Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III, Part 100

Author: Nelson, John, 1866-1933
Publication date: 1934
Publisher: New York, American historical Society
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III > Part 100

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In 1913, The Davis Press became interested with other firms in the allied printing trades in the erec-

tion of the Graphic Arts Building at 25 Foster Street, where it remained until 1923, in which year the offices and plant moved to the new Printers Building at 44 Portland Street, the corporation's present home. The firm was likewise interested in the erection of this building which is partic- ularly adapted because of its rugged construction and the broad window areas for the production of fine printing.

The name of The Davis Press has come to be a synonym for excellent craftsmanship and for prog- ressiveness in its field. The company specializes in creative and direct mail advertising-printing and also publishes The School Arts Magazine, which is a recognized authority for teachers of drawing and handicraft and is circulated widely among the schools of this country and abroad. The firm has its editorial office in Palo Alto, California, where Pedro J. Lemos, director of the Museum of Fine Arts of Stanford University, is its editor. In con- nection with the magazine a goodly number of portfolios and books are also published. The ex- ecutive officers of The Davis Press, Incorporated, are: President, Mrs. Minnie W. Davis, widow of the founder; vice-president, Rae M. Spencer; clerk, Alliston Greene; treasurer and manager, Warren G. Davis, of this review; superintendent, William P. Hudson.

Mr. Davis was married, June 25, 1919, to Miss Anna Sears, of Framingham, Massachusetts, They have two sons, Ronald Sears, born February 7, 1921, and Gilbert Sears, born July 27, 1924. Their home is at No. 11 Otsego Road, Worcester. Dur- ing the World War Mr. Davis enlisted as a private in the Quartermaster's Corps. He remained in the army for twenty-three months and became a second lieutenant in the office of the Chief of Finance of the General Staff, stationed in Paris. Fraternally he is a Mason with membership in Morning Star Lodge, and both he and his wife are affiliated with the First Unitarian Church. He is a director of the Worcester Young Men's Christian Association and a trustee of the Worcester County Institution for Savings. He is a member of the Worcester Club, the Worcester Country Club and the Tat- nuck Country Club.

ARTHUR H. SAGENDORPH-On a hill- top farm five miles from Spencer town, one of America's most progressive farmers has success- fully demonstrated the value and efficiency of motorized machinery for the operation of his one thousand acres. In fact, Arthur H. Sagendorph, the owner, who has brought this large agricultural area together from several run-down farms, will say that his is a tractor-made farm. Although "Alta Crest"-this is the euphonious name of the Sagendorph enterprise-is virtually a horseless paradise, if the paradox may be used, it is by no means a cowless one. His banner herd of Ayrshires is known from coast to coast for purity of strain, milk-producing properties and general excellence. As a business proposition, "Alta Crest" returns a profit to the owner, and by its gratify- ing response to his progressive spirit and expert management has taken its place high up in the list of farms in the East. And Mr. Sagendorph has won the reputation of being "the best farmer in Massachusetts."

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Born in Spencer, August 16, 1879, Arthur H. Sagendorph is of Holland-Dutch extraction on his father's side and on his mother's side is of English derivation. After graduating from high school in his native town, he attended the College of Agri- culture at Cornell University and took a special course with a view to doing something along the very line that has claimed his undivided attention and energy since he came into possession of "Alta Crest." While his father was a manufacturer, he also had a farm, and on this farm the boy, Arthur H., always kept a few animals and more poultry and took them around for exhibition at fairs. So it was natural for him from his youth to want to be a farmer in his own right.

He was in his second year at Cornell-and at home on vacation-when he learned of a mortgage sale of a one hundred and sixty-acre farm on a hilltop less than two leagues from Spencer. He attended the sale, bought the farm, paying $2,200 for the land and its old buildings. After working it that summer of 1902, he decided to leave college and apply his theory to practice. He tore down the old house and remodeled the barn. The same summer he purchased three adjoining farms con- taining four hundred and twenty acres. Their buildings had been razed by fire long before; the land had not been cultivated in a score of years. In every meaning of the term, they were aban- doned farms.

Then he went to work, made some mistakes and profited by them. There were rocks in the fields, stone fences in generous array and disarray, stone fences around even the woodlots. That first sum- mer in the midst of this unpromising scene he managed to cut about thirty tons of hay and grew enough corn to fill a small silo. He had bought a few grade cows; these were not Ayrshires-the foundation of his present herd had not then ar- rived. The first winter he built a cow stable, forty by seventy-two feet. The following spring he added a few pure-bred cattle to the herd. At the same time he and his men began removing the boulders from the fields and taking down the stone fences, using dynamite, stump-pullers and stone drags. The stone was made to fill dumps on slopes, filling in the cellar of the old barn, and in making foundations for new buildings. Later on he got a stone-crusher, operated with a tractor or gasoline engine, and put it to eating up the stone fences. The crushed stone was fed to a con- crete mixer and this product went into material for roads, walks and other concrete work on the farm. When he first began operations, it was hardly possible to plow a furrow one hundred feet long without hitting a boulder. Now his men and machinery can plow a straight furrow two miles in length. Fences have been built only along the roads, none between the fields. Gradually the whole farm has been fenced in with woven wire. He put in herds of goat and sheep, which were found to be excellent for eating up all the under- brush, keeping fence rows clean, and saving much scythe labor. There was profit, too, from the milk of the goats and from the wool and mutton of the sheep. Then he brought in a 19,000-pound trac- tor, and began driving it over the small trees and underbrush, the eight-foot wheels crushing all beneath them like an army tank, considering even a sapling as big as a man's leg an insignificant obstacle. He hitched an 1800-pound grub-breaker

plow to the tractor which makes a furrow two feet wide and eighteen inches deep. It rooted out half-ton boulders, throwing them to the surface. Stones and loose roots were removed, the ground carefully harrowed and planted and fertilized, the fifty acres in this operation being reclaimed at a saving of $100 an acre by the tractor method over the old horse-power method, making a total saving of $5,000. Thus the good work went on until all the cultivable fields were brought into tillable use. More and more was machinery installed to do practically all the work on the farm. Grain drills, harrows, mowing machine, rakes, hay-loaders, hay slings and hoist, grain binder, all are operated by gasoline engines, either in tractor or in individual units of the stationary type. The expense as com- pared with horse power is reduced to a minimum. A portable tool-house or wagon, fully equipped, follows behind tractor or wagon to any part of the farm where needed. There is also a repair shop, with forge and other fittings. A three-ton motor truck is used for heavy hauling. There are now only two teams of horses on the entire farm of one thousand acres. A three-quarter-ton motor truck is used to carry milk products from the farm to Worcester.

Mr. Sagendorph has built up a herd of three hundred head of pure-bred Ayrshire cattle, on the foundation imported from Scotland. Specimens of his herd have been exhibited at eleven consecu- tive meetings of the National Dairy Show. Dur- ing this period the "Alta Crest" herd has been awarded more than twice as many championship ribbons as any other exhibit of cattle. He is a member of the Ayrshire Cattle Breeders Associa- tion, which he served as president two years and as chairman of its executive committee five years. In addition, he has served on the board of trus- tees of the Eastern States Exposition at Spring- field a number of years. His cows are milked with electric motor machines, and a complete mod- ern dairy is maintained. All these products are certified, and they find a ready and constant sale in the city of Worcester, the name "Alta Crest" alone being a synonym for all that is best and desirable in the dairy line.

The labor problem for Mr. Sagendorph does not exist. He employs twenty men the year round, half of them married men. All live in bungalows or houses on the place. Most of the men have been employed here for a number of years. Instead of bunks or attic chambers, the single men have a neat bungalow to themselves. There is a living room twenty by thirty feet, with individual bed- rooms opening from it, and each man has a key to his own room. This style of bungalow has been copied by the State Agricultural College at Am- herst. The men are given good board and fair pay. The herdsman and his helper start work at 5 A. M. and usually are through at 5:30 P. M. They do no work outside the barn. The outside men start at 7 A. M., have an hour at noon, quit at 6 P. M., and have no chores or further work. Should a vacancy occur in the force, there is never a dearth of applicants. It seems much easier to get labor for a horseless farm than for any other.

The entire "Alta Crest" enterprise is managed and financed like a well-organized business. Com- plete records are kept of all transactions, incoming and outgoing; inventory is taken the first of every year, when depreciation of buildings and equip-

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ment is taken into account. A card-index system is in constant operation, and clippings from agri- cultural papers are filed under proper headings. Students come from agricultural colleges in differ- ent parts of New England to receive a cordial welcome from the owner of "Alta Crest Farm" and to learn something of high-class modern methods in practical operation. In conclusion let Mr. Sagendorph speak for himself: "Machinery is the big answer to the food production crisis in this country. Everything should be done to facili- tate its use and distribution. Farming has now become a business proposition. It opens up a wonderful field for men of real ability."

Arthur H. Sagendorph married, November 12, 1902, Martha Page, of Spencer, and their children are: Richard, Gretchen and Janet. The family lives in Spencer, in one of the most beautiful homes of the town and countryside.

ROSS B. GORDON-Few men are rated higher in the insurance circles of Massachusetts than Ross B. Gordon, of Worcester, Massachu- setts, vice-president of the State Mutual Life As- surance Company, of Massachusetts. He is one of the many men which Canada has contributed to the business life of the United States, being a native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, born August 20, 1885. His father, John D. Gordon, was born in Nova Scotia, and was for the most of his life engaged in the insurance business in the Province of Ontario. The senior Mr. Gordon died in 1918; he married Mary J. Kaiser, a native of Ontario.

Ross B. Gordon was educated in the Brampton and other Canadian schools, and started in business while still in his teens. He became a clerk with the Home Life Association at Toronto, Canada, and there laid the foundations of his career. In 1907 he came to Worcester, Massachusetts, to be- come associated with the State Mutual Life Assur- ance Company, as a clerk in the Actuarial Depart- ment. A history of this important insurance com- pany is printed in another section of this work. Mr. Gordon has run the gamut of life assurance in his experience with the State Mutual Life. In 1920 he transferred to the Underwriting Depart- ment and in 1923 was chosen assistant supervisor of applications. After serving in this capacity for two years he was elected supervisor of applications. In 1930 he was elevated to vice-presidency. In few large corporations is advancement so based on ability as in the insurance business, and Ross B. Gordon's success speaks for itself, based on the evidence of promotion.

Mr. Gordon's devotion has been to his business and his activities are largely confined to things con- nected with commerce and finance. He is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, of the Kiwanis Club, and the Worcester Economic Club. For many years he has been a member of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, of Worcester, a vestryman and a worker in religious activities. Civic affairs, however, have come in for some of his help, and he is usually ready to assist welfare and philanthropic movements.

On October 15, 1919, Ross B. Gordon married Ruth I. Macomber, a native of Massachusetts.

HARRY C. MIDGLEY-For the part he has played in the banking and civic enterprises of Worcester, Massachusetts, of which place he has

been a lifelong resident, Harry C. Midgley is ranked among the leading citizens. He is a native of Worcester, born November 16, 1886, son of John and Lillian M. (Tibbetts) Midgley, members of old Massachusetts families. His father died in 1912, and his mother in 1926. He received the usual education of the public schools before attend- ing and becoming a graduate of a local business college. On January 26, 1902, Mr. Midgley started as a clerk with the Peoples Savings Bank of Worcester, served in all the departments of the bank, and in 1931 was elected treasurer to succeed Frederick W. White, a position he has held since that time.

Mr. Midgley has confined his labors entirely to the institution with which he has been connected for a quarter of a century. He is, however, a director on the Morris Plan Bank of Worcester. Mr. Midgley is a familiar and popular figure in Masonry, being a member and a Past Master of the Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; also Past District Deputy, and a member of the Knights Templar. Recreation he enjoys as a member of the Worcester Country Club, and he is active as a member of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce. He is a communicant and the treasurer of All Saints Episcopal Church of the city.

In 1911, Harry C. Midgley married Marion M. Bertels, of Worcester, and they are the parents of two children: Helen, born April 15, 1913; and Harry C., Jr., born September 1, 1918.

STEPHEN IRELAND-As vice-president of one of the leading life insurance companies of Mas- sachusetts, Stephen Ireland is well known to the business men and financiers of the State. He is one of those fortunate men who in early manhood find the work which best suits their abilities and ambitions and cleaves to it throughout their mature career. Singleness of purpose and activity in the commercial world has in no wise lessened his interest in all phases of life. Mr. Ireland is prom- inent in civic affairs, in club and fraternal circles, in sports and welfare movements. He was born November 5, 1883, at Somerville, Massachusetts, son of Rev. R. W. and Adeline (Perkins) Ireland, of Watertown. His father was a prominent Bap- tist clergyman, a veteran of the Civil War, who en- listed as a private in the 5th Massachusetts Volun- teer Regiment and rose to the rank of captain. He was wounded and sent north disabled. The Rev. Mr. Ireland died in 1893; Mrs. Ireland lived until 1914.

Stephen Ireland, after completing his studies in the public schools, entered business college, from which he was graduated. Before he had reached his majority, he became associated with the State Mutual Life Assurance Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts. This was in 1903, and since that time Mr. Ireland has been connected in various capacities with this important organization. At first he was employed in the Boston office of the company, but in 1908 he came to Worcester to serve in the auditing department. In 1916 he was made supervisor of agents, and in 1918 was chosen superintendent of agencies. Early in 1929, he was elected vice-president and a director of the com- pany, a highly important executive position for which his abilities and experience amply fit him. A history of the State Mutual Life Assurance

Off. Lucy

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Company may be found in another chapter of this work.

Except for financial interests in several cor- porations, Mr. Ireland's one official connection with other commercial concerns is that of a trustee of the Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank. He is something of an author, having contributed many interesting and instructive articles to magazines and other publications, mostly upon the subject of insurance. During the World War, or that period when the United States was engaged, Mr. Ireland was prominent upon some of the boards and com- mittees which were formed at that time, and was one of the leaders in the various drives for loans and for contributions to the charitable organiza- tions made necessary by the needs of that time. He is a member, and one of the board of directors of the local Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Rotary Club of Worcester. Among his profes- sional connections is membership in the Life Underwriters Association of Massachusetts. He is also a member of the Worcester Players Club, and the Worcester Club, and finds recreation as a member, vice-president, and one of the Board of Governors of the Worcester Country Club. His church is the Old South, of Worcester. Frater- nally he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.

In 1908, Stephen Ireland married Gertrude L. Lord, of Woburn, Massachusetts, and they are the parents of a son, Russell Dana Ireland, born January 6, 1912, a student at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

BURT W. GREENWOOD-Worcester seems to have the happy power of keeping its native sons. Burt W. Greenwood, banker and leading citizen, was born in this city March 18, 1881, son of Charles and Ella Elizabeth (Grimes) Greenwood, both of Hubbardston, Massachusetts. The first mentioned died in 1930; Mrs. Greenwood in 1922. The Greenwood name and family is a very old one in New England, progenitors of the American branch settling about Boston in the 1660's. All were lovers of the land and it is worthy of note that the senior Mr. Greenwood was largely inter- ested in market gardening, and his son is a mem- ber of the Worcester County Horticultural Soci- ety, its treasurer and one of its board of trustees. He is a past master of the Worcester Grange, and his hobby is growing things.

Burt W. Greenwood, after receiving the prelim- inaries of his education in the public schools of Worcester, entered Harvard College, from which he was graduated in 1904 with the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. School days over, he returned to Worcester and became connected with the banking business in a minor capacity. The summer of his graduation from Harvard was marked by his securing his first job with the Worcester Bank and Trust Company, in the note department. In the course of the last quarter century, he has offici- ated in quite a variety of departments and posi- tions, and is now treasurer of the institution. He is also the vice-president and treasurer of the Worcester Safe Deposit Vaults, Inc., and a mern- ber of the board of trustees of the Worcester Me- chanics Savings Bank.

One whose business duties were so numerous and important seldom has much time to devote to

fraternal, social and similar activities. Fraternally Mr. Greenwood is a Past Master of Montacute Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of the York and Scottish Rite bodies of the order; and a Past District Deputy of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts. Among his clubs are the Appallachian Mountain Club, the Worcester Economic Club, and the Harvard Club of Worcester. His church is the Union Con- gregational.

In 1914, Burt W. Greenwood married Myra E. Stowell, member of an old Massachusetts family. Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood are the parents of a daughter and a son: Janet Elizabeth, born June 21, 1918; and Charles Stowell, born February 14, I920.

DWIGHT S. PIERCE-For more than thirty years Dwight S. Pierce has been identified with the financial structure of his native city of Worces- ter. Starting in the humble position of messenger at the Central National Bank in 1901, two years later saw him transfer his allegiance to the Worces- ter County Institution for Savings, with which he has since been affiliated. After occupying several intermediary positions, he was elected treasurer in 1920 as the successor of Albert L. Stratton and has since filled the office to the gratification of the board, his official colleagues, the depositors and the staff personnel.

Mr. Pierce was born in Worcester, April 26, 1885, a son of Harlan B. and Marion E. (Pratt) Pierce, the former deceased in 1918. After pass- ing through the public schools he started on his career in the banking field. In addition to being treasurer of the Worcester County Institution for Savings, he is a director of the Worcester Bank and Trust Company and Worcester County Na- tional Bank. He is a past president of the Savings Banks Officers Club of Massachusetts, is well and favorably known in banking circles of the State, and enjoys high standing in the confidence of the business men of Worcester. In the civic affairs of the city and county he is prominently active; a director of the Chamber of Commerce of Worces- ter, treasurer of the Worcester Historical Society, treasurer of the Worcester Boy Scouts Council, and affiliates with the Free and Accepted Masons, Massachusetts Consistory of the Scottish Rite (thirty-second degree) and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. During the World War he served on various boards connected with government and relief work. He is a mem- ber of the Boston City Club, the Worcester Club, Worcester Country Club, and Tatnuck Country Club. He is a member of the official board and the board of trustees of Wesley Methodist Epis- copal Church in this city.

Mr. Pierce married, in 1907, Marcia V. Tillson, and they have a son, D. Lindsay Pierce, born July 14, 1912. The Pierce family home is 20 Franconia Street, Worcester.

REV. WILLIAM J. LUCEY, pastor of St. James' Church, of Fisherville, has richly contrib- uated to the advancement of the Christian cause and the Catholic faith and has at the same time done much for the people of this community. He is highly regarded and loved by all who know him

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or whose privilege it has been to work with him in church or civic affairs. He has served in differ- ent Massachusetts communities, and so is well acquainted with the State and its affairs.

The Church of St. James, at Fisherville, was built in 1883, when Father James Boyle began construction work on land donated by the Fisher Manufacturing Company. The church was finished and dedicated under the patronage of St. James, on New Year's Day, 1884. In 1887, a separate parish of Fisherville was created, with Upton as a mis- sion. The first resident pastor at Fisherville was the Rev. Michael J. Carroll. Shortly after he ar- rived in the town, the Fisher Manufacturing Com- pany made him a gift of land adjoining the church for his own house. This edifice was built the following winter. Father Carroll soon caused a beautiful church organ to be installed at a cost of $1,700. The church itself is a frame structure with brick underpinning and is built in the Gothic style of architecture. Its original altar was for- merly the altar of the Chapel of Holy Cross College. For two years Father Carroll continued as pastor. The second pastor was Father Fitz- gerald, who remained for three years, and the third was Father Dwyer, who held the Fisherville charge for twenty years. Then on July 15, 1928, Father Lucey, the present pastor, took over the parish. In its first ten years of life it had a record of three hundred and sixty-one baptisms and ninety- nine marriages.

Father Lucey was born at South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, August 21, 1877, and received his early public and high school training in the place of his birth. He then entered St. Hyacinthe Semi- nary, at St. Hyacinthe, Province of Quebec, Can- ada. After his college course he was sent by the Rt. Rev. Bishop for a five-year course in France, two years of philosophy at Issy, near Paris, and three years of theology in Paris. He then re- turned to Montreal, where he was ordained in the Cathedral in 1904. Immediately thereafter he was assigned to a church at Ware, Massachusetts, where for nineteen years he was associated with the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, remov- ing there until 1923. There he was an assistant to the Rt. Rev. Msgr. John F. Sheehan, under whom he fitted himself for more important church work. In 1923 he was assigned to Sheffield, Mas- sachusetts, continuing there until July 15, 1928, when he was made a pastor and came to his pres- ent charge at Fisherville. His parish here contains about 1,600 souls, and all his parishioners hold him in high esteem. The parish is in a flourishing condition and is constantly growing. The church seats about six hundred and is a very neatly ar - ranged and beautiful edifice, modernly equipped and supplied with all the properties that go to make an efficient and effective church. The rectory has ten rooms, and is likewise constructed with every mod- ern convenience. There are the usual church socie- ties-the Holy Rosary, the Children of Mary (both senior and junior branches), and the Knights of the Sacred Heart. The pastor of the parish takes a deep interest at all times in the work of these groups.

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Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III, Part 100

Author: Nelson, John, 1866-1933 Publication date: 1934 Publisher: New York, American historical Society Number of Pages: 700

Author: Nelson, John, 1866-1933
Publication date: 1934
Publisher: New York, American historical Society
Number of Pages: 700