken aggressively as the years passed. Equip- ment to prepare stock for the carding, to make warps for weaving, to do weaving and finishing, was built, and many of these machines in greatly improved form are built today.
The first few years of operation were marked by frequent changes in ownership and management. But in 1835 George L. Davis came from Oxford, Massachusetts, to learn the machinist's trade, and from that time until his death in 1891 he was asso- ciated with the business, guiding its growth with ability and wisdom. To George L. Davis more than to any other is due the credit of making the Davis and Furber Ma- chine Company what it is today. His care- ful management resulted in Davis and Fur- ber machinery becoming recognized as the standard, and the firm's name a sign of busi- ness integrity, with an international reputa- tion. Mr. Davis was more than a successful business man; he was emphatically a man of affairs, identified with the needs of his locality. In his lifetime he saw North An-
dover develop into a beautiful and thriv- ing town, with free schools and Christian churches. He witnessed the birth of the city of Lawrence, watching and helping its growth. The numerous places of trust held by Mr. Davis furnish evidence of the high regard in which he was held. Besides being at the head of the Davis and Furber Machine Company for so many years, he was for twenty-three years president of the Bay State National Bank of Lawrence, and also vice-president of the Essex Savings Bank. He was president of the Lawrence Gas Com- pany; Cabot Manufacturing Company, of Brunswick, Maine; Norway Plains Com- pany, of Rochester, New Hampshire; Win- throp Mills, Winthrop, Maine; Lymansville Company, Providence, Rhode Island; and director in many more large corporations. In politics he was always a Republican, and his party, appreciating his ability and worth, sent him four terms to the State Senate, and if he would have consented, would have pro- moted him to Congress. Mr. Davis not only showed business ability of a high order, but was also a man of unimpeachable character. At his death it was said, "The community has lost its best citizen," and the truth of this statement is being realized more and more each year.
Charles Furber first came to the shop in 1844 and became the partner of George L. Davis in 1848. He was a mechanical genius, as well as an enterprising, public-spirited man. With Mr. Davis he formed a partner- ship that was worthy of success. His death in 1857, of typhoid fever, at the age of thirty- nine and in the midst of a successful career of great promise, was a severe blow to Mr. Davis.
In the meantime John Adams Wiley had become associated with the concern and in 1858 he was taken into partnership by George L. Davis. Mr. Wiley was a hard worker, with a wide knowledge of men and
Essex-10
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affairs, and his marked ability made him a prominent factor in the firm. Few men of his time were better known to woolen manu- facturers. Mr. Wiley was a Democrat in politics and served his party in the State in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Besides being president of the Davis and Furber Machine Company, he was, at the time of his death in 1905, a director of the Pacific National Bank and various other companies.
After a wide experience in machinery de- signing and construction, with Davis and Furber and other concerns, Joseph Mason Stone made the final business change of his life and became a member of the firm of Davis and Furber in 1860. He immediately began the remodeling of the warping, spool- ing and finishing machinery. This work finished he took up in order the picking, weaving and carding machines. Condensers were designed by him which were acknowl- edged to be the best in the world. The woolen mule was further perfected to a high degree under his direction, and an improved type of cotton spinning frame was built which has influenced the present design of cotton spinning machinery. He organized a large department for the manufacture of power transmission machinery, and devel- oped many special machine tools that have been substantially adopted by builders of such equipment. Large contributions to American machinery development were made by Mr. Stone.
Later figures that loom large in the prog- ress of Davis and Furber Machine Company include George G. Davis, Joseph H. Stone, George L. Wright, Eben A. Baldwin, George L. Hamilton, and Andrew Gibson, all earn- est, able men of skill and originality in their several lines, who realized that they were carrying on a work that the founders in- tended to be permanent.
Of these men particular mention should be made of George G. Davis, son of George L. Davis and the executive head of Davis and Furber from the time of his father's death until he himself passed away in 1920. A man of rare executive ability, with a thor- ough knowledge of finance and business, it was during his management that the plant reached its present impressive size. In 1920 the largest and most imposing of the com- pany's buildings was constructed under his direction, a modern concrete type with large window area, well adapted for efficient manu- facturing.
The present management of Davis and Furber Machine Company is in the hands of Oscar M. Godfrey, president, and Samuel F. Rockwell, treasurer, who are well quali- fied by heredity, training, experience and ability to carry this outstanding concern to new levels of efficiency and service to the American Textile Industry.
The plant now comprises over fifteen acres of floor space filled with machinery of the most improved type, and employs hundreds of skilled mechanics. Products include not only woolen and worsted cards, and both mules and wool spinning frames, but many other machines used in the manufacture and handling of woolen and worsted yarns, also nappers, finishing machinery, card cloth- ing, etc.
Davis and Furber cannot become a static industry. It must and will continue to grow in size and efficiency, because its products fill a basic need, and because of the sound- ness of its management and the character and ability of the men throughout the organ- ization. As George L. Davis, the real founder of the business, and his early asso- ciates had active brains and skillful hands to assist them, the modern Davis and Fur- ber Machine Company has in its organiza- tion men skilled in the several departments
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of labor, design and control, who work faith- fully, many times with genius, to improve, perfect and economize in processes vital to the textile industry.
OSCAR MILTON GODFREY was born at Candia, Rockingham County, New Hamp- shire, in 1868, the son of Edwin Jason God- frey and Maria (Dearborn) Godfrey. His father served in the Union Army during the Civil War and afterwards established a shoe factory in his native town. He was a man of considerable influence in politics and pub- lic affairs and for many years was moderator of the town meetings in Candia. He also was elected representative from his district to the State Legislature.
After attending public and private schools, followed by a course at a business college, Oscar M. Godfrey became associated with Davis and Furber Machine Company, North Andover, where Joseph Mason Stone and Joseph H. Stone, relatives on his father's side, had made their greatest contributions to the textile industry in designing and per- fecting machinery. Starting as a junior clerk, he early showed the sound judgment and ability that have been responsible for his rise to the office of president and man- aging director of the company.
Mr. Godfrey possesses a sound conserva- tism which, combined with his knowledge of the textile industry, its personnel and needs, is reflected in the dominant position of Davis and Furber products.
For many years he was a director of the Bay State National Bank of Lawrence. Among the organizations that have bene- fited by his support are the North Andover Improvement Society, the North Andover Historical Society, the North Andover Club, the Trinitarian Congregational Church, the Andover Country Club, the Merrimack Val- ley Country Club, the Haverhill Country Club, and the Abanaqui Golf Club of Bidde-
ford Pool, Maine. Mr. Godfrey has a sum- mer home at Fortune's Rocks, in Biddeford, Maine.
In 1889 Oscar Milton Godfrey married Edith McClary, of North Andover. They have four children : I. Charlotte Edith, who is a graduate of Wellesley College, and a teacher in the Passaic (New Jersey) High School. 2. Agnes Mildred, who attended private educational institutions and Fram- ingham Normal School; now Mrs. Ralph Davenport, of West Caldwell, New Jersey. 3. Harriet Louise, who was graduated from a finishing school and then studied physical training instruction ; now Mrs. Colin Moise, of Douglaston, Long Island. 4. Harold Thomas Godfrey, a graduate of Lowell Tex- tile Institute, who lives with his wife and children in Andover, and is a salesman for Davis and Furber Machine Company. An- other daughter, Marion, died in infancy.
SAMUEL FORBES ROCKWELL, born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1878, the son of Francis Williams Rockwell and Mary Gilbert (Davis) Rockwell, was named for his ancestor, five generations back, Samuel Forbes, of Salisbury, Connecticut. He comes of a family which has been prominent in both the Eastern and Western sections of the State, as well as in Connecticut. His earliest ancestor was Deacon William Rock- well, who left Plymouth, England, on the "Mary and John," with the Winthrop emi- gration in 1630 and was one of the founders of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
After graduating from private and public schools in Pittsfield, Mr. Rockwell entered Harvard College and took both the college course and the mechanical engineering course, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1900, and the degree Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in 1901. Upon leaving college he entered the employ of the Davis and Furber Machine Company, North An-
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dover, large manufacturers of textile machin- ery. After serving his apprenticeship as a machinist he spent some time traveling from mill to mill installing machinery, and, later, entered the office as superintendent of vari- ous departments. In 1920, after the death of Mr. George G. Davis, he was elected treasurer and managing director.
The heritage of public service from an ancestry of farmers, merchants, manufac- turers, legislators and jurists-men who were prominent in the history and develop- ment of New England and the Nation-is translated in Mr. Rockwell into an outstand- ing executive leadership in constructive work for his business, his community, and the nu- merous semi-public organizations that claim his interest.
Mr. Rockwell's interests are extensive and include the following : Harvard clubs of An- dover and Boston; American Society of Me- chanical Engineers ; New England Histori- cal Genealogical Society ; Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts ; member of the board of governors, North Andover Country Club ; Nantucket Yacht Club ; director, North An- dover Taxpayers' Association; North An- dover Improvement Society ; North Andover Historical Society; treasurer, Trinitarian Congregational Society ; trustee, Essex Sav- ings Bank of Lawrence; treasurer, Davis and Furber Machine Company; treasurer, National Association of Textile Machinery Manufacturers; member of the Code Au- thority of the Textile Machinery Manufac- turing Industry ; member of the Code Au- thority of the Card Clothing Industry. He is also the author of several books and pam- phlets. Outdoor sports have always claimed a large part of Mr. Rockwell's leisure. Ten- nis is still the favorite, with squash racquets a close second.
In 1910 Samuel Forbes Rockwell married Marion Campbell Plunkett, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They have six children: I.
Samuel Forbes, Jr., at Harvard. 2. William Plunkett, at Harvard. 3. Mary Elizabeth, at Vassar. 4. Thomas Plunkett, a student at Phillips Andover Academy. 5. Caroline Campbell, at Abbot Academy. 6. George Gilbert Davis, at Stowe Junior High School of Andover. Another daughter, Elizabeth, died in infancy.
MAURICE J. CURRAN-After a long and distinguished business career in the city of Boston and its environs, Maurice J. Curran has retired to enjoy a richly merited rest at his beautiful home in Andover. As an active figure in the world of commerce here he took a keen and active part in di- recting the activities of some of the largest enterprises in this vicinity and through his accomplishments rose to occupy a promi- nent place as one of the foremost business executives of this section of New England.
Maurice J. Curran was born in Palmer, Massachusetts, on September 4, 1854, the son of Lawrence and Mary (Morrison) Cur- ran, both natives of Ireland. His parents came to this country about 1847 and settled in his birthplace where his father worked on a farm. When Maurice J. Curran was just a year and a half old his mother passed away and the elder Curran, confronted with properly caring for him, decided to take him back to Ireland. The boy was taken to the town of Dingle in County Kerry and here he received his early education as a pupil in the Christian Brothers' School. In July, 1863, he returned to Lawrence, Massachu- setts, where he carried on his studies in the public schools. After finishing his academic training he entered the employ of a grocery store and worked here for a brief time, leav- ing in 1870 to become associated with the Washington Mills where he learned the trade of wool sorting. He remained with this organization for two years and then entered the retail liquor business and was
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employed with this concern for a period of five years from 1872 to 1877. At this time he was joined by John Joyce, and together they purchased a bottling and soda water business from W. E. Heald and Company ; from that time on the concern operated un- der the name of Curran and Joyce, a title which still exists in Lawrence. They op- erated until May 1, 1914, when they dis- posed of the business by selling their in- terests to four of their old employees.
In the meantime Mr. Curran had become interested in the Gillette Razor Company and he and Mr. Joyce were among the first business men in this section to offer sub- stantial material aid to a concern that in subsequent years grew to be a great inter- national concern. Both of these gentlemen were named vice-presidents at the time and Mr. Curran still maintains a directorship in the firm. Recognized for his business ability Mr. Curran was sought for counsel and ad- ministrative advice on numerous occasions and in this connection he became a director in the Merchants Trust Company of Law- rence, the Shawinigan Water and Power Company of Canada, the Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company, and the National Shawmut Bank of Boston, resign- ing from the latter position September I, 1934.
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