USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 41
USA > Vermont > Essex County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 41
USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 41
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noble grand of Concordia lodge, Odd Fellows. Four daughters have been born to Curtis L. and Viola Stacy: Nellie P., wife of Colonel C. M. Bonett; Cora V., wife of A. J. Cor- riveau, both of St. Johnsbury; Maude A., wife of Prof. I. H. May, and Bossie G., wife of Frank L. Car- penter, both of West Concord.
RUSSELL, WILLIAM L., son of Oliver and Sally (Fletcher) Russell, was born in Dalton, New Hampshire, in 1850. He was the younge-t of five brothers, all of whom have been lumbermen. His first business ven- ture was in the lumber business in Granby, with his brother, George. Later he engaged in the livery busi- ness at Whitefield, New Hampshire. for a year and a half, and conducted the Avente House stable at St.
WILLIAM L. RUSSELL.
Johnsbury. In the fall of 188; he bought the E. L. Hovey sawmill at Summerville, where he carried on a large and prosperous business three
years, later taking in C. C. Follens- by, his brother-in-law, as a partner, and also with the late W. E. Peck as a one third owner. Having sold his interest in the Hovey mill, he formed a partnership with R. A. MeKelvey in the fall of 1897, and they purchased an e-tate of four or five thousand acres of L. D. Hazen at Miles Pond, consisting of a store, farm, timber lands, and the leading mill property of the town. The mill has a daily capacity of 30,000 feet. and all n eded appliances, and from one to three million feet of lumber is manufactured annually. The farm contains most extensive and excellent pastures, from which 150 head of cattle have been turned in a single season, and cuts about 100 tons of hay. Mr. Russell is post- master and station agent. Mr. Rus- sell bought Mr. MeKelvey's interest in the Miles Pond property October 1. 1903. In the fall of 1902 Russell & MeKelvey bought the stumpage on all of the timber lands of the Victory Lumber company in the towns of Victory and Innenburg, consisting of many million feet of fine soft ard hardwood timber, also the mill and property rights located thereon. Soon after they sold the same to the firm of John-on & Steb- bins. Mr. Russell has recently bought the well-known Barton Works faim, near St. Johnsbury, which contains a valuable lot of timber and wood.
While located at St. Johnsbury he served as one of the village trustees. He married Lovina H. Follansby in 1874. They have two children: Ger- trude, who married Herbert A. Haw- lev, teller of the First National bank of St. Johnsbury, and Henry F., who is connected with the lumber business at Harrison, tdaho.
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
RICH, WILLIAM M., son of Ma- loren and Betsey (Whitney) Rich, was born in Madrid. St. Lawrence county, New York, March 20, 1861. He comes of staunch English stock. His first American ancestor, William Bradford, came to Massachusetts in
home at sixteen years of age, and obtained employment as an assistant in the railroad station of his native town, where he learned telegraphy. and from that time until the present, he has been continuonsly engaged in station work. He took charge of
WILLIAM M. RICH.
the Mayflower, and was governor of Plymouth colony thirty-one years. His paternal grandfather, Martin Rich, was a soldier in the War of 1812. William M. Rich was edu- eated in the common and seleet schools of his native town. He left
"Scott's" station in 1886, and about. three years later was transferred to his present responsible position at North Concord. Mr. Rich married, in 1884, Ida May Worden, of Pots- dam, New York, a lady of rare social gifts and business qualifications,
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who for several years was his effi- cient assistant in the arduous duties of the station. Their only son, Wal- ter, a young man of excellent schol- arship and social standing, is a senior at St. Johnsbury academy.
Genial, accommodating, and pub- lie spirited, an accomplished and en- terprising business man, Mr. Rich fills an important sphere of useful- ness at North Concord. He handles not only the passenger, freight, ex- press, and telegraphy at North Con- cord, but has charge of the freight business of the Victory branch, and for fourteen years has been postmas- ter. He conducts a general store, a livery stable, a small farm, sells flour and feed of all kinds, does a general barter business in wood and farm produce-in fact, is the earthly providence of the little hamlet of North Concord.
Mr. Rich is widely and favorably known in Masonic circles, is a past worshipful master of Moose River lodge of West Concord, past district deputy grand master of this Masonie district, and a Knight Templar of Palestine commandery, and a mein- ber of the grand lodge of Vermont.
GRAY, ELWIN A., son of George and Sarah M. (Hargin) Gray, was born in Elmore, September 12, 1867. At twenty years of age with a fair common school education and a physique well seasoned by farm life, he entered the employ of S. A. Fife. the well known general merchant of Wolcott, and his services proved so satisfactory that he remained in this position fifteen years. Mr. Gray married in 1893, Effie J., daughter of David H. Wheeler of Wolcott. In January, 1902, he went to Little Compton, Rhode Island, and en- gaged in the poultry business and
other lines until January, 1903, when he purchased his present stock of goods of Lambert W. Hastings & Co., at West Concord. This com- modions and convenient store is fit- ted up with modern appointments, is located in the business center of the village, and has always been a popular trade center, and has not lost prestige under the present able management. The salesroom and office, 30 by 36, occupy a part of the first floor, with an equal space for heavy goods in the basement, and Mr. Gray's residence is on the see- ond floor. Everything is carried in stock that is usually expected in the general country store of the period, the principal features being dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, and ladies' and gents' furnishings. The business is conducted on the ready pay system, and Mr. Gray, assisted by his amiable and capable wife, has entire charge. The new merchant has won a well deserved recognition as an accommodating and reliable business man, and a genial and esteemed citizen. Mr. Gray has held several official posi- tions in the town of Wolcott, was chairman of the town Republican committee, and representative to the legislature in 1900.
MORTON, DYER HIBBARD, eldest of the four sons of Uri and Lovica (Hibbard) Morton, was born in Con- cord, October 15, 1835. His paternal grandfather, Alexander Morton, came to Concord in 1998, and lo- cated on the faim near West Con- cord, which for three quarters of a century was the family home. Hon. Dyer İlibbard, his maternal grand- father, was a distinguished citizen of Concord. Dyer H. Morton married Sarah B., daughter of Tyler and
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
Olive (Gaskell) Bingham, and set- tled on the Bingham farm in the town of Waterford, but near West Concord, and remained there miny years, caring for the declining years of his wife's parents. lle subse- quently removed to West Concord and soon after engaged for a time in the meat business.
Mr. Morton is highly esteemed as a neighbor and citizen, and has filled public positions of usefulness, in-
DYER H. MORTON.
eluding that of trial ju-tice of the peace at West Concord for the past dozen years. For many years he was connected with the C'aledonia County Fair Ground company as an executive committeeman, and as marshal and assistant marshal. Hle has had charge of the Concord town hall many years, and Ias faithfully discharged all duties intrusted to his care. He is a long-time member and
former officer of Moose River lodge, No. 82, F. and A. M.
Dyer II. and Sarah B. Morton have one daughter, Nellie C., who married the late George W. Parris of West Concerd, a veteran of the Civil war.
RANNEY. WILLIAM E., son of Sullivan and Mary Huse Ranney, was born in Kirby February 24, 1863. When he was five years of age his father removed to the fine meadow farm two miles from West Concord, which has since been the family home. William was educated in the public schools of the town and at St. Johnsbury academy. After he be- came of age he worked for his father and mother on the home farm until the death of the latter in July. 1899. In 1892 he married Susie, only daughter of Nathaniel Dexter and Maria Drew Reed, and they have one child, Marjorie, six years of age. After his mother's death in 1899. Mr. Ranney took the Nathaniel D. Reed farm one year and then bought the farm and stock for $2,000. It is a pleasant and productive faim near West Concord.
Mr. Ranney is one of the most en- ergetic and successful farmers of this section and an excellent finan- vier. le conducts a fine dairy of sixteen cows of the Jersey and Ayr- shire breeds, al-o a large quota of young stock and swine. His cows averaged three hundred and fifteen pounds of butter each during last year. The gross income of the farm the year before he cime here was $557. while during the past year it became $1,85%. a most notable gain. Mr. Ranney markets a large share of his early potatoes, also eggs and but- ter, at St. Johnsbury at remunera- tive prices. lle supplements his
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coarse fodder with home-grown car- rots, turnips, and corn. A most ex- emplary young man, he has been su- perintendent of the Sunday-school of the M. E. church. and is the chairman of the board of selectmen of Concord.
form a matrimonial alliance with Emma, the only danghter of Hon. Abraham S. and Minerva Howard of East Haven. After a brief residence in East Haven, they removed to the Samuel Barker farm, one mile from East Concord. After fifteen years
CHARLES I), ROOT.
ROOT, CHARLES D., son of Hor- ace B. and Girzilda Davis Root, was born in Newark in 1846. His early educational advantages in the com- mon schools were uncommonly well improved. His first important act after attaining his majority was to
of hard work and good management, by a timely auction sale of personal property, they succeeded in raising that most difficult of farm crops, the mortgage. He then decided to widen his sphere of effort and use- fulness by buying the Warner Vilas
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
store at East Concord, taking pos- session in January, 1883. A year later he was appointed depot master at East Concord, a position which he has since acceptable filled. He was postmaster nearly seven years, ap- pointed during President Arthur's administration.
When he bought the sawmill of L. D. HIazen the wise ones shook their heads and predicted his failure. It was supposed that the timber was nearly exhausted in the vicinity of East Concord, but Mr. Root has bought timber lands and stumpage from time to time in Lunenburg and Concord, until at present he owns more than 1.500
acres. He has manufactured from half a mil- lion to a million and a half of lum- ber annually, largely finished hum- ber, and his pay-roll has placed bread upon many of the tables of East Concord, as the sawmill is the only local enterprise. In April, 1898, his dwelling, store, and barn were con- sumed, entirely uninsured, with a total loss of more than $4,000. Nothing daunted by this disaster, he promptly built his present handsome store and residence buildings, and in the second story of the block is a modern opera house in its ap- pointments, with a seating capae- ity adequate to the town. Mr. Root's broad shoulders have carried successfully a heavy load of business responsibility, but he has been ably assisted by his wife, a woman of re- markable energy and ambition.
Hle has served the town several years as selectman, and in 1880 was the nominee of the Democratic party for senator of Essex county. Endowed with kindly and generous impulses, Charles and Emma Root have helped in many a good cause,
and have provided a good home for three children: Ida, the wife of F. S. Kenerson of Barre; Katie, wife of F. T. Pownd of Lyndonville, and Ray Howard Root.
LEWIS, IRA P., son of Ira G. and Sally (Pike) Lewis, was born in Waterford, October 3, 1845. Ilis father died six months before his birth, and consequently he was born in the home of his maternal grand- father, Deacon Luther Pike, an esti- mable citizen, and one of the first settlers of Waterford. Possessed of a stalwart physique and considerable ambition, young Lewis carly learned to rely on his own resources. On his twenty-first birthday he was married to Luette MI., daughter of Hon. A. W. and Lora (Hibbard) Burroughs of Kirby. Judge Burroughs was one of the most esteemed and prominent citizens of his native town, and died in the prime of life in 1858. He was one of the sons of Seth Burroughs, one of the early settlers of Kirby.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis spent the first four years of their married life at the old Burroughs homestead, and in the fall of 1870 purchased the Ball farm in Concord, where they have since resided. Buying at a time of inflated prices, they assumed a large mortgage, which they have successfully raised, and have greatly improved the farm and buildings. They have given their children every educational advantage which their means could afford. Their children are: Clayton E., a traveling sales- man for the Swifts, who married
Annie D. Carlton, and is located at Lewiston, Maine; Theda L. and Lefie M. (deceased), wives respec- tively of F. M. and F. E. Richard- son, the well-known livery men of Littleton, New Hampshire; W. Clyde
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ESSEX COUNTY,
Lewis, who married Effie E. Ball and is employed by Richardson Brothers, and Earle C., aged fourteen, who re- sides at home. Ira P. and Luette (Burroughs) Lewis are excellent types of our energetic, successful farmers, descendants of strong na- tive ancestry, and their children are worthy of their staunch ancestry. Mr. Lewis has served the town as lister, school director, selectman. and in 1898 was elected to the legis- lature as a Republican.
THE LEADER GRANITE COM- PANY. This company was organized at Hardwick in 1889, and located at West Concord in November, 1900. The company at present consists of Emmanuel Lillicrap and John Moyse, both of whom are experi-
EMMANUEL LILLICRAP.
enced granite manufacturers and they rented, but in 1902 they are masters of their craft. At first bought, the new granite shed
which is fitted up with the modern appointments, and will accommo- date a working force of thirty men. The plant has ample water-
JOHN MOYSE.
power from Moose river, with a newly installed Hercules wheel. The Leader Granite company largely uses the famous Barre granite, but they are prepared to furnish monuments and mausoleums, or, in fact, anything in their line of the standard American and foreign stock. They report the granite worked by the Burke and the Kirby Mountain Granite com- pany very favorably, and the indica- tions are hopeful that these immense masses of stone, forming the back- bone of Kirby mountain, may in the near future become the resource of a large and prosperous indus- try at West Concord. Emmanuel Lillicrap is the eldest of a family of four brothers, all of whom have fol- lowed the craft at the West Concord
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
shed. He was born, so to speak, with the bush hammer in his hand, for his father followed the trade a lifetime, and he has worked at it from early boyhood. He was a native of Cornwall, England, and came to this country at the age of twenty, with no capital, but a robust phy- sique, willing hands, and a stout heart. Ilis subsequent experience forms an interesting chapter, but spice forbids narration. John Moyse, his brother-in-law and part- ner, also a native of Cornwall, is an active young man, a skilled black- smith and granite cutter, in fact, a good all around man in every rela- tion of life. These young men are the pioneers of what promises to be a valuable and extensive enterprise and their conditions and prospects are steadily improving.
WHIPPLE BROTHERS. Rice and George Whipple are the only survivors of the teu children of Woodbury and Lydia (Farnham) Whipple, their birth years being re- spectively 1836 and 1845. Another brother, Bradford Whipple. a soklier of the First Vermont cavalry. died during Kilpatrick's raid on Rich- mond. Woodbury Whipple lost a leg by an accidental gun-shot wound, which incapacitated him for farm labor, when he learned the cooper's trade. and about 1839 settled on a small homestead, where his sons are now located. For years the life of the family was a continuous struggle with poverty and adverse conditions, but with great industry and economy the sitnation steadily improved, and he lived to see his sons in moder- ately prosperous circumstances. He died in 1878 at the age of 75, and his wife two years earlier. Rice Whip- ple. who has been afllieted by lame-
ness, for many years followed his father's vocation of a cooper. The Whipple Brothers, as their meins in- creased, have purchased additions to their original small homestead, until at present they own a good home farm of about 140 acres and back lots of equal extent. They have built or rebuilt their farm buildings in good form, conduct a good twelve- cow dairy, and a sugar place of 1,300 buckets. For nearly thirty years they have owned with Moses A. Par- ker a half interest in the neighbor- hood sawmill. They are Republi- cans in politics and Baptists in re- ligious belief, and are worthy and useful citizens. George Whipple married, in 1876, Laura, daughter of Samuel Bell of Lunenburg, who died in 1852, leaving one daughter, Lydia, wife of William Williams. He married, in 1889, Mrs. Mary _1. (McAlister) Southworth of Lyndon- ville.
CUTTING, HORACE W., son of Franklin and Prudence (Isham) Cutting. was born on the farm where he now resides in Concord, in 1844. The massive and antique clock in the great square sitting room has ticked out the months and years of more than a century during the time that four generations of the Cutting family have owned and occupied the ancestral homestead.
Oliver Cutting was born in 1225. married Phebe Church and settled on and cleared up the primeval wild- erness on the old Concord farm. about 1800. Franklin Cutting was one of his family of five sons and two daughters, none of whom are now living. Franklin married Pru- dence. daughter of Benjamin and Dorcas (Nicho!s) Isham. and six sons were born to them. He died in
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1894 at the age of eighty-nine, and his wife in 1891. Franklin, Hiram, Stephen, and Nathaniel Cutting were sterling men in their day and generation; industrious, frugal, orig- inal Vermonters of the old school.
Horace Cutting enlisted in 1863 in the Eleventh regiment, Vermont Volunteer infantry, and was with his company at the Weldon railroad, where so many of his comrades were captured and had a hairbreadth es- cape, at last regaining the Union lines, his two comrades being killed by their pursuers. Returning from the front, Horace Cutting engaged in farming and lumbering in Concord for a time and later was six years in the ice business in New York city, as foreman and collector of a large firm. He married, in 1818, Fanny D., daughter of A. F. L. Norris, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1845, and sister of True L. Norris, editor of the Portsmouth Times. Mrs. Cutting is a lady of unusual en- ergy. has served as superintendent of schools and is now a school di- rector. Horace and Fanny Cutting have three sons: Franklin A., Ralph T., and Harry N. Ilorace Cutting returned to the old farm of 316 acres in 1890, cared for his aged parents and has greatly improved the farm and buildings.
SMITH, DAN M., son of John and Phebe T. (Gee) Smith, was born in Concord, Vermont, in 1845. He was one of a family of nine sons and three daughters, all of whom lived to maturity, and had families, and all have lived in the town of Concord. At the age of eighteen, Dan enlisted in Company M, Eleventh Vermont regiment in 1863, and was honora- bly discharged with his regiment at the close of the war.
A-10
He then found employment in Colonel Fletcher's wholesale store, and later for the Passumpsie rail- road until his marriage in 1868 to Mary, daughter of George Adams and Lavina Whitcomb Parker of Concord. George Parker was a life- long resident of the town on the same farm and in the same house which his father erected and occu- pied ninety-four years ago. After farming some seventeen years in Concord, in January, 1886, Mr. Smith bought the old Parker farm of 250 acres, and took care of his father-in-law. Mr. and Mrs. Smith rank among the most energetic and enterprising of our farmers. They have trebled the production of the old farm by extensive farming, the main feature being the raising of ensilage and field corn and the care of a large and excellent dairy, the products of which have been mar- keted by the owners. Mr. Smith has recently retired to East Concord, and Ilenry King, his son-in-law, carries on the ancestral farni.
No owner of this old homestead for generations has used tobacco, and they have always stood strongly for temperance. Dan M. and Mary (Parker) Smith have reared a worthy family of eight children: Almon B .. a farmer in Concord; Dora P., wife of Herbert E. Howland of East Burke: John; Lavina W .; Sheldon S .; Aber W., a graduate of Johnson Normal school and now a law stu- dent at St. Johnsbury; Zilpha, Mrs. Henry King, and Herman II. Smith. D. M. Smith is enterprising and public spirited and served as a mem- ber of the building committee at the erection of the two churches at East Concord. He is a member of How- ard post, G. A. R., of Lunenburg.
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
WILCOX, HENRY CLAY, son of Edmund W. and Matilda (Farns- worth) Wilcox, was born in Cam- bridge, Angust 20, 1842. He was educated in the excellent publie schools of Cambridge and Johnson. At nineteen years of age he found
ness career, and for seven years was variously employed, as a manufac- turer of butter tubs, as a hotel clerk at Hyde Park, and as a foreman in several lumber enterprises. He be- came superintendent of the Buck & Wilcox Lumber company of Granby
HENRY C. WILCOX.
employment in the United States armory at Springfield, Massachu- setts, until the elose of the Civil war, when he returned to Johnson, and for several years he was engaged in farming. Naturally of an active temperament, he preferred a busi-
in 1882, and capably filled that re- sponsible position until 1885, when the property was sold to C. H. Stev- ens & Co., and Mr. Wilcox remained in the employ of this company and the Northern Lumber company until December, 1896, when he located in
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West Concord and purchased the hardware store, which he success- fully conducted nearly three years.
Mr. Wilcox has always enjoyed the confidenee and esteem of the communities where he has resided, and has creditably discharged the duties of many public positions. He was deputy sheriff at Johnson, and at Granby served as justice and se- lectman, was the Republican repre- sentative of the town in 1886 and 1890. and a prominent candidate for county senator in the convention of his party in 1892. He was ap- pointed postmaster at West Concord in May, 1899, and still acceptably fills that position, having inaugu- rated several improvements in the service. He has been town treasurer since March, 1898. Possessing ex- cellent business capacity and judg- ment. he is also publie spirited, and has taken an active interest in vil- lage and town improvements.
For many years he has been prom- inently identified with the Masonic fraternity; he was the worshipful master of Mount Norris lodge, No. 69, of Eden, high priest of Tucker chapter of Morrisville, and is a Knight Templar of Palestine com- mandery, a Shriner, and a 32d de- gree Mason.
STREETER, PRESCOTT B., son of David, Jr., and Mercy (Rowe) Street- er, was born in Coneord in 183%. Benoni and Benjamin Streeter and their brother, David, grandfather of Prescott. were among the earliest pioneers of Concord. David was born in 1772, married Annie Wins- low, and came to Concord in 1789. They reared three children: Phoebe, Mrs. David Frye; David, Jr., and Nancy, Mrs. James Howard.
David Streeter was a kindly, jovial
man, and a noted rhymester in his day. David, Jr., remained on the paternal farm, and reared four chil- dren: Jane, Anna, and Chester and Prescott, twins. Chester was a sol- dier of the Union. Prescott cared for his aged parents on the ancestral farm, which for more than a century has been the home of four genera- tions of the family. The home farm and back lot contain about 180 acres, and carry a ten-cow dairy and the usual young stock.
Mr. Streeter is one of the most successful and extensive bee keepers in the state, his apiary containing from 150 to 200 swarms. Prescott B. Streeter married Georgianna Boutwell in 1865, and all of their ten children were born and reared on the home farm: Adelbert B. is an employé at Fairbanks Scale Works; William P. is a substantial farmer in Concord; Almira M .; Stephen P. of Worcester: Dene (de- ceased ); Lizzie (dcceased in infancy); Alice M. resides at St. Johnsbury; Harry is associated with his father in farming, and Effie C. and Ella also reside with their parents.
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