USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume III > Part 53
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and in 1933 was made general superintend- ent of the division.
Fraternal, social and civic enterprises deeply interest Mr. Leitch, notably the work of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he is affiliated with Meridian Lodge, No. 20, of Franklin, New Hampshire, as well as with the Royal Arch Chapter and the Council of Royal and Select Masters. In New York City he belongs to the Chem- ists' Club, and he also is connected with the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. In Andover, he is a member of the Square and Compass Club. Other groups with which he is associated include the American Chemical Society, the Society of Dyers and Colourists, and the Textile Institute, and he holds membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a director of the Atlantic Cooperative Bank, of Lawrence.
On September 17, 1916, Harold W. Leitch married Gertrude S. Badger, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Badger, of North An- dover, Massachusetts. They have two chil- dren, twins, born May 26, 1921, Ruth A. and John B., who are now studying in the schools of Andover. The family residence is at No. 28 Wolcott Avenue, Andover.
MICHAEL J. CASEY-Engaged in the practice of law, Michael J. Casey has his headquarters in the Cregg Building, at Lawrence. Here he has participated freely in the general business, civic and social life of his community.
Mr. Casey was born at Lawrence on July 29, 1884, son of Patrick M. and Ellen (Di- neen) Casey, natives of Ireland. His par- ents came to America at an early period in their lives, settling in 1880 in Lawrence, where Patrick M. Casey ran a grocery store and was also associated with the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Both parents are now deceased.
In Lawrence parochial schools Michael J. Casey received his early education, and was graduated from Lawrence High School in 1905. For about a year he attended Har- vard College, and in 1925 he was graduated from Suffolk Law School. Continuously from 1904 to 1925 he had been employed as a clerk in the offices of the Boston and Maine Railroad, his education having been postponed by circumstances through all of that period. In September, 1903, he had expected to go ahead with his studies, and had enrolled as a student at Harvard, with high and worthy ambitions. Financial re- verses of his family necessitated his leaving college in March, 1904, and ended his hopes of a career for the immediate future. In October, 1921, he enrolled for a night course at Suffolk Law. School. To attend classes, he traveled three or four nights a week from Lawrence to Boston after finishing a hard day's work. In 1925 he received his Bache- lor of Laws degree, as already stated, and in August of that year left the railway com- pany. In 1926 he was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts and began practicing his chosen profession in Lawrence. He is pro- fessionally associated with Thomas J. Lane and A. John Ganem, and is a member of the Lawrence Bar Association.
Quite aside from his legal work, which has gained in scope, variety and importance with the passing of the years, Mr. Casey has retained a lively interest in the affairs of the Railway Clerks' Association. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. Casey is unmarried.
JOHN BOLTON-With rubber manu- facturing plants successfully operating in Germany and England, John Bolton came to Lawrence in 1929 to establish a rubber plant for the American trade, further ex- tending his business. The Balta Rubber Company is now one of the foremost in its
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field, has plants in three countries and dis- tributes its products to many more. Mr. Bolton was born at Krefeld, Rhineland, Germany, on November 26, 1893, and in his native country received his education.
His name first became known in the rub- ber manufacturing industry when, in 1920, in Nurnberg, Germany, he began to manu- facture various rubber products-combs, trays, tank linings and other articles. He readily found markets which steadily in- creased in their demands and led to the establishment of a plant in London, Eng- land, to meet the needs of the English trade. Meanwhile, the American market, which had shown considerable development, was threatened with a decrease of business due to the high tariff. Mr. Bolton left his Nurn- berg and London plants under capable su- pervision and in August, 1929, came to the United States to seek a favorable location for an American plant. After visiting sev- eral possible sites and deliberating on the transportation, manufacturing costs and other elements that needed to be carefully gone over in the choice of the best location, he decided upon Lawrence and purchased the building and property at No. 151 Canal Street, converting it into a factory especi- ally suited to rubber manufacturing. Here, under the name of the Balta Rubber Com- pany, Incorporated, Mr. Bolton has in- stalled modern equipment and machinery and has probably the most compact plant of its kind in the world, having in his factory 286,000 square feet of working space and employing over five hundred persons. Mr. Bolton is the sole owner of this plant and of those in Germany and England-remark- able achievements within the space of fif- teen years.
As owner of one of the largest manufac- tories of Lawrence, Mr. Bolton is promi- nent in industrial and business circles in which his personal qualities no less than his
outstanding success has gained the esteem and friendship of many. Among his em- ployees he is respected for his friendliness, and his endeavors to provide for their wel- fare, and his sympathetic understanding of their problems has shown him as a man of generous and helpful purpose. The success of the Balta Rubber Company and his home are the prime interests of Mr. Bolton, and it is because of the time and attention that he gives to his business that it now holds its high rating.
On August 23, 1920, Mr. Bolton married Kathleen Kleeman, and they have two chil- dren : 1. John. 2. Gisela. The family resi- dence is on South Main Street, Andover.
GEORGE GIBSON BROWN-Active in the business and industrial affairs of Massa- chusetts, George Gibson Brown, of Andover, occupies a position of high standing among his fellow-citizens in this place, as well as in the wider reaches of his county and State. The David Brown Company of Lawrence, of which he is treasurer and general manager, manufactures a complete line of power loom shuttles, bobbins and spools for textile mills. They became makers of shuttles in 1883, the year of the establishment of the present com- pany. For his part in the upbuilding of the David Brown Company of Lawrence, the man whose name heads this review is widely known and esteemed.
Mr. Brown was born in 1887 in Lawrence, four years after the founding of the company by his father. His father, David Brown, was a bobbin, spool and shuttle manufacturer of exceptional ability and an acknowledged authority in his line of business. In 1883 he organized his business under the name of the Union Shuttle Company, and afterward he took over the business of the Weld Bob- bin and Spool Company of Lawrence, which was organized in 1895, under a Maine char- ter. In 1912 the name was changed to its
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present form-the David Brown Company -and the enterprise was incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts. The father con- tinued active in the business, heading it until his death on November 10, 1922.
The son, George Gibson Brown, received his early education in the schools of Law- rence, his birthplace, completing the high school course there in 1905 and further pre- paring himself for a practical career by attending the Burdett Business College, in Boston. Then, in 1906, he became associated in business with his father. At the elder man's death, the two sons, George Gibson and David M. Brown, took over the manage- ment and control of the company, George G. Brown as treasurer and general manager, and David M. Brown as president. The plant, one of the best of its kind in the coun- try, was further developed by the sons, who saw to it that every modern method and all up-to-date machinery were adopted. They followed the sound policies laid down by their father, seeming to find the proper mid- dle ground between solid conservatism and healthful development. Though clinging to tried and proven modes of manufacture, they showed themselves ever ready to install those methods introduced by the forces of progress.
Sales offices have been established in a number of parts of the United States, includ- ing Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Gastonia, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Char- lotte, North Carolina; and Birmingham, Alabama. The home plant in Lawrence provides work for two hundred and fifty men. The trade name of the David Brown Company's goods-"High-Grade"-is de- scriptive of the products themselves, which are sold to textile mills throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as in foreign countries. The company has adopted as its slogan: "We Lead, Others
Follow." Never has there been deviation from the high standard of merchandise made by the David Brown Company, though quantity methods of production have been installed and the firm makes a complete line of shuttles, bobbins, spools and skewers for cotton, woolen, worsted, silk, carpet and jute mills. Another slogan is: "From Cards to Looms." Many textile plants throughout the United States are equipped throughout with Brown products. In 1915 the company was awarded the gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
In addition to its other activities, the com- pany operates rough or blank bobbin and lumber mills in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, where it obtains a selected quality of birch, beech and rock maple timber in sufficient quantities to fill orders of any amounts and kinds. A series of such changes and developments, over a period of many years, has brought the Brown company to a position of leadership in its field. In 1902 the William E. Bass Company of Lawrence, which made only bobbins, was bought. It added materially to the volume of business being done. Then, in 1912, the bobbin and spool end of the business was wholly re- organized. A new charter was taken out, incorporating the firm under the State laws of Massachusetts, and the name became, in that year, the David Brown Company, as noted above. After that change, the shuttle business was still conducted separately under the name of the Union Shuttle Com- pany, which was owned by David Brown. In 1922 they purchased the Lowell Bobbin Company of Newport, Vermont, transfer- ring its properties to Lawrence and adding it to the local plant. It was only after David Brown's death, that the Union Shuttle Com- pany was finally consolidated with the David Brown Company and absorbed in it. Since that time the two organizations have been
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operated under the one name-the David Brown Company-making shuttles for plain and automatic looms, bobbins for plain and automatic looms, cardroom bobbins, warper spools, twister spools, roving spools, draw- ing spools, jack spools, dresser spools, filling bobbins, warp bobbins, twister bobbins, skewers of all kinds, rolls of all kinds, tubes and shells and numerous other items. A
specialty is made of bobbins and spools fitted and reinforced with metal parts of all kinds, as well as of products finished in baked enamel in any color or combination of colors and all kinds of fibre-head spools. The com- pany's many styles of patent eyes for auto- matic loom shuttles are acknowledged to be the best on the market.
The part that George Gibson Brown has played in the development of this company has been an important one, but he has taken time, along with his business activities, to participate in the general civic and social life of his community. The city of Law- rence has benefited from his endeavors in its behalf and from his constructive activity in numerous organizations and groups. Mr. Brown is a member of the North Andover Country Club ; the Andover Country Club ; the Andover Badminton Club ; the Phillips Club, of Andover; and the Caledonia Club, of Lawrence. He also belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he is affiliated with all bodies of the York Rite and with Aleppo Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also connected with the Lawrence Ro- tarians, the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, and the Chamber of Commerce of Law- rence, and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Scots Charitable Society of Boston, the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, the Southern Textile Association, and other local groups. He is a director of the Arling- ton Trust Company of Lawrence. and a
trustee of the Broadway Savings Bank of Lawrence. Each of these business, civic and social organizations has benefited from his labors in its behalf, with the result that he is esteemed, honored and trusted by his fellow-citizens. He and Mrs. Brown are members of Trinity Congregational Church of Lawrence.
On December 1, 1916, in Lawrence, George Gibson Brown married Beatrice M. Twiss, of this city. Mrs. Brown is a graduate of Abbot Academy, of Andover, and of Wel- lesley College, and is now active in the work of different women's groups and that of Lawrence General Hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Brown became the parents of one son, George Gibson Brown, Jr., who was born in 1923.
The family home is situated on Phillips Street, Andover. The David Brown Com- pany headquarters are at Market and Fos- ter streets, Lawrence, and there Mr. Brown has his offices.
WILLIAM M. WOOD was born of sturdy seafaring stock on the Island of Martha's Vineyard, June 18, 1858, the oldest of six children.
Not long after he was born, the family moved to New Bedford, where better possi- bilities were offered, and there William went to school. He showed unusual brilliance in his studies, and excelled in Latin, English, and mathematics ; studied also French ; kept a diary in German, and had musical talent. He began studying the violin, which he played very well as a young man.
When William M. Wood was completing high school his father died, and the burden of the entire family fell upon his young shoulders. His mind was resourceful and alert, and he immediately hit upon a mer- chandising transaction which was his first business venture. With two dollars that his mother had trusted to him, he bought a bar-
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rel of apples, wholesale, and retailed it so as to bring in twelve dollars, continually re- investing his profits until he had quite a sum-all of which he turned over to his mother for the support of his brothers and sisters.
Next he was employed at a wage of three or four dollars a week as clerk in a grocery store in New Bedford. Although this forced him to give up his formal studies at school, he worked nights, learning accounting and much of what is taught today in business schools, although at that time commercial subjects were not so systematically arranged. With his analytical and constructive genius he developed numerous ideas that have since become the best established accounting and business practices.
During his formative years he was vari- ously employed. He early showed a natural aptitude for finance, and obtained a job with the local bank, where he worked for some time and acquired a sound understanding of the rudiments of banking. From this em- ployment he went to the Wamsutta Mills, a cotton mill in New Bedford, of which An- drew G. Pierce, later a director of the Ameri- can Woolen Company, was treasurer. There he acquired a firm grasp of cotton manufac- turing.
In 1876, like Benjamin Franklin had done before him, young Mr. Wood took a trip in a coasting schooner to Philadelphia, in search of opportunities, but he learned that the grass always looks greener in the other fel- low's yard, and so returned home. There- after, except for occasional trips to various parts of the world, he remained in New Eng- land.
About this time his exceptional ability began to be recognized, although he was still working for nominal wages and was trying to support his mother and his broth- ers and sisters. He denied himself every luxury and comfort in order to do this. His
other brothers, though willing to help, were much too young.
Mr. Wood's reputation already had reached another large manufacturing center, Fall River, where he was offered a position in the accounting department of a large mill that was run on the old high standards of the merchants of New England textile business. His associations from his banking days up having always been reputable firms is an indication of the careful consideration he gave to every important step he made. After working awhile in the Fall River mill, he showed the officials that they really did not know their own costs, and he established a new system of cost accounting which accu- rately determined the cost of manufacture at every step, from raw cotton to the fin- ished product. As a result of Mr. Wood's system the mill found where it could make savings, where it was selling at a loss, and where it was pricing its goods too high in competition with others.
The mill hours were from six a. m. to six p. m., but, as the wages were small, Mr. Wood added to his income by straightening out accounts of others in the evenings. One of his clients lived three miles from town, and he walked there and back regularly three times a week. There was no time for play, or to learn sports, and all that he earned was turned over to his family.
About 1887 Mr. Wood first became ac- quainted with Frederick Ayer, a wealthy gentleman who lived in Lowell, and who had vast interests in various lines of busi- ness. Among other things, he had loaned a large sum of money to the then owners of the Washington Mills in Lawrence. This obligation was defaulted and Mr. Ayer had no other recourse but to accept the mills in payment of the loan. The mills at that time had already twice failed, and the prospects in the wool manufacturing industry were far from bright. Mr. Ayer looked about for
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an able manager for these mills, and from the possible candidates selected Mr. Wood, whom he made treasurer of the mill. Mr. Wood, although he had had no previous ex- perience in wool manufacturing, imme- diately took hold, analyzed this business, in- troduced his new system of cost accounting and soon had the mill running profitably.
He worked almost night and day, often sleeping in the office of the mill, but, in spite of this pressure, maintained an always jovial attitude, and had at all times a keen sense of humor. His conversation was surprisingly brilliant, and he was a great favorite among the set of young people that he met through Mr. Ayer. In fact, his personal qualities made him welcome at any gathering and he was well liked by the older generation as well as by those of his own age.
After the panic of 1896 there was again a devastating depression in the wool manu- facturing business of New England, and about 1898 many mills were failing. Mr. Wood believed that these mills could be con- solidated into the strongest textile corpora- tion that had ever been formed. In fact, he was one of the first pioneers in the idea of consolidations that set the basis for the large corporations, which have since featured American progress and industry in all lines.
He took this idea to Mr. Ayer, and to- gether they worked out the purchase of many mills and created the American Woolen Company in 1899. The efficiency thus cre- ated, the skillful management that was thereby introduced into the newly purchased units, made possible for the new organiza- tion to swing along when others were wind- ing up. By 1910 the American Woolen Company led the manufacturers in impor- tance. It became the largest single indus- try, of any nature, and employed more peo- ple than any other firm, not only in Essex County, but in all New England.
During these years Mr. Wood and Mr. Ayer worked hand in hand. Mr. Wood was the active manager, with the title of treas- urer for many years, and Mr. Ayer the presi- dent. When the latter reached ninety-four years of age he retired, and Mr. Wood was elected president. In the meantime, in addi- tion to buying plants and renovating them, they had built the Ayer Mill and the Wood Worsted Mill, the latter being started in 1905 and completed within twelve months.
Mr. Wood was personally on the spot during every part of the construction, from the time the cellar was dug until the roof was on, and he was manufacturing cloth at one end of the mill while the staging was going up for the other end. It was the larg- est worsted mill ever built in any country and still is. It proved a bonanza to the American Woolen Company, as it was a great earner. It was built against the ad- . vice of everyone of his subordinates, and it was only possible because of Mr. Wood's faith in his idea, and Mr. Ayer's confidence in Mr. Wood. The bankers, too, had con- fidence, and he had no difficulty in getting all the money necessary for any project he wanted to put through at any time in his business career.
Finally, Mr. Wood built the Shawsheen Mills for worsted, located in Andover, Mas- sachusetts. It is a monument to his genius and a tribute to his consideration for his employees. Its ultra-modern equipment and arrangement make it the lowest cost pro- ducer of any mill in the country. Its unsur- passed working conditions include every comfort of light and air, and every safeguard and sanitary device.
The chief outside business interest Mr. Wood had was his directorship in the Chase National Bank of New York, which grew to be the second largest bank in the United States during his term on its board. When
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the bank had to take over the Consolidated Textile Corporation on foreclosure, it made Mr. Wood director general of that huge con- cern. Owing, however, to pressing duties for the American Woolen Company, and later to failing health, he was obliged to delegate most of the work of the big cotton firms to others.
His exceptionally meteoric rise to great power was bound to create some jealousy among a few of those passed en route; but generally this was not so. Whereas the earlier years of his management of the great woolen company witnessed some bitter clashes between capital and labor, the last fourteen years were remarkably free of labor troubles. This was due to Mr. Wood's great popularity with his employees and the pro- gressive policies of the company's depart- ment of labor which he established.
Mr. Wood was one of the first to believe in the economy of prosperity through high wages, and he backed up his belief by pay- ing the highest wages in wool manufactur- ing. Many years after Mr. Wood put this idea into practice the idea caught the atten- tion of college professors, and was intro- duced in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
Mr. Wood successfully pioneered the American Woolen Company, which was, until his death, twenty-five years later, his chief interest in life outside of his family. He said it was his goal to rule for a quarter of a century and then to retire. This he did.
As a result of the panic of 1921, the Con- solidated Textile Company, a huge cotton manufacturing organization, came into the hands of the Chase National Bank, then the largest bank in the United States, and a bank of which Mr. Wood was a director. The president of the bank urged Mr. Wood to become general director of the Consoli- dated Textile Company, to see if it could be worked out of its dilemma. Mr. Wood accepted that position, but as he already had
sixty woolen mills to manage he had to dele- gate most of the active work to others.
Mr. Wood had a very human side to his nature and took a personal and direct inter- est in the welfare of his employees, whose loyalty and enthusiasm for their leader con- tributed much towards Mr. Wood's own success. He knew many of them personally, taking an interest in their children, and sup- plied coal and food in times of stress. He was a very loyal friend, making friends with no thought of gain for himself. He had the knack of taking the most diverse and hostile types and making them work together suc- cessfully towards a common cause.
The only financial assistance he ever had before getting onto his feet was a loan of one hundred dollars from a friend. He paid this back a long time afterwards with a check of one thousand dollars, as he had voluntarily compounded the interest in the interim at a high rate.
In 1888 Mr. Wood married Mr. Ayer's oldest daughter, Ellen Wheaton, by whom he had four children. He loved children and entered into their play, their joys, and their sorrows. He was an affectionate husband to the end of his days, some thirty-eight years later.
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