Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 114

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Vermont > Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I > Part 114

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In politics Mr. Bailey is a stanch Republican, and in 1894 was a senator from Orange county, and a member of the education, railroad, state's prison, and house of correction committees, and chairman of the joint special committee to inquire into the extraordinary increase of commitments to the house of correction. In 1894 Mr. Bailey was appointed a member of the fish and game commission. To this office he brought his sound business methods and practical common sense, expending the appropriations so that the state has "for value received" a well equipped plant at Rox- bury. In the compiling of tables showing the output from the state hatchery, together with ex- penditures, he leaves a record for the mastery of figures and their comprehensive arrangement. During the six years that Mr. Bailey held the office of fish and game commissioner, although un- flinching in the execution of the laws, he made an exceedingly popular official, and gained a large and friendly acquaintance throughout the state.

During this period he was selected by the legis- lature to expend the appropriation made to build a dam at the outlet of Lake Morey, which is said by good judges to be one of the most substantial pieces of work of its kind in the state. He was a candidate, before the last Republican state con- vention, for auditor of accounts, and had strong support for the nomination among the delegates. He subsequently received the unanimous caucus nomination by the Republicans of Newbury for town representative, and was elected by a ma- jority much in excess of the regular party vote at the September election. Before the opening of the session of the general assembly he was strong- ly urged by his many friends in all parts of the state to become a candidate for speaker of the house, but he declined to enter the field, and gave his support to the Hon. John Merrifield, who was elected. Mr. Bailey was one of the influen- tial and most useful members of the house, serving as chairman of the committee on rail- roads, and also of the Louisiana Purchase Ex- position, and was the Orange county member of the joint committee on temperance. Early in December, 1902, he was appointed by Governor Mccullough a member of the state board of rail- road commissioners.

Mr. Bailey is a member of the Vermont His- torical Society, and has a valuable collection of Vermont bibliography, and an extensive miscel- . laneous library, expressive of his strongly marked literary tastes. He is deeply attached to his na- tive town, and has recently completed the erection of a memorial window to perpetuate old New- bury Seminary. He has also published a history of that institution, and of the Methodist church in Newbury. In religious matters he is a liberal, benevolent in his disposition, and ever ready to lend his support to all good works and chari- table enterprises in his neighborhood. He is widely and deservedly popular in his native state, and it is safe to say, that but few, if any men. outside of the legal fraternity, have lived in Orange county, who have settled as many or had charge of more important trusts.

LAVANT MURRAY READ.

Lavant Murray Read, deceased, for many years an eminent and gifted lawyer and judge of Bellows Falls, Vermont, was born in Wards-

644

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

boro, Vermont, December 26, 1842, a son of Charles and Olive C. ( Willard) Read, and died ou June 17, 1902, in Bellows Falls. He acquired his early education in the common schools of his native town, and this was supplemented later by a course of study in the Leland and Gray Seminary, Townshend, Vermont. Deciding to be- conte a member of the legal fraternity, he at once entered the law office of Hon. H. H. Wheeler, then of Jamaica, with whom he pursued a course of reading to qualify him for that position, and was admitted to the bar in 1869 at the April term of the Windham county court. He com- menced the practice of his profession at Jamaica in partnership with his old preceptor, the Hon. H. H. Wheeler, and this connection continued until 1872, when Mr. Read removed to Bellows Falls, Vermont, and resumed his law practice there, and his advancement was due entirely to his own resources and ability. In 1886 he was elected judge of probate for Westminster dis- trict, a position he filled with credit and distinc- tion for many years. He also served in the capacity of state's attorney of Windham county in 1880 and 1882. Judge Read enlisted in Com- pany H, Second Vermont Volunteers, in 1863 and participated in the battles of Rappahannock Station, Mine Run and the terrible struggle of the Wilderness, in which contest he was wounded . severely ; he was honorably discharged from the service August 20, 1865.

In his political affiliations, Judge Read was a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republi- can party, and, while closely identified with the interests of his party, was too busily engaged with the practice of his profession to enable him to accept many political honors, at the hands of his fellow townsmen. He accepted the position of representative to the legislature from the town of Rockingham in September, 1892, and was re-elected in 1894. He served upon the judiciary, chairman of railroads and revision of bills, the committee appointed by the supreme court upon admissions to the bar, and was in 1892, elected president of the Vermont Bar As- sociation. Judge Read was a prominent mem- ber and served as first commander of of E. H. Stoughton Post No. 34, G. A. R., and was twice re-elected to fill the same position. He was a member of the Mount Lebanon Lodge, F. & A.

M., of Jamaica, of which he was master for four successive termis. He was elected to the chair of grand master and also acted in the capacities of grand secretary and grand dictator of grand lodge; the eminent position of grand master he held from 1878 to 1881. He was also the first dictator of the subordinate lodge of Kniglits of ilonor.

On December 13, 1876, Judge Read was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Perkins, dlanghter of Jared D. and Sarah A. Perkins, of Bellows Falls, Vermont. One child was born of this union, Mary Alice Read, a graduate of Smith College.

ALBIN SULLIVAN BURBANK.

Albin Sullivan Burbank, a prominent citizen · and leading man of affairs of Proctorsville, Ver- mont, belongs to a family of English origin, which was founded in America nearly three hun- dred years ago by Joseph Burbank, who came from London, England, with his wife Abigail, and settled in Boston, and in 1639, one of his sons John, settled in Rowley, Massachusetts.

John Burbank, son of John, married, October 15, 1663, Susannah Merrill, and removed in 1680, to Suffield, Connecticut. He was three - times married, but had no children by the sec- ond and third unions. His children by his first wife were : Susannah, Timothy, John and Eleanor. Of these, his son John married Mary George, December 21, 1699, and died March 25, 1739. Samuel, their son, born in Massachusetts in 1706, had a son Samuel, born at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1734. He lived at Woburn and Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and was a captain in the colonial service and in the war of the Revolu- tion, holding the rank of lieutenant at the battle - of Bunker Hill, on which occasion he had com- mand of his company, the captain having become exhausted. Later he took the company back to - New York, and subsequently served as one of Captain Stark's minutemen. Previous to the breaking out of the war he had been a lieutenant of militia in Sudbury, and the story is told of him that, when informed of the fighting at Lexing- ton, he was in the act of carrying a bag of meal up the stairs; that he dropped it on the spot, . seized his flintlock, and, without bidding good-

645

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

bye to his family, hurried to the scene of action and was not heard of for several weeks. He held various town offices. He married Eunice Ken- dall, born in 1750, in Sherborne, Massachusetts. They had the following children: I. Lydia. 2. Sullivan, born in 1776, was commissioned lieutenant of infantry, and ordered to Plattsburg, in 1812; participated in the battle of Sackett's Harbor, November 13, 1813, and in those of Chippewa and Niagara, where he was wounded in storming a battery; was brevetted major, later captain of the Fifth Infantry, and was stationed at St. Gratiot, then at Detroit, Michigan, later at Fort Snelling, and finally commanded at Fort Gib- son, Arkansas ; subsequently served as sergeant of a recruiting station in New York, and was dis- charged in 1839; he married Betsey Brown, and their children were Lorenzo, Daniel, Sidney and Ophelia and Pauline, the last two being twins; Sullivan Burbank died in 1862. 3. Benjamin was a school teacher. 4. Samuel was a hotel- keeper at Proctorsville. 5. Daniel was killed in a military muster, in 1809, in Westminster. 6. Timothy lived at Woburn, Massachusetts. 7. Simeon. 8. James Crawford lived at St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was a pioneer, and a prominent citizen. 9. Abel is mentioned at length hereinafter. Samuel Burbank, the father of this family, died February 26, 1808, and his widow, who drew a pension after his death, passed away in 1845, in Proctorsville, Vermont.

Abel Burbank, son of Samuel and Eunice (Kendall) Burbank, was born at Fitchburg, Mas- sachusetts, where he resided the early part of his life, later removing to Cavendish, Vermont, with his family. He was one of the first settlers, and the owner of a large farm, also carrying on an extensive business in harness-making, and later engaging in mercantile pursuits. He held various local offices of political character, belonged to a rifle company of the Vermont militia, also to the hose company of the Cavendish fire department, and was a zealous member of the Methodist church, serving as chairman of the board of trustees and as steward. He married Almira. daughter of Zaccheus and Experience (Proctor) Blood. The former was a farmer and harness- maker of Cavendish, and the latter a daughter of Captain Leonard · Proctor, of Proctorsville, who served in the colonial army and in the war of

the Revolution, and was the grandfather of United States Senator Proctor. Mr. and Mrs. Burbank were the parents of the following chil- dren: I. Augusta married Edward A. Rice, a Methodist minister, who died at Wellsville, New York, in 1902, at the age of ninety years ; their children were Edward B. and Clara. 2. Valeria married Charles J. Fenton, a farmer of Pittsford, Vermont, who held various town offi- ces, among them, those of town clerk and town treasurer. 3. Albin Sullivan is mentioned at length hereinafter. 4. Henry J. married Ade- laide Granger, of Boston, where they reside, and where he is in business as a brewer ; they have two children, Dorothy and Edith. 5. Samuel K. married Jane Tottingham, of Pittsford, where he is a merchant, and has held several town offices, also serving as representative. 6. Clara F. is unmarried. Mrs. Burbank, the mother of these children, died in 1866, aged fifty-six, and her husband passed away in 1877, at the age of eighty.

Albin Sullivan Burbank, third child and eld- est son of Abel and Almira (Blood) Burbank, was born April 4, 1838, in Proctorsville, in the town of Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, and received his early education in the common schools, and at Springfield Wesleyan Seminary, Springfield, Vermont. He entered upon his busi- ness career as a clerk in his father's store in Proctorsville, and was afterward employed in the hardware store of W. H. Floyd, in Medford, Massachusetts. From 1856 to 1863 he was book- keeper in the woolen mill in Proctorsville, Ver- mont, and in the latter year became superintend- ent of the establishment, which position he held with ability and success for a number of years. In 1877, in connection with William E. Hay- ward and L. H. Taft, of Uxbridge, Massachu- setts, he purchased the mills, which were thence- forth operated by the firm of Hayward. Taft & Company, under the management of Mr. Bur- bank. In 1890 Herbert T. Murdock purchased Mr. Hayward's interest, and the firm became Taft, Burbank & Murdock, the mills being still operated under the superintendence of Mr. Bur- bank. In 1890 the firm erected a brick addition to the large main building, one hundred and six by forty-two feet, four stories in height, and in- creased the machinery to twelve sets of cards

646

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

and sixty broad looms, employing two hundred hands, and turning out an annual product of four Indred and fifty thousand yards of cassi- meres. Power is furnished by a pair of hori- zontal water-wheels, and two steam engines of two hundred and twenty- five and forty horse- power. In 1874-75 Mr. Burbank represented the town of Cavendish in the general assembly, being again elected in 1890-1. In 1894-5 he was state senator from Windsor county. He is president and a director in the Black River National Bank of Proctorsville.

Mr. Burbank is past master of Lafayette Lodge No. 53, F. & A. M., Proctorsville, having taken the thirty-second degree in Masonry. He is a member of Skitchewaug Chapter No. 25, R. A. M., Ludlow; of Vermont Commandery No. 4, K. T., Windsor ; of Vermont Consistory, A. A. S. R., Burlington ; of Mount Sinai Temple, A. A. O. N. Mystic Shrine, Montpelier ; and of Keystone Chapter No. 5, O. E. S., Ludlow. He belongs to the Masonic Veterans' Association, and to the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he has always been an ardent Republican. Mr. Burbank married, May 4, 1866. at Prostorsville, Vermont, Martha J. Howe, a resident of Tunbridge, Vermont. They have one daughter, Almira B., born July 16, 1867, and married in October, 1902, Henry L. Drugg, of Peterboro, New York.

FREDERICK HOLBROOK.

Frederick Holbrook, an accomplished civil engineer, who is now engaged with the great sub- way construction work in New York city, and whose residence is at Milton, Massachusetts, is a representative of prominent New England fam- ilies which were from an early colonial period conspicuous in public affairs, and various of whose members have been called to high posi- tions of honor and trust.

Mr. Holbrook was born July 21, 1861, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Franklin F. and Anna E. (Nourse) Holbrook, to whom were born three children, Frederick, the subject of this memoir, Emeline M. and Percy Holbrook. The father was a son of Hon. Frederick Holbrook, the Civil war governor of Vermont, whose personal history and public

career are written of on other pages of this work. Franklin F. Holbrook was born March 1, 1837, in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he received his education and entered upon a mercantile career. He was a man of fine business capabilities, and, besides, an ardent patriot who at the beginning of the Civil war unhesitatingly offered himself in such place as he would be most serviceable in aiding in the support of the national government. In the first year of the struggle (1861) he was appointed military agent of Vermont, a position in which he was charged with the duty of repre- senting the state in all its relations with the federal war department, as well as with caring for the interests of the Vermont troops, more especially those who were incapacitated for field service by reason of wounds or discase. He acted in this capacity during the entire duration of the war, incessantly employed, and serving with great capability and strict fidelity to the delicate and important trusts committed to him. After the restoration of peace he became head of the firm of F. F. Holbrook & Company, which, as manufacturers of agricultural implements in Boston, carried on an extensive business. He was actively connected with this business for. about twenty years, when he retired.

Frederick Holbrook, eldest child of Franklin. F. and Anna E. (Nourse) Holbrook, passed his youth in Brattleboro, Vermont, under the im- mediate care of his illustrious grandsire, ex-Gov- ernor Frederick Holbrook, for whom he was- named. He began his education in the public- schools, and pursued advanced studies under a private tutor, Professor B. F. Bingham, who- said of him that he was the most apt mathemati- cian whom he ever taught, and credited him with- ability for the ready and comprehensive grasp of whatever problem, no matter how intricate. could be submitted to him. Later he took up the- study of law in the office of his uncle, William- C. Holbrook, who is now (1903) judge of spe- cial quarter sessions of New York. With his- great taste and talent for mathematics, and a predisposition to the science of civil engineering, he was disinclined to the law, and he became connected with an engineering corps on the Pacific coast, and this was his initial step to the profession in which he has ever since been so usefully and prominently engaged. After eight

647

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

years passed in this employment, he returned to the east and took the position of assistant engi- neer with the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford Railroad. After four years he relinquished his position to become head of the contract con- struction firm of Holbrook, Cabot & Rollins, of Boston, and gave his personal attention to vari- ous of the largest construction enterprises on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, in- cluding the crossing work at Brocton and Ded- ham, Massachusetts, the extensive line from Groton to Alyn's Point, the drawbridge at Bos- ton, the bridges at Cambridge and Fitchburg, and the stone bridge across the Connecticut river at Bellows Falls, on the Fitchburg Railroad. The firm with which Mr. Holbrook was asso- ciated also constructed the immense wet dock at the Boston navy yard.

In 1900 Mr. Holbrook also became head of the Holbrook, Cabot & Daly Construction Com- pany of New York, which in that year entered upon the great subway construction work, New York city. Since that time he has given his personal attention to the work on section No. 3, covering a distance of one and one-half miles, extending from Great Jones street to Thirty-fourth street, and requiring the labor of one thousand eight hundred men. The work is attended with almost insuperable difficulties, re- quiring incessant watchfulness and resourceful- ness, not only in forwarding the work (which is to be completed in September of the present year, 1903), but in protecting the buildings on either side of the great thoroughfare. At whatever stage, or in whatever unexpected contingency, Mr. Holbrook has proven himself complete mas- ter of the situation, and the undertaking which now engages his attention is evidently destined to be of record as among the monumental engi- neering enterprises of the day.

The large affairs in which Mr. Holbrook has been continuously engaged, and the amount of time and attention required for their diligent prosecution, have rendered it impossible for him to participate to any considerable degree in tra- ternal and social organization matters. He is, however, a member of the New York Athletic Club, the Engineers' Club and the Hardware Club. Mr. Holbrook married Grace, daughter of Norman Franklin Cabot, who was for many

years a banker in Brattleboro, Vermont, and of whom a memoir appears elsewhere in this work. Of this union have been born three children : Lucy Brooks, Frederick Cabot and Grace Ware.

FRANK W. AGAN.

Frank W. Agan, an enterprising mill-owner and prominent citizen of Ludlow, Vermont, be- longs to a family which has been for three gen- erations resident in the town, actively participat- ing in its commercial affairs and political move- ments. John Agan, father of Frank W. Agan, was a son of John Agan, and was a merchant at Ludlow, where he was extensively engaged in dealing in all kinds of produce, and was also a speculator. He was at one time in the iron busi- ness, operating under the trading name of the Tyson Iron Company, and was a practical iron- worker himself. He enlisted in the Union army during the Civil war, but his family interfered and prevented his going to the front. He was an enthusiastic Democrat, affiliated with the Ma- sonic fraternity, and was a member of the Uni- versalist church. He married Amanda Hendry, and was the father of two children: Frank W., mentioned at length hereinafter; and William H., who is engaged in the drug business at Lud- low. Mr. Agan died at the age of thirty-three, and his wife survives to the present day.

Frank W. Agan, son of John and Amanda (Hendry) Agan, was born in 1868, in Plymouth, Vermont. His education was obtained at the Black River Academy, and at the age of sixteen he entered the Ludlow woolen mills for the pur- pose of learning the business in every detail. Here he remained for six or seven years, during which time he worked in all the departments of the mill. Later he went to Gilsum, New Hamp- shire, where he worked in a woolen manufactory for two or three years, and then returned to Lud- low, becoming identified with the Black River woolen mill. In this business he was associated for six years with George H. Levey, and then embarked in the shoddy manufacturing industry. In 1895 he bought the Roberts property, origin- ally a listing mill on Jewell brook, remodeled it for a shoddy mill, with modern machinery, and has erected other buildings as occasion required. until at present he has a floor space of more than

648

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

ten thousand square feet. In addition to the water power, a steam power with eighty-horse- power boiler is used when needed. Mr. Agan employs a force of about fifty people, and manti- factures from 600,000 to 800,000 pounds of shoddy ammally. lu 1900 Mr. Agan built the Verd Mont Mill in South Ludlow, and after- ward organized a stock company, of which he was elected president, a position which he still holds. The business employs from seventy-five to one hundred people.

Mr. Agan takes an active interest in every- thing pertaining to the welfare of the community in which he resides. He is president of the Lud- low Telephone Company, and is interested in the Red Cross Medical Company, which prou- ises to develop into a very extensive business: He has been chairman of the board of village trustees, and is a member of the board of town school directors. Mr. Agan exerts himself very much in the cause of local option, and is presi- dent of the Local Option League of the state, by which he was nominated in 1902, for the office of lieutenant governor, Percival W. Cle- ment, of Rutland, being the candidate for gov- ernor, through whose united efforts the local option law was passed. Mr. Agan is a member of Black River Lodge, F. & A. M .; Skitchewanax Chapter, R. A. M .; and Windsor Commandery, K. T., and Mt. Sinai Temple, Mystic Shrine.

In 1896 Mr. Agan married Cora A., daughter of the late Major Darius J. Safford, of Morris- ville. The recent death of Mrs. Agan, who was a woman of unusual gifts and accomplishments, was universally lamented. Mr. Agan had not long before erected a beautiful summer home on Gill terrace, adjacent to the Odd Fellows' Home.

HON. WILLIAM BULL EDGERTON.

Hon. William Bull Edgerton, judge of pro- bate court of Manchester, Vermont, was born November 14. 1867, in Danby, Vermont, a son of Robert Edgerton, who was the third in line of direct descent to bear that name.

The first Robert Edgerton was a son of Daniel Edgerton, who came from Salisbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, to Tinmouth, Bennington (now Rutland) county, where he purchased four hundred and twenty acres of the confiscated

estate of a Tory, John McNeil by name, as is evi- denced by the laud records of the town of Tin- mouth, which bears date of Angust 31, 1778. Daniel Edgerton was familiarly known as "Cap- tain' Daniel," and served in the Revolutionary war. Daniel Edgerton married Miss Mary Douglass, daughter of Benajah Douglass, who was also a soldier in the patriot army during the war of the Revolution, and served under General Wash- ington at Valley Forge. Mrs. Edgerton was the aunt of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Robert married Anna Bull; they owned a large farm in Wallingford, Vermont, where they lived and died. Their children were Robert, Samuel Zeley, Crispin, Betsey, who married Joseph Remington, and Elsie, who married Barney Ferry.

Robert Edgerton (second) grandfather of Judge William Bull Edgerton, lived for a time in Wallingford, but spent the last years of his life in Dorset, Vermont. He married Miss Abigail Bowen, who was born in Dorset, and spent her life of fourscore years there and in Wallingford. Eight children were born to them: Hiram; Manora; Robert ; Anna; Peleg, now residing at East Dorset, Vermont; Bradford; Charles; and Mary, now a resident of Manchester, Vermont. All of the children are now deceased with the exception of Peleg and Mary. Mr. Edgerton died in Dorset, Vermont, at the age of sixty years.

Robert Edgerton (third), father of Judge William Bull Edgerton, was born in Wallingford, Vermont, in the year 1828, but moved with his father's family to Dorset when twelve years of age, where he grew up and for a time engaged in agricultural pursuits; going from there to Danby he carried on general farming until his death, which occurred when he was sixty-seven years old. He married Miss Anna Irish, daugh- ter of Benjamin and Phoebe (Baldrich) Irish, who reared a large family of children, of whom but one is now living, Harrison B. Irish, of Spring Valley, Wisconsin, one of the sturdy pio- neers of that state. Of the eight children born to Robert and Anna (Irish) Edgerton, four have passed to the life beyond. The four now living are as follows: Albert R., of Manchester ; Charles B., of Danby; William B., the special subject of this brief sketch, and Ina L., who mar- ried Carmi F. White, of Pawlet, Vermont, and

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 114

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032