USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume IV > Part 31
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Mr. Barrett was a trustee of the Mechanics Savings Bank of Holyoke and for many years served as a di- rector of the Third National Bank and Trust Company of Springfield. He took an active part in civic affairs in Holyoke, serving as a director of the Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and of the Holyoke Hospital and a trustee of the Holyoke Public Library. He was also a member of the Holyoke Rotary Club. For a number of years he held the post of chairman of the Massachusetts Division of the New England Council. He was a member of the Western Massachusetts Har- vard Club and of the Newcomen Society of England. His long association with the American Society of Civil Engineers was one of his most valued connec- tions. He became a junior member on January 31, 1905, an associate member on December 6, 1910, a member on June 16, 1919 and a life member in 1945, the year of his death.
Mr. Barrett was married on June 13, 1908 to Grace Le Baron Esty, daughter of Frederick M. and Geor- gella G. (Harrington) Esty. Mr. Barrett is survived by Mrs. Barrett and their three children: Robert Edward, Jr., Frederick Park, and Dorothy, now Mrs. Howard Hollis Allen.
REV. EDMUND RANDOLPH LAINE-A leader in the Episcopal Church of Stockbridge, and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Reverend Ed- mund Randolph Laine has made significant contribu- tions toward the religious and moral development of his community.
Edmund Laine was born April 22, 1889, at Cald- well, New Jersey, son of Dr. Edmund Randolph and Catherine Elizabeth (Miller) Laine. His father, a
prominent physician, served as mayor of Caldwell from 1904 until 1906. One of his early ancestors was Sir John Randolph, of Virginia. Catherine Elizabeth (Miller) Laine, mother of Edmund Laine, was a de- scendant of Dr. Benjamin Miller, a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army.
After having received his elementary and secondary training in the schools of his home community, Ed- mund Laine entered the University of Virginia in 1907, and remained there for a year. He next entered Clark University and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts there in 1911. Three years later he was graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York City.
In 1914, Edmund Laine was ordained a deacon, and then was made a priest in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Thomas F. Davies, of Western Massachusetts. For the next five years he served as rector of St. Andrew's Church at Ludlow, Massachusetts, and at St. Mary's Mission, Palmer, Massachusetts. During World War I, he served as a chaplain in the Fifty- eighth Infantry Regiment of the Fourth Division for the Allied Expeditionary Forces as a first lieutenant. He was present at the battles of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, where he was wounded, and he served in the Army of Occupation in Germany.
In 1921, after having returned to civilian life, he became dean of St. Luke's Cathedral at Portland, Maine, where he remained for six years. In 1926, he became rector of St. Paul's Church at Stockbridge, and has carried on his work there since. Since 1931 he has served as examining chaplain to the Bishop of Western Massachusetts. He served as deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church for the years 1922, 1925, 1940, and 1943. He has been Dean of the Berkshire Convocation of the Diocese of West- ern Massachusetts since 1938. From 1924 until 1926 he served as president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Maine.
The Reverend Edmund Laine is active in the affairs of those communities in which he has spent his life. He is a member of the Virginia Historical Society, the Southern Historical Society, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He belongs to the Military Order of Foreign Wars, was president of the Stock- bridge Library Association from 1928 until 1936, and from 1944 to the present, is president of the Laurel Hill Association of Stockbridge, which is the oldest village improvement society in the United States, is vice president of the Stockbridge Old Mission House Association, and is commissioner of the Stockbridge Cemetery. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, affiliated with the Royal Arch Masons, and belongs to Lambda Chi Alpha.
The Stockbridge rectory, where the Reverend Ed- mund Laine carries on, was erected in 1798, and the parish was founded in 1834. The present church, erected on the site of the first church, was built in 1884. Designed by Charles F. McKinn, it contains art by La Farge, St. Gaudens, and Burne-Jones.
THEO SPAULDING BACON, M.D .- Massachu- setts had not been very long the refuge of liberty-seek- ing men and women from the Old World before the first American progenitors of the Bacon family took up their abode here, for they are known to have settled in Dedhanı as early as 1636. Of this old New
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England lineage was the late Josiah Spaulding Bacon, who was born at Natick, Massachusetts, in 1835, and died in that same town after a long and useful career with the United States Customs Service, stationed at Boston. Josiah Spaulding Bacon served his country also as a soldier of the Union Army dur- ing the Civil War. He was a devout member of the Congregational Church, and in politics a staunch up- holder of the Republican party.
Josiah Spaulding Bacon married Leora A. French, who was a daughter of Rufus A. French, a native of Saxonville, who died in that place after being for many years a superintendent in a carpet mill. To this couple the son whom they named Theo Spaulding was born at Natick on May 9, 1872. After passing through the public schools of his birthplace, he en- tered the State College of Massachusetts, from which he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1894. In that same year he received the same degree from Boston University. His ambition was already fixed on a career in medicine, and he completed his studies at Harvard Medical School, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree upon graduating with the class of 1898.
The young physician passed his internship at the Boston City Hospital, but at the outset of his career he turned to Western Massachusetts and set up in practice at Springfield in 1899. There he has remained to the present day, building up, during the intervening years, a lucrative practice and a repu- tation of the highest in professional circles and with the general public as well. Dr. Bacon is on the staffs of the Springfield Hospital and the Wesson Memo- rial Hospital. He is a member of the American Medical Association, of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and of the Hampden District Medical So- ciety, as well as belonging to the Springfield Medical Club. He is also known as a useful and active member of the Springfield Rotary Club. His religious affilia- tion is with the First Church of Christ, a Congrega- tional organization. In politics he is a supporter of the Republican party.
In July, 1904, Theo Spaulding Bacon was married to Mable A. Rice, a native of South Deerfield, and a daughter of Alonzo Rice who was born in that same town, was a veteran of the Civil War and treasurer of the Arms Manufacturing Company of South Deer- field, and his wife who was a Miss Arms. Of this marriage there are two children: I. Dorothy Rice, who was educated in the Springfield schools and at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. She is now the wife of Thomas A. Taylor, with whom she resides at Upper Montclair, New Jersey. Mr. Taylor is associated with American Telephone and Telegraph of New York City. This couple are the parents of three boys, named David, Richard and John Taylor. 2. Theo S., Jr., who was educated at the local public schools, at the Deerfield Academy, at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and at the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology. While he was a stu- dent at the last-named institution, he answered the call to the colors in World War II and entered the United States Navy with the rank of ensign. He saw active service overseas and was advanced to the rank of lieutenant senior grade. He is now assistant dean of Amherst College. He is married to the former
Sarah Hogate of Pawling, New York, and they have two sons: I. Kenneth H. Bacon. 2. Theodore Spaulding Bacon, III.
Mrs. Mable A. (Rice) Bacon was educated in the Deerfield schools and at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is a member of the First Church of Christ, Congregationalist, of Springfield, of the History Club and Mt. Holyoke College Association, and of the Springfield Women's Club.
JAMES HEWAT HUNTER is of the younger gen- eration of a family whose name has long been promi- nent in the annals of Massachusetts industry. The James Hunter Machine Company recently celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary, in North Adams, where it has always been established. James Hewat Hunter, vice president of the company, represents the fifth generation of his family to have guided its destinies.
Born in North Adams, November 27, 1919, James Hewat Hunter is the son of James T. and Margaret (Hewat) Hunter. A biographical sketch of his father, containing a historical account of the growth of the company, is to be found in this volume. The younger Mr. Hunter graduated from Deerfield Academy and, thereafter took business courses at the School of Business Administration of Harvard University, pre- paratory to assuming responsibility in the James Hunter Machine Company. He entered the com- pany in 1940, and became vice president and a director in 1944. A brother, Richard Andrew Hunter, is also a vice president of the concern.
Mr. Hunter has early become associated with bank- ing activities. He is a trustee of the North Adams Savings Bank, and of the Hoosac Savings Bank. In 1946, Mr. Hunter was elected president of the city council. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Lions, and the North Adams Country Club, and he attends the First Con- gregational Church.
Recently, the James Hunter Machine Company ob- served its one hundredth anniversary, with a dinner, at which James Hewat Hunter presided as toast- master. On that occasion, Governor Robert F. Brad- ford was guest of honor; and we quote from his re- marks these words which indicate the place the James Hunter Machine Company holds in Massachusetts industry :
"Massachusetts has the greatest reservoir of skilled labor in the country which, together with its oppor- tunities for education, recreation, industry and agri- culture, ensure the future of the Commonwealth. Companies such as the Hunter firm, with its close re- lationship between employer and employee, have enabled Massachusetts to compile the best record of any state in the country for less hours lost by work stoppage through strikes or industrial strife."
This is quite in accord with the Hunter tradition. James Hewat Hunter has already given evidence of his respect for those traditions, balanced by a progres- sive attitude wholly in accord with the demands of modern-day technology and labor-management rela- tions. He possesses the understanding and the quali- ties to make him, as have been his forebears, a leader in Massachusetts industry.
James Hewat Hunter married, in South Orange, New Jersey, June 6, 1942, Irene Elizabeth Mennen,
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daughter of William G. and Irene Elizabeth (Schenk) Mennen. Mrs. Hunter's father is president of Men- nen Company of Newark, manufacturers of shaving supplies and toileteries. Mrs. Hunter is a graduate of Emma Willard School and of Smith College, class of 1939. The Hunters have three children: I. Eliza- beth Irene, born March 21, 1945, at the House of Mercy Hospital, Pittsfield. 2. James Mennen, born October II, 1946. 3. Barbara Spring, born March 21, 1948. The family resides in Stamford, Vermont.
JAMES TUCKER HUNTER-President of the James Hunter Machine Company, of North Adams, is James Tucker Hunter. He assumed the presidency in January, 1947, at the death of his father, James Du- rant Hunter, and had served this organization in various capacities for a period of thirty-three years. It is of historic interest that James Tucker Hunter is the fourth in line of direct descent in this unusual family, to have headed this large and complex indus- trial organization for a period of over a century. This history is not only an account of the present president, but of the old-established company which he heads.
Born in North Adams in 1892, James Tucker Hunter is the son of James Durant and Cora A. (Tucker) Hunter. He was educated at Worcester Academy, and received further vocational preparation at the Philadelphia Textile Institute. He entered the company in 1914, at which time its president was James E. Hunter, his grandfather. "On the way up," James T. Hunter has filled many capacities and as- sumed many responsibilities, his detailed knowledge of the workings of the organization being based on years of experience which brought him into intimate contact with the problems of each department.
His period of service, which entitles him to member- ship in the company's Quarter Century Club, was in- terrupted only during World War I, when James T. Hunter served his country in the new and adventurous role of naval aviator. He has during recent years as- sumed responsibilities not only in his own company, but in other business connections, and in civic posts. He is a director of the North Adams Trust Company, and has served the city council as president. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with his family worships at the Congregational Church.
In his native city of North Adams, in 1916, James Tucker Hunter married Margaret Hewat, daughter of R. A. J. and Edith (Armitage) Hewat. "The Hunters have three children: I. Barbara Hewat, born in November 1917. 2. James Hewat, born in Novem- ber 1919. 3. Richard Andrew, born in December 1921. The James Hunter Machine Company was founded in 1847 by James Hunter, a Scottish immigrant who, in his native land, had indentured himself, according to the custom of the times, with the firm of Alexan- der Sanderson and Son, manufacturers of woolen cloth. Thus it is a matter of history that for over six score years the name, James Hunter, has been associated in one connection or another with the woolen and worsted textile industry, for it is largely with this industry that the present production of the James Hunter Machine Company is linked.
The date of James Hunter's birth was 1806, and it was in 1821, when he was but fifteen years old, that his apprenticeship indenture with Alexander Sanderson WV. Mass. IV -- 15
and Son was signed, at Galashiels, Scotland. The terms, by the standards of today, seem severe. Pay- ment was to be made, not to James Hunter, who was to be taught and instructed "in the Business and Em- ployment of a Manufacturer of Woolen Cloth. ... so far as the said Alexander Sanderson and Son know the same themselves, and their said Apprentice is able and willing to conceive"; but on the other hand was to be made on behalf of James Hunter to the com- pany employing him, by a certain merchant of Edin- burgh who was also treasurer of a boys' "Hospital" or school. The terms of the contract bound him like- wise in these words: "And if he shall at any time hear or know of any thing to his Masters' hurt, he is timeously to reveal the same to them, and stop and prevent it to the utmost of his power, and shall not reveal or disclose any of his Masters' Secrets in relation to their business or otherways, and shall ab- stain from bad company and vicious practices, and be- have discreetly to his said Masters . . . " The terms of this agreement are of interest as affording a back- ground of contrast with the always-liberal attitudes which the company, founded by this James Hunter, has consistently followed, as attested by every labor organization with which the firm has had relations.
James Hunter's apprenticeship was in effect for five years. It was still as a young man, twenty-seven years of age, that he decided to try his luck in the New World, where opportunities were greater. He landed in Canada, and the anfractuous path of his for- tunes led him, with his family, to the small manufac- turing town of Fly Creek near Otsego Lake, New York and finally, after many reverses, to North Adams. Here he first worked at the Brown and Tyler Print Works, at a wage of twenty-eight dollars per month. His first venture in private enterprise was undertaken eight years later when, with two partners, he built at Greylock the first mill for making cotton cloth. Though successful merchants, his partners lacked his experience and skill in manufacturing, and in 1847 James Hunter exchanged his interest in the mill for a furnace property near the present location of the James Hunter Machine Company. There began, humbly, the business which today bulks so large in the industrial scene in New England.
Initially it engaged in the manufacture of machinery castings, employing only three moulders. The next stop in its growth occurred when it inaugurated the manufacture of stoves. By now a partnership, Abel Weatherby being the other partner, the firm operated under the name of Hunter and Company. Its en- suing growth involved the purchase of the site of the present plant, and the erection of a foundry. Packing boxes were added to the company's production output. Other interests, including a gristmill, were added, as the concern underwent corporate changes and as- sumed the name of Hunter, Thayer and Company.
The next step brought the firm more into line with its present-day activities. A machine shop which, al- though it had but one lathe, marked the beginning of the present establishment, was started in 1851. Six years later Mr. Hunter's son and namesake, James E. Hunter, entered into partnership with his father. At the same time one M. C. Jewett also entered the part- nership, but withdrew in 1864, in which year the firm became known as James Hunter and Son, so remain- ing until 1891.
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In that year the sturdy founder of the company died, and since that time the firm, which then entered a period of management by James E. Hunter, has been known by the name of the James Hunter Machine Company.
A survey of the varied products of the company throughout these years is relevant. A notice appearing in an 1857 issue of the "Adams Transcript" adver- tises: "a "a general assortment of Steel, Bar, and Hoop Iron; Cut and Wrought Nails; Nail Rods, Shoe Shapes, Corking Steel, Steel Sleigh Shoes, Axles, Nuts, Washers, Wagon Bands, Malleable Iron, Trim- mings, Chains, Crowbars, Grindstones and Fixtures, Chain Pumps, Sheet Lead, Straw Cutters, Mill, Molay and Circular Saws, and Saw Arbors. Also a general assortment of Hardware." It will readily be seen that in those times a brass and iron foundry, as James Hunter and Company then classified itself, did not overspecialize. The company early began to make a few textile machines, a cloth washer being the first, built sometime during the 1850s. The contemporane- ous growth of the textile industry throughout the East placed great demands upon the flourishing com- pany for the production of such machines as fulling mills, soapers, and dye kettles. Power transmission equipment grew to be a principal item. James E. Hunter was, according to the company's records, "a foundry man by preference" and his continued inter- est in this area of production was such that at the age of seventy-eight he completed a correspondence course on melting iron and moulding.
The years 1861, 1866 and 1881 had seen new build- ing and expansion. Toward the end of the century power transmission machinery, pulleys, clutches, hang- ers and related equipment constituted the greater part of the company's output. Its president, James E. Hunter, was himself responsible for the invention of one of the first variable speed mechanisms in this country, and held patents on hand drills, friction couplings, pulleys, and other inventions. He was active until his death in 1919, being succeeded in the presidency by his son, James D., who had prepared himself for his future responsibilities with a course at Worcester Technical Institute, and upon the com- pletion of which had entered the plant in 1884.
Growth during the next couple of decades was par- ticularly rapid. Two large brick buildings were added in 1899, and a completely modern grey iron foundry began production the next year. A shift in the com- pany's emphasis from power transmission equipment to textile machinery was in consequence of James D. Hunter's appraisal of the effect of the electric motor on the former field.
James Durant Hunter, who had started as machine operator at twenty-two, had later become foreman, superintendent and finally vice president, shaped with his skilled hand the present development of the com- pany. His work was done not only through his un- surpassed knowledge of machinery and understanding of management procedures, but through his talent for working with men. A brochure, brought out on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the company, says of him, "His cheery smile and the inevitable straw hat he always wore were a symbol of friendliness in the plant. His thoughtfulness, toler- ance, and humanness, made all admire and respect him. ... It was under his leadership, his unflagging zeal for
something new-and always better, that the growth of the Company accelerated rapidly. The holder of many patents personally, James D. Hunter surrounded him- self with men of similar bent whom he could guide, help and personally encourage."
The cordial relations between labor and manage- ment in this plant is of note in this connection. It can boast of one hundred years of production history without a work stoppage. Its main-plant employees are represented by the International Association of Machinists, and the foundry workers by the Molders and Foundry Workers of America. Amicable feelings have always prevailed between each of these organiza- tions and the James Hunter Machine Company.
Development and production of new types of ma- chinery have gone on apace, and so has construction. During the latter years of James Durant Hunter's presidency, the years of our nation's trial on the forge of World War II, two significant structures were added: a two-story brick building to accomo- date expanded sheet-metal work; and an addition to the assembly floor. Its prosperity bore the impress of the man who had headed it during this formative period. In the brochure above referred to, his stand- ing in the eyes of his employees is thus appraised:
"For him, no task was too humble, nor any job too hard. To him, more than any other individual, can be credited the constant growth of the Company and its present position of leadership in its part of the Textile Machinery Industry. It was his personal interest, patience, foresight and insistence on constant improve- ment in quality, methods and machinery that set the pace for the entire Hunter organization."
This is the nature of the inspiring background be- hind James Tucker Hunter, who succeeded his father to the presidency in 1947. And already the next gen- eration of Hunters are apprenticing themselves in the company's procedures, in the persons of James Hewat Hunter, vice president, and Richard Andrew Hunter, vice president. The modern company, with its many departments, up-to-the-minute equipment, cooperative able personnel, is prepared to back up James Tucker Hunter's resolve, which he remembers and paraphrases from the terms of his great-grand- father's bond of indenture, now a hundred and twenty- seven years old. The paraphrasing reads: "The James Hunter Machine Company binds and obliges itself, faithfully, dutifully and honestly to serve."
JOSEPH ALBERT GREENAWAY-For many years before his untimely death, Joseph Albert Greena- way had stood high in the esteem of the citizens of Springfield, his repeated re-election as councilman of his ward testifying to the degree of confidence in which his civic services were held. He had also been candidate for the legislature, and in business life had served the Fiberloid Corporation, and its sucessor, the Monsanto Chemical Company for forty-two years with as great loyalty as he showed to his constituents in public life. Indeed, Mr. Greenaway's entire career was one motivated by service. As the mayor of his city said of him: "He was a fine public servant; one who always had the interests of his constituents and the people of the entire city at heart."
Mr. Greenaway was born in Newburyport, Novem- ber 22, 1882. He was a son of Alexander and Eliza J. (Milsop) Greenaway. Receiving his grammar school education in the city of his birth, Mr. Greenaway be-
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gan his career as a shoe cutter in Newburyport, as an employee of Dodge Brothers. Coming to Spring- field in 1905, he was associated from that time until a year before his death with the Fiberloid Corpora- tion, which during his period of employment became the Monsanto Chemical Company. At the time of his retirement he was its oldest employee in point of years of service and had for a number of years been an inspector. His entire period of employment with this concern covered forty-three years.
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