USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume III > Part 53
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In November, 1893, Herbert C. Fisher married Camille Clark, daughter of William S. and Emma (Dearborn) Clark, and they were the parents of Madelyn Clark Fisher and Brayton Dearborn Fisher. Mr. Fisher died on December 1I, 1930, at the age of sixty-one years. His career had been one of useful service and permanent achievement. His life made an indelible impression upon the many, young and old, who knew him as a kindly, generous man, one to whom they could look for counsel and help. He was far-seeing, accurate in his judgments and honest in his dealings, enter- prising in business, a contributor to the better- ment of the municipality, an example of the finest type of citizenship.
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LEON M. FARRIN-Under the superintend- ency of Leon M. Farrin, the public school system of Athol has gone forward as to curriculum, teach- ing personnel and physical properties. Mr. Farrin is one of the best known educators in the State and came to Athol with a broad experience ob- tained in similar work elsewhere.
Born in Boston, August 9, 1892, son of Charles Richmond and Bertha (Groves) Farrin, Leon M. Farrin passed through the Boston Latin School to Harvard University, where he was graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 1915. He was awarded the degree of Master of Education by Harvard in 1926. In the year he left the univer- sity he accepted the principalship of the Niantic (Connecticut) high and grammar schools. He later served in a similar capacity at the Woodbury (Connecticut) high and grammar schools, and at the Holliston (Massachusetts) High School. He was superintendent of schools in succession at Killingly, Connecticut; Brooklyn, Connecticut ; Hanover, Hanson and Norwell, Massachusetts; and at Putnam, Connecticut. It was from the last-named city that he was called to Athol to be superintend- ent of schools in August, 1931.
His professional work was interrupted during the period of the World War, when he was in the service as an ensign in the United States Navy in 1917-18. On receipt of his honorable discharge he returned at once to his educational career. His prominence in the organized bodies of the teaching profession is shown by the offices and memberships held by him. He is affiliated with local, Massachusetts, New England and Na- tional Education associations; and has held the following offices : President of the South Shore Schoolmen's Association, vice-president of the Plymouth County (Massachusetts) Teachers Asso- ciation, president of the Athol Teachers Associa- tion. Active in civic affairs in Athol, he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian Association, Ellinswood Country Club and Protestant Episcopal Church. A ready speaker on a variety of subjects of informative value, he has been heard frequently with pleasure on the platform in Athol. He is a past president of the Athol Rotary Club. Among his fraternal relations are Revere Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Boston; Concord Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Framingham; Montgomery Council, Royal and Select Masters, of Danielson, Connect- icut. In the right of his war service he is a mem- ber of the American Legion, being a past vice- commander of Putnam Post.
Mr. Farrin married, November 25, 1920, Grace E. Hill, of Niantic, Connecticut, daughter of Thomas J. and Lillian (Merritt) Hill. Their children are: Leon Hill, Frances Mundell, and Lillian Merritt Farrin. The Farrin family resi- dence is at No. 77 Highland Avenue, and Mr. Farrin's office as superintendent is in the headquar- ters of the school department at Athol.
GEORGE GIBBS ENGEL-For more than fifteen years engaged in business as a heating and plumbing contractor in Athol, George G. Engel has built up a large volume of trade, having his establishment in a modern building erected expressly for his business and carrying complete stocks in his lines. He has executed many important contracts for
semi-public and other buildings and for residences within and outside the town.
Mr. Engel's grandparents, natives of Germany, came in sailing vessels to the United States about 1845 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. They later removed to South Deerfield, Massachusetts. The grandfather served in the Union Army in the Civil War and did not long survive the end of the conflict. Hugo Engel, father of George G., was born in Brooklyn. He removed to Athol and mar- ried Katie Gibbs. She has since died. He is a retired pocketbook-maker.
George Gibbs Engel was born in Athol, October 15, 1889, and received his education in the grade and high schools of the town. For three years after leaving school he was employed as a chauffeur. At the end of that time he began learning the plumb- ing and heating trades and, having served his ap- prenticeship, he worked as a journeyman for about five years. In 1916 he established himself in busi- ness under his own name. Meantime he had pur- chased a site at No. 59 Island Street and on it in 1931 he erected a substantial building for the pur- poses of his business. He installed spacious and finely arranged showrooms for the display of his wares and stocked the store with electric and oil stoves, oil burners of various manufacture, and furnaces. He does a general plumbing and heating contracting business, and among the buildings in which he has installed the plumbing is the Memo- rial Building, one of the finest structures in Athol. He has an excellent reputation in the trade and among his clients and the townspeople. In the civic affairs of the town he is vitally interested, being a member and former treasurer of the Cham- ber of Commerce, in which body he was also chair- man of the mercantile committee for one year. He is affiliated with Athol Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons and the Exchange Club.
Mr. Engel married, September 5, 1915, at Athol, Gladys Gorton, daughter of Frank and Etta (Thayer) Gorton, the former now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Engel became the parents of five chil- dren : David Gorton, Donald Gorton, George Gibbs, Jr., Constance Lois, and Doris Marie. The family residence is at No. 64 Prospect Street, Athol.
DR. RICHARD JOSEPH SHANNAHAN -- Probably the oldest police surgeon in the State of Massachusetts, in point of service, is Dr. Richard Joseph Shannahan, who has served the city of Worcester in that capacity for the past twenty- five years.
Richard Shannahan, father of Dr. Shannahan, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1843, and died in Worcester, in 1904, at the age of sixty-one years. He was a young boy when he came to this country with his brother James and settled in Worcester, where he lived for more than fifty years. Although his educational advantages were slight and he had neither money nor influence, he was energetic, am- bitious, and able, and made for himself a respected place in the life of the community. Beginning in a small way as a boot and shoe maker and dealer, he built up a business which brought to him a for- tune. In the earlier days he had boots and shoes made to order by hand for his patrons and later, when machinery made handwork in this field no longer profitable, he continued business as a retail dealer only. A self-made man in the highest sense
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of the term, he won in a high degree the respect of his fellow-citizens and served well the commu- nity in which he chose to make his home. He mar- ried, in Milford, New Hampshire, Margaret Sul- livan, who was born in Ireland and came to this country at the age of ten years, and they became the parents of seven children, five girls and two boys. Of these, four sons lived to take their places in the business and professional world: I. Dr. Rich- ard J., of further mention. 2. John P., for many years proprietor of the South Worcester Market, died in 1929. 3. Edward A., who was in partner- ship with his brother in the Worcester Market. 4. James F., for many years associated with the Crompton and Knowles Loom Works.
Dr. Richard Joseph Shannahan was born in Worcester, July 27, 1878, in a house which stood across the street from the present newly completed post office building. As a small boy he watched with interest the erection, about 1885, of the "old post office," which was torn down to make room for the fine new one completed in 1932. He at- tended the public schools of Worcester, graduating from the Classical High School in 1896, and then entered Holy Cross College, from which he was graduated in 1899 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. As he had chosen the medical profession as his future field of activity, he began study in the Medical School of Columbia University, New York City, now known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1903. After serving an interneship of eighteen months in St. Vincent Hos- pital in Worcester, he was made junior surgeon in the New York State Hospital at Central Islip, Long Island, and then, thirteen months later was appointed by the contractor in charge of the con- struction of the first tunnel under the East River in New York City to serve as physician to look after the welfare of the men engaged in that dangerous work. After thirteen months in that capacity he accepted the appointment made by Mayor Duggan to the position of police surgeon of the city of Worcester, and that responsible office he has held continuously from that time to the present. As the appointment is always made for two years only, Dr. Shannahan has now been appointed many times in succession, regardless of the political affiliations of the various mayors, con- vincing proof of his efficiency and popularity. When Dr. Shannahan first became police surgeon he was alone in that office, doing all the work himself. Now he has three assistants, with the aid of whom he at times takes care of 3,500 cases in a year. His office at police headquarters (where he has a small emergency hospital and where the city ambulances are housed) is open day and night, and calls come in for service in all kinds of acci- dents. If someone falls dead in the street, or kills himself, or attempts suicide, or meets with accidental death, Dr. Shannahan's office is called. Cases of murder, assault and battery, and all auto- mobile accidents come under his jurisdiction, and a quarter of a century of such service has made him an expert in his field. It is his duty to take charge in association with the district attorney, of the situation in all such cases, and it is also necessary for him to spend much time in court giv- ing testimony. As a surgeon, too, he is called upon to use his skill in performing a wide range of emergency operations. In addition to the police
work, which absorbs the greater part of his time, he also has an office for private practice, located at his home at No. 839 Main Street. This house, purchased by Dr. Shannahan in 1917, was for- merly the residence of the late E. T. Smith and was, in its early years, one of the finest homes in the city, the interior woodwork being of special beauty and fine workmanship.
Along with the heavy responsibilities of his pub- lic and private professional work, Dr. Shannahan has also invested largely and to good advantage in real estate, and during the "boom years" han- dled his holdings very successfully. He is a mem- ber of the Worcester District Medical Society, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Med- ical Association, the Knights of Columbus, and the City of Worcester Patriotic Order of Foresters. His religious affiliation is with St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church.
Dr. Richard Joseph Shannahan married, in New York City, September 7, 1907, Kathleen Ryder, who was born in New York City, daughter of Colonel Thomas Francis Ryder, owner of the Red Fort Iron Works, located on West Street, New York City. Dr. and Mrs. Shannahan have two children: I. Madeline Ryder, born October 21, 1910, educated at New Rochelle College, New Rochelle, New York, class of 1933. 2. Virginia Ryder, born May 24, 1912, now a student in New Rochelle College.
CHARLES M. THAYER-Regarded as a leader in the legal profession and most certainly as one of the outstanding men of his day in this county, the late Charles M. Thayer, of Worcester, served clients who placed in his charge cases in- volving millions of dollars. He was a director in a number of important corporations-industrial and financial-and was identified with the leading or- ganized interests of his profession. In cultural and social circles he was also prominently known and cordially liked.
Born December 4, 1866, at Worcester, Charles M. Thayer was the son of Judge Adin and Caro- line (Weld) Thayer, leaders in the civic and social life of their day. Judge Thayer was long a powerful and commanding figure in the inner councils of the Republican party in Massachusetts. He was a close friend of the great Charles Sum- ner and had a part in the organization of the widely known Home Market Club of Boston. His son, Charles M., subject of this review, was grad- uated in 1885 from the Classical High School in Worcester, where, during his student years, he founded the Sumner Club, so named in memory of the immortal Massachusetts statesman. He next entered Harvard College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1889. This he fol- lowed with his legal training at Harvard Law School, completing the course and passing the Suf- folk bar examinations.
On his return to Worcester, in 1892, he was admitted to the bar at a sitting of court in this county and at once began practice. The early years of his professional activity were featured somewhat by a practical interest in politics. He was elected to the Worcester school committee on which he served four years, the last half of his term in the capacity of chairman. While his genuine interest in the schools of the city continued throughout his life, yet he would never permit his
Charles in. hayes
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friends to use his name in connection with any other public office of a political character. He was always willing and ready, however, to give of his judgment and advice to those of his friends active in political life, who often consulted him for this purpose. For years he was a speaker at high school commencement exercises, not only while in office but after his term on the school committee had ended. Among his choice com- panions were his books, and his studious nature never felt more at home than when he was sur- rounded by them in his well-filled spacious library.
For twenty-two years Mr. Thayer practiced law alone. But in 1914 he united with Frank C. Smith, Jr., and George A. Gaskill in forming the part- nership of Thayer, Smith and Gaskill, which soon became one of the foremost law firms of this juris- diction, if not all New England. Large and impor- tant manufacturing interests, having learned of his business and financial acumen, chose him as coun- sel. Of such valued service was his advice that a number of these business concerns prevailed upon him to be a member of their boards of directors. In this capacity he served the Crompton and Knowles Loom Works, and prior to that consolida- tion he had been counsel for both the Crompton Loom Works and the Knowles Loom Works. He was also a director of the Wyman-Gordon Company and the Worcester Bank and Trust Company, and a trustee of the Peoples Savings Bank. Among his profession affiliations were the Worcester County Bar Association, Massachusetts State Bar Association, and American Bar Association. He was also a member of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester Fire Society, Worcester His- torical Society, Worcester Natural History So- ciety, which last-named body he served as its first vice-president; and a former director of the Wor- cester Free Public Library, Worcester Welfare Federation, and the Associated Charities. His clubs included the Worcester Country, Tatnuck, University, Union (Boston), and Eastern Yacht clubs. He was superintendent of the Sunday school of the Church of the Unity, for many years, and later, when this church was merged with the First Unitarian, he became a member of that organization.
During the World War Mr. Thayer took an active interest in the work of the Red Cross and was the head and director of the speakers' bureau of Worcester County for two and a half years. In this capacity he arranged the details for the Red Cross rallies throughout all the towns in the county.
Mr. Thayer married, April 7, 1907, Anna G. Chittenden, daughter of Simeon B. Chittenden, of Brooklyn, New York. To this marriage two chil- dren were born, a daughter, Constance, and a son, Philip.
The death of Charles M. Thayer, which occurred on November 27, 1932, when he was within about a week of his sixty-sixth birthday, removed from the city and county of Worcester and the State at large an unusually brilliant man, who had brought honor to a historic bar and had aided the advance of commercial relations, the cause of edu- cation, and social life. He will be greatly missed among all those associations which had benefited appreciably by his presence and active participation in their affairs.
DR. ERNEST L. HUNT has practiced his profession in the city of Worcester for three dec- ades. He was born in Abington, Massachusetts, November II, 1877, son of Washington and Mary (Nickerson) Hunt. Through his father's line he is a descendant of Enoch Hunt, who came to this country from England (Wendover) in 1638, set- tling first in Rhode Island, later in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and who became the founder of the "Weymouth line of Hunts." His grandson in direct line, Colonel Ephraim Hunt (1650-1713), of Weymouth, was a member of that Committee of the General Court having "general powers to order and regulate all matters concerning the settlement" of Worcester (2d settlement 1683-1702), having been appointed thereto by the president and coun- cil subsequent to the death of General Daniel Gookin
Washington Hunt was born in East Abington (now Rockland), February 27, 1827, and died in Abington May 8, 1893. Mary (Nickerson) Hunt was born in Mercer, Maine, June 10, 1834, and died in Franklin, Massachusetts, February 20, 1919. Of this union there were born five children: I. Charles W., born November 17, 1855. 2. Martha Ella, born December 1, 1859. 3. Frank E., born January 31, 1863. 4. Brenelle, born February 27, 1875. 5. Ernest Leroi, of whom further.
Dr. Hunt attended the public schools of Abing- ton until the senior year of high school ( 1894), when, having passed the entrance examinations to the Medical School of Harvard University, he left the high school to take a special course in analytic chemistry at the Massachusetts College of Phar- macy and for several years (until 1898) worked as a pharmacist to secure the means for prosecuting his medical studies at Harvard. Feeling that phar- macy and its allied science of chemistry were excel- lent foundations for a medical education, he pur- sued them with sufficient diligence to become a registered pharmacist in Massachusetts in 1899 at the age of twenty-one. In 1898 he matriculated in the Medical School of Harvard University, from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine (cum laude) in 1902. A few months before grad- uation he entered Worcester City Hospital as interne (February 26, 1902) serving the then re- quired sixteen months in that capacity, graduating June 30, 1903. He then decided to locate in Wor- cester and opened an office at No. 2 Wellington Street, later receiving Dr. Philip H. Cook into professional association and moving to more com- modious offices in the Standish Apartments, No. 771 Main Street. This association was a happy one and endured for fourteen years, until the par- ticipation of the United States in the World War drew Dr. Hunt into military service.
In the fall of 1903, when the new pathological building at Worcester City Hospital was opened, Dr. Hunt was appointed assistant pathologist (un- der Dr. Frederick H. Baker, pathologist), and from that time until 1929 gave unsparingly of time and effort to the development of the pathological de- partment of the hospital which, as time went on, became a centre of pathology, bacteriology, serol- ogy clinical and medico-legal chemistry. Here, besides routine work for the hospital, Dr. Hunt conducted research work in serology, some results of which were presented to the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society and later published as a
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joint paper with Miss Ora M. Mills under the title "Some Experience Bearing on the Medico-Legal Value of the Precipitin Test for Human Blood."
In 1908 he was appointed by Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., an associate medical examiner for Wor- cester County, to which office he has been succes- sively reappointed by Governors David I. Walsh, Calvin Coolidge, Alvin C. Fuller and Joseph I. Ely. The appointment by Governor Guild made him eligible to fellowship in the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society, which he later served as secretary for several years and president for two terms (1926-28), during which period the society's semi-centennial was celebrated. While secretary he revived and edited the "Transactions of the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society," the publica- tion of which had lapsed during the World War. This periodical is unique in the field of legal medicine and has since been regularly published by the society.
While the fundamental sciences related to medi- cine were Dr. Hunt's basic interests, he did not neglect the clinical side of medicine. Preferring surgery as the branch in which his experience in pathological anatomy could best be applied to the relief of human ailments, he turned his atten- tion to that specialty and in 1908 was appointed surgeon to the out-patient department of Worcester City Hospital and in 1918 assistant surgeon to the hospital proper.
Soon after the entry of this country into the World War the United States Selective Service was organized to draft the country's man-power into the great army which was ultimately to be- come the decisive factor in that great struggle. Dr. Hunt was appointed by the President a med- ical member of the local board for Division Four for the city of Worcester and served continuously for thirteen months until, by his official acts hav- ing sent several hundreds of his friends and fellow- citizens into the dangers and hardships of military service, he felt constrained to follow them. He, therefore, accepted a commission as captain in the Medical Corps of the United States Army and reported for duty at the Base Hospital, Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina, July 25, 1918, where he served chiefly as pathologist until after the Armistice, when he was transferred to Base Hospital, Camp Hancock, Augusta, Georgia, again serving as pathologist and as chief of laboratory service until honorably discharged March 22, 1919.
A few months after his return to Worcester the trustees of the City Hospital offered Dr. Hunt a full-time position as surgeon and director of the surgical division, which he accepted and with the position the obligation to reorganize the staff and the work of the surgical division to fulfil the stand- ardization program of the American College of Surgeons. This objective was speedily accom- plished and was followed by a period of great expansion of the work of the hospital and of its service, not only to the citizens of Worcester and surrounding towns, but to the cause of medical science at large. The orthopedic, urological and physio-therapy departments were part of the organization work of this period.
In 1928, following the death of his wife, Isabel (Girling) Hunt, Dr. Hunt asked and received the privilege of furnishing a library in Thayer Hall, the new home for nurses, as a memorial to her
and added an endowment for the yearly purchase of books, furnishings, art objects, etc.
He continued as director of the division of sur- gery until March I, 1933, when, after thirty years of almost continuous service to the hospital and having attained the age of fifty-five, he resigned from active service and was appointed to the sur- gical consulting staff.
In addition to the professional connections above mentioned, Dr. Hunt has served other institutions of Worcester and vicinity in various capacities. He was consulting anasthetist to Memorial Hos- pital 1915 to 1919, during which period he intro- duced nitrous-oxide-oxygen anasthesia to Worces- ter hospitals. He was pathologist to United States Veteran Hospital No. 89 at Rutland Heights from 1928 to 1932 and is at present consulting surgeon to that institution. He is also consulting surgeon to the Worcester County Sanitarium, the Holden District Hospital, the Louis Pasteur Hospital, the Harrington Memorial Hospital of Southbridge; consulting urologist to Fairlawn Hospital; and member of courtesy staffs of Worcester Hahne- mann and Memorial hospitals.
Besides in the Massachusetts Medico-Legal So- ciety he has been active in other professional bodies. He is a member of the Worcester District Medical Society, of which he was secretary from 1912 to 1918 and president in 1931-32; a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he has been a councillor since 1918; a member of the American Medical Association; a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; member of the New England Surgical Society and of the Amer- ican Urological Society. He has been a frequent contributor to medical journals, writing generally upon subjects relating to applied surgery, pathology and legal medicine.
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