Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III, Part 44

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 44

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Mr. Bennett, during 1918-19, was selling the Overland car and in 1919 went with the Conroy Motor Company as a Ford car salesman, a position he held until 1923. In the latter year he went into business for himself selling used automobiles at No. 681 Main Street, Worcester, but three years later became connected with the Hudson and Essex Sales Company, on Federal Street. From 1927 to 1929 he handled the Willys-Knight and the Whip- pet cars, and for six months had the Chevrolet agency. Early in 1930 Mr. Bennett got the fran- chise for Ford cars and trucks, acting as an author- ized agent. He also established the William F. Bennett Company, a corporation, of which he be- came sole owner and which became the largest commercial handlers of Ford cars in New England.

Mr. Bennett, while placing business first in his career, has not neglected the other interesting activ- ities of life. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Frater- nal Order of Eagles, and the Knights of Colum- bus; and he is a member of the United Commer- cial Travelers and several similar organizations. Along the line of his business he is a member of the National Automobile Association and of the executive board of the Massachusetts Automobile Association. His chief recreation is golf, as a member of the Wachusett Country Club. In civic and welfare projects he is an active if unostenta- tious worker.

On January 12, 1921, William F. Bennett mar- ried Agnes M. Murphy, and they are the parents of a daughter Marjorie, born October 23, 1930.

FRANK EMORY ALLEN-For the past twelve years Frank Emory Allen has been the efficient president and general manager of Moore and Company, Inc., a concern engaged in the man- ufacture of pharmaceutical specialties.

Frank Emory Allen was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts, August 18, 1870, a son of Emory Hyde, a farmer, who lived in what was known as the "Over the River District" of Brookfield, and of Annie (Hilton) Allen. The branch of the Allen family, to which Mr. Allen belongs, traces descent from Walter Allen, born in England about 1601, who came to this country and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, where his name is on record in 1640, though he probably was located there at an earlier date. He later removed to several different towns, and in 1673 to Charlestown, where he died July 8, 1681, aged eighty years, having led an active life as farmer, shopkeeper, hat dealer, and possibly as a manufacturer, by which various

means he had acquired an estate inventoried at a large sum of £3,015, for those days. He married (first), in England, Rebecca ; (second), at Charles- town, Massachusetts, November 29, 1678, Abigail Rogers; all of his five children were by the first wife, three, John, Daniel, and Joseph, being born in England, and two, Abigail and Benjamin, in New- bury, Massachusetts. The line descends through the oldest son, John, who was a tailor by trade, taking care of a large business, and who lived in Newbury until 1662, when he removed to Sud- bury, where he suffered much through King Philip's War in 1676 and where he died Decem- ber I, 17II. His first wife, Sarah, mother of all his children, died January 12, 1702, and his second wife, Mary, is believed to have died in Sudbury, August 30, 1727. Of his eight children, five were born in Newbury and three in Sudbury. The line continues through Benjamin, born in Newbury, January 30, 1662, the year his parents removed to Sudbury, who became a farmer and lived in what is now Weston, where he died August 12, 1721 ; he married Frances Rice, daughter of Thomas Rice of Sudbury, and they had six children. The fifth of these was Zebadiah, born in Weston, who farmed in Sudbury most of his life, died there June 2, 1727, and married Mary Hoar, daughter of John Hoar of Sudbury, of the same family as Senator George Frisbee Hoar, of Worcester. Their son John, born in Sudbury, July I, 1740, married, November 17, 1761, Eunice Gleason, who died in Brookfield, September 15, 1833, aged ninety-nine years; their son Zebadiah, seventh of twelve chil- dren, was born in Brookfield, October 19, 1774, died there December 14, 1839, and married Char- lotte Hyde, who was born in Sturbridge, Septem- ber 26, 1800, daughter of Joshua and Sally Hyde. They had seven children, of whom the fourth was Emory Hyde Allen, who was born in Brookfield, September 4, 1832, died there August 13, 1876, aged forty-three years, and married Annie Hilton, who died in Worcester in 1913. Emory Hyde and Annie (Hilton) Allen had five children : I. A son, who died young. 2. William. 3. Nellie, born Feb- ruary 28, 1865. 4. Frank Emory, of further men- tion. 5. Annie Blanche, born January 21, 1874.

Frank Emory Allen attended the public schools of Brookfield until he was twelve years old and then removed with his parents to Springfield, where he continued his schooling for nearly a year. After leaving school he found work as an errand boy, and from that time until he reached the age of twenty he earned his living working in various positions in different towns. When he was twenty years old, two of his cousins, George and Henry Mathewson, persuaded him to come with them and enter the employ of the well-known Buffington Pharmacy, in Worcester, owned and operated by Elisha Buffington and E. R. Mitchell. With these two men Mr. Allen learned the drug business. Mr. Mitchell showed special interest in the young man and advised that he supplement his rather meager school training by study in the evening school. The lad acted upon this wise advice, enrolled in the evening school, and there completed the gram- mar grades and high school courses, giving special attention to chemistry. Mr. Mitchell saw that the lad received careful training in all the details of the practical management of a pharmaceutical busi- ness, including the compounding of prescriptions, and as the concern was operating both a wholesale

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and a retail business for physicians and druggists' supplies, Mr. Allen received a very thorough and comprehensive training. Eventually, he went on the road and proved himself a most successful salesman. At time passed, however, he perceived that in the manufacture of specialties for physicians and druggists there was special opportunity, and he began to look about for a business of this kind. In 1920 he purchased the business of Moore and Company, Inc., manufacturers of pharmaceutical supplies, and from that time to the present he has continued, as president and general manager, to operate it most successfully. He has, from time to time, increased the size of the plant and has kept well abreast of the changing needs of the trade, varying his line of goods and producing new specialties, as new needs arose. The years have brought him increasing success, and his thorough knowledge of the line of business in which he is engaged, his administrative ability, and his integrity have made him well known and highly esetemed among a very large number of business associates. Mr. Allen is also very highly esteemed among a host of friends and fraternal associates. He is a member of all bodies of the Free and Accepted Masons, including the Consistory, in which he holds the thirty-second degree. Politically he supports the principles of the Republican party. Although he gives his first attention to his business in Wor- cester, located at No. 326 Chandler Street, Mr. Allen has always retained his love for farm and country life. He has a fine estate in Rutland, where he keeps a fine herd of cattle, in charge of a farm manager, and where he lives in the sum- mer.

Frank Emory Allen married, in 1920, Mary (Brooks) Greene, widow of Marcus Greene. Mrs. Allen was born in Sterling, Connecticut, and for many years made a home for her mother in Wor- cester.

THADDEUS C. WARREN-WINDSOR H. BIGELOW-In March, 1914, Thaddeus C. Warren, a native of Worcester, and Windsor H. Bigelow, who was born in Uxbridge, combined their resources and the fruits of their experience in the formation of the Warren and Bigelow Com- pany for the purpose of carrying on an electrical engineering and contracting business in Worcester. The company has grown to be one of the largest and most important of its kind in the county. It began business in a modest manner in the Park Building, where it remained for two years. The company then moved to Norwich Street, where it erected an up-to-date repair shop and started on its successful career. After six years there, it trans- ferred its plant to its present location on the sec- ond floor at No. 207 Main Street. It is said to be the most modernly equipped plant of the kind in this city, and employment is given to a force of skilled workmen ranging in number from fifteen to thirty. The company is agent for the Gen- eral Electric motors, Rockwood Paper pulleys and bases, Ingersoll-Rand pumps and Thomas Electric drills. It cares for a desirable trade in a territory covering a fifty-mile radius from Worcester. It is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and is regarded as one of the active and successful com- mercial assets of the city.

Thaddeus C. Warren, born in Worcester in 1871, son of J. W. and Caroline Warren, both parents

now deceased, was educated in the local public schools. He worked in an organ shop on May Street in this city until 1903 and at that time iden- tified himself with the electrical business as an employee of Paige and Hazelton. With this firm and its successors he remained until 1914, in which year he and Windsor H. Bigelow (q. v.) formed a partnership and organized the Warren and Bige- low Company. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Adams Square Bap- tist Church, Worcester. His hobby is the game of golf.

Mr. Warren married, in September, 1895, Ade- line S. Stearns.

Windsor H. Bigelow was born in Uxbridge, the son of John Albert and Margaret M. Bigelow, and received his early education in the public schools and at Worcester Academy, where he pre- pared for college. He pursued further study at Amherst College and from there went to the Bliss Electrical School, Washington, District of Colum- bia, where he completed his technical training. For several years he was associated with the United States Steel Corporation and later, from 1908 to 1914, with the General Electric Company. It was in the latter year that he joined forces with Thad- deus C. Warren, of previous mention, in the forma- tion of the Warren and Bigelow Company. He is a member of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the Electrical League, is affiliated with all bodies of the Free and Accepted Masons, inclusive of the thirty-second degree of the Scot- tish Rite, and the New York Rite, and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a Republican. He is very fond of outdoor life.

Mr. Bigelow married Ethel C. Wilson, of Wor- cester, and their children are: Dorothy E. and Windsor H., Jr.

WILLIAM DEXTER LUEY-For nearly two decades William Dexter Luey of Worcester was chairman of the board of directors of the Worcester Bank. Since 1926 he has been living retired.

William Dexter Luey was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, April 6, 1855, son of Lester Lyman and Mary (Moody) Luey. Lester Lyman Luey was a member of a family of Colebrook, New Hampshire, and was for many years engaged in the grocery business in Greenfield, where he died at the age of seventy-eight years. William Dexter Luey received his education in the public schools of Greenfield and then, when only eighteen years of age, began his long association with the bank- ing business by entering the employ of the Frank- lin County National Bank, at Greenfield. Three years later he accepted a better position with the Conway National Bank, at Conway, Massachusetts, where he was soon promoted to the responsible position of cashier and where he remained until 1881. Having now had seven years of experience in banking, he again made a change, this time going to Athol, where he was made cashier of the Millers River National Bank. For a period of twenty years he remained in that position. His next move was to Worcester, where he associated himself with the First National Bank, of which he was made president in 1902. When this bank was later absorbed by the Worcester Bank and Trust Company, he remained with the enlarged organization, and when the Worcester Bank and

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Trust Company absorbed a number of other banks, Mr. Luey was made chairman of the board of directors of the still larger concern. From that time to the time of his retirement in 1926 he labored for the advancement of the interests of the Wor- cester Bank and Trust Company. Fifty-three years of continuous and exemplary service as a banker made Mr. Luey an expert in his field. As a senior officer of the banking fraternity of the State of Massachusetts, he continued in office until 1926, when he retired. Mr. Luey is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons. The religious affilia- tion of the family is with the Unitarian Church.

William Dexter Luey married, in 1880, Emma C. Allen, and they became the parents of four chil- dren: I. Lester L., who lives in Greenfield and is associated with Swift, Coates and Company ; mar- ried Marion Jones, now deceased, and has two children: William and Eleanor. 2. Allen, who is engaged in the film business in Port Washington, Long Island; married and has three children, Law- rence, Gloria, and Thomas. 3. Rupert, who was engaged in the real estate business in Worcester, is now with F. W. Taylor, of Providence, Rhode Island. 4. Donald, of Holden, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. William Dexter Luey make their home at No. 44 West Street, in Worcester, and have a summer home at Northfield, Massachusetts.

CHARLES ARTHUR ROOT-A leader in business activities of magnitude and one of Ux- bridge's foremost civic workers, Charles Arthur Root utilized his wonderful qualities of will and executive ability for the furtherance of the com- mon interests of the people of his own and other communities. Foresight and vision equipped him to keep his plant operating when other mills in the New England area were shut down or curtailing their activities; and his devotion to the welfare of his workers and associates and the trade in gen- eral won for him a remarkable loyalty that enabled him to go still further in his useful public work. The profits of industry were employed, moreover, in the case of Mr. Root, for the betterment of con- ditions among the less fortunate and the needy of Uxbridge and of Massachusetts, for the creation of parks and recreational facilities and the support of worthy philanthropies. His career was useful in a multiplicity of ways, his life beautifully lived.

Mr. Root was born in Ludlow, Massachusetts, on September II, 1874, son of Charles Benjamin Jencks and Annie (Atcheson) Root. He studied early in the public schools of Charlestown, Mas- sachusetts, afterward spending a year in high school study at Chelsea. He was only fifteen years of age, when he obtained his first position in the business world, working with a meat dealer at Groton, Connecticut. His introduction to business was an especially cruel one, though his experiences never hardened him against performing subsequent good works, rather encouraging him to save others from the type of misfortune and unpleasantness that he experienced. He often recalled the brutality and abusiveness of the man for whom he worked at the age of fifteen. But he continued his work because of his eagerness to forge ahead in the business world and become successful. After a short time, he entered the employ of a wholesale hardware firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there remaining for about a year.

Returning, in 1892, to Uxbridge, Mr. Root found employment with the Calumet and Hecla Woolen Company, working for one year in their offices and proceeding thence to the mills to acquaint himself with the practical processes of woolen manufacture. In every department of the industry, he was at one time or another engaged in the course of a four-year period, afterward specializing in design- ing and serving for five years as chief designer of the Calumet Company.

The function of designer, as everyone familiar with textiles knows, is one of outstanding impor- tance in manufacturing. With him rests the bur- den of deciding whether innovations should be adopted, and, if so, what innovations. He must have his fingers on the pulse of the trade. Yet he must be an artist and a skilled craftsman. Suc- cess in this delicate profession of designer took Mr. Root to the logical next step in his career- entry into business for himself. In 1900 he founded the C. A. Root Company, taking over an old mill, long out of use and sadly in need of repairs. Men wise in the textile industry bemoaned the fate that awaited the young adventurer into new realms of activity, believing it foolhardy to attempt man- ufacturing operations under such conditions. In spite of all difficulties, however, Mr. Root suc- ceeded in his venture, proving it not foolhardy but merely courageous. Facing tremendous ob- stacles, he contrived to make a grade of cotton worsteds never before produced in Uxbridge.

In 1904 he established a subsidiary of the first company, the new enterprise being known as the Uxbridge Worsted Company, which from its very inception proved profitable. The panic of 1907 gave him a severe setback financially, losing for him control of the parent C. A. Root Company. Difficulties had by this time but enlivened his impulse to succeed. Knowing not the word "fail," he began operations with twenty-five employees, building up that number until it was held con- sistently in normal times at 2,000. In 1908 he retired from the first company to devote his whole energies to the Uxbridge Worsted Company, Inc., of which he was treasurer and manager and which was the chief source of the growth and prosperity of Uxbridge as a community. An "independent" in his mill operations, Mr. Root met many dis- couragements, overcoming them all by the quality of determination that was marked in him even as a boy. One by one, he extended the units of opera- tion; and at a time, when the whole textile indus- try was receiving hard blows, he was still enlarg- ing his central plant in Uxbridge. His vision was justified, furthermore, by his ability to keep all the plants in Uxbridge open. As it has been written of him: "It was not only his sturdy will, his keen mind, his vision, his resourcefulness, his disciplined spirit, that made his business a success; it was all these and something more-his affectionate nature and his capacity for friendship."

Adding other responsibilities to his own business, he accepted the presidency of the Blackstone Na- tional Bank and a directorship of the Blackstone Valley Agricultural Society. But still it was in the textile trade that he always led first of all. He was the first man to operate Draper broad automatic looms on men's wear and was at the forefront in many new developments in textiles. He was at

Charles A. Prot

Harold & Walks

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one time a director of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Early he associated himself- with Uxbridge civic life; and there are today, on all sides, reminders of his generosity and enterprise. He held many public offices, serving for more than a quarter of a century on the school board. From 1914 to 1919 he was a member of the board of selectmen, acting as its chairman in 1918 and 1919. He was chairman of the committee that made plans for the Uxbridge bi-centennial celebration held in June, 1927. He even aided in the promotion of cordial relationship between Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and its mother town, Uxbridge, England. He set apart, in more recent years, a part of his estate as a bathing beach and recreation center for the towns- people and renovated and extended a part of the Uxbridge Inn that he might provide an attractive place of assembly for the Rotary Club. During the World War, he was chairman in the different campaigns and in Red Cross work, serving on a number of committees. He was also a member of the tariff committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, in Washington, District of Colum- bia. Prominent in fraternal circles, he belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Free and Accepted Masons. In the Odd Fellows, he was a Past Noble Grand of Uxbridge Lodge ; and in Masonry, he held the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and was affiliated with Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mys- tic Shrine. He also was a member of the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Worcester Country Club, the Whitinsville Golf Club, the Misquamicut Golf Club and the Winnapaug Golf Club of Watch Hill, the Magomiscock Golf Club of Milford, Massachusetts, the Appalachian Moun- tain Club, and the Committee of 100 of Miami Beach, Florida. A Republican in his political views, he was a delegate to his party's national convention at Kansas City. An enthusiastic sports- man, he was fond of yachting and fishing, mak- ing a number of rare catches in his angling expedi- tions. Conducting "Elmwood Farm," at Uxbridge, he had the most modern dairy plant in this part of New England, and kept seventy-eight head of brown Swiss cattle, many of which were prize winners. He was an enthusiastic motorist. His church was the Unitarian.

Charles Arthur Root married, on October 12, 1898, Jane Frances Wheelock, of Uxbridge, who is a Past Regent of Deborah Wheelock Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. They had children : 1. Dorothy R., born July 15, 1899, wife of Harold J. Walter, superintendent and manager of the Uxbridge Worsted Company, of record in the following biography. 2. Deborah, born October 27, 1904. 3. Charles A., Jr., born April 6, 1907.

The death of Charles Arthur Root, Sr., on Sep- tember 25, 1932, deprived Uxbridge of a valued and respected citizen, whose life history contains much that is exemplary in citizenship and busi- ness. His accomplishments as a manufacturer make his record of inspirational value to others, showing what may be achieved in the face of difficulties when determined purpose and laudable ambition lead the way.

HAROLD JOHN WALTER-As general manager and treasurer of the Uxbridge Worsted Company, Harold John Walter has substantially

contributed to the work of the great New England textile industry. His position in Uxbridge is one of leadership and very high regard in civic affairs.

Mr. Walter, unlike most men engaged in the textile trade, came to Massachusetts from the West. He was born in Pueblo, Colorado, on Sep- tember 10, 1900, son of Martin and Mary (Mesang) Walter. His father, a native of Germany, came to this country early in life, and was a brewer by occupation. In Pueblo, he was known as an out- standing philanthropist during his residence here. He also owned a brewery in Menasha, Wiscon- sin. He died in 1918.

In the public schools of Colorado, Harold John Walter, of this review, received his early education and later he attended Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, for a time, being graduated in 1921 from the University of Colorado with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For two years following his graduation, Mr. Walter was engaged in business in Pueblo, his native city, coming in 1923 to Ux- bridge, Massachusetts, and here entering the employ of the Uxbridge Worsted Company, with which he has since been associated. In 1927 he was made superintendent and manager of the company's plant.

In addition to his work with the worsted com- pany, Mr. Walter has been active in the general business life of his city, where he is president of the Uxbridge Cooperative Bank and a trustee of the Uxbridge Savings Bank. He is also a vice- president of the Blackstone National Bank, a direc- tor of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, president of the Walter Brewing Company of Menasha, Wisconsin, and treasurer of the Walter Brewing Company of Pueblo, Colorado. Through such organizations as the Rotary Club and the Blackstone Agricultural Society, he does every- thing in his power to advance the interests of commercial and agricultural life, so promoting the prosperity of the region in which he lives. He and his family are affiliated with the Unitarian Church. In his many activities and associations, Mr. Walter has proven himself a loyal public servant of his community and its people and insti- tutions, and his labors have been of distinct value to his fellow-citizens in all walks of life.

Harold John Walter married, on June 21, 1924, Dorothy R. Root, daughter of Charles A. Root (q. v.) and Jane F. (Wheelock) Root and mem- ber of an honored family of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Walter became the parents of three chil- dren : 1. Mary Jane, born June 25, 1927. 2. Harold J., Jr. 3. Dorothy. Harold and Dorothy are twins, born June 2, 1931.

BURTON HENRY WRIGHT-A long pe- riod of service with the State Mutual Life Assur- ance Company gave Burton Henry Wright, of Worcester, a position of high standing in the regard of his fellow-citizens here and at the same time furnished him an opportunity to render valu- able help to them. He willingly and eagerly seized this opportunity, furthermore, usefully fulfilling his duties as president of the company for seventeen years and as chairman of the board of directors for six years. Aside from his business endeavors, he devoted his time mainly to home and family. His sincerity and kindliness caused him to be be- loved by all who knew him

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Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III, Part 44

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