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 9
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 9
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 9
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AVENUE HOUSE, ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT.
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amining Board of the State of Ver- mont.
Dr. Perkins was Eminent Com- mander of Palestine Commandery, Knights Templar, for eight years, and for three years was Right Emi- nent Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Vermont. He is a
of Rome and Constantine. He is a Sovereign Grand Inspector-General, 33d and last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
McLEOD, ANGUS H., son of Charles F. and Elizabeth (Ander- son) MeLeod, was born in Glen- garry, Province of Ontario, in 1842.
JOSEPH L. PERKINS, M. D., D. D. S.
Past Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Vermont. A Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Constantine. He is also a Past Grand Sovereign of the Grand Imperial Council of Vermont, of the Knights
Ilis father was a Scotch Highlander, a teacher by profession. His mother was a native of Edinburgh. After the death of his father, when Angus was eight years old, he ob- tained by his own efforts a good common school education, and at.
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the age of seventeen began to learn the miller's trade. He had charge of various mills and finally bought one of his own at Trout River, New York, which he carried on success- fully for five years. In 1871 he moved to St. Johnsbury where he bought the Caledonia mills. The plant was at that time in a rather dilapidated condition, with a ca- pacity of not over two carloads of grain per week or 40,000 bushels annually. Mr. McLeod at once in- stalled modern machinery, made necessary repairs and was soon do- ing a successful business in grinding wheat. Gradually the competition of the great Western mills made the manufacture of flour unprofitable and for the past twenty years that branch of the business has been dis- continued. The mills have been practically rebuilt and the plant sup- plied with all the modern improve- ments until it now has a storage ca- pacity of 50,000 bushels of grain and a daily grinding capacity of 2,500 bushels, or 750,000 bushels per year, unequaled by any other Vermont mill.
A destructive fire in 1900 burned the two elevators. Elevator B, erected soon after, is the largest in the state with a storage capacity of 100 carloads of feed and flour.
The grain is all handled by power from the Passumpsic river, and with the power shovel a carload of grain is unloaded at an expense of fifteen cents. Two men are employed in the office and six in the mill.
In 1893 the McLeod Milling Co. was incorporated with a capital of $55,000. The present officers are A. H. McLeod, president and treas- urer; J. H. Brooks, vice-president and secretary; A. II. McLeod, F. H.
Brooks, and J. H. Brooks, directors.
In 1880 Mr. McLeod was elected a director of the First National bank, and in 1895 succeeded Col- onel Franklin Fairbanks as presi- dent. He has also served as vice- president of the Ely Hoe and Fork Co., and as village trustee and lister of St. Johnsbury.
In 1867 he married Mary J. Rog- ers of Trout River, New York. They have three children, Charles 11., Maude E. (Mrs. J. H. Brooks), and Grace A., all of St. Johnsbury.
HUDSON, HENRY W., son of Joseph F. and Lydia (Farnham) Hudson, was born in Concord, Ver- mont, in 1844. His father was a carpenter and farmer, and a life- long and respected citizen of Con- cord. Henry's education was ob- tained at the common and select schools of his native town.
During his minority he taught successfully four terms of school in Concord and Waterford, and learned the carpenter's trade of his father. For several years after attaining his majority he was engaged in mechan- ical pursuits, for two years conduct- ing the sash and blind business, meanwhile building the M. E. church at West Concord.
After clerking a few months in a general store, Mr. Hudson bought the merchant tailor business of C. P. Day at West Concord, in 1812, which he conducted there until 1876, and which has become his life-work, and in which his success has determined his fitness. Mr. Hudson removed from West Con- cord to Brookfield, Massachusetts, where he remained in trade four years.
An accomplished vocalist, he was chorister of church choirs both at
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West Concord and Brookfield. He settled in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1880, and there applied his nat- ural mechanical ingenuity and his experience of years as a merchant
HENRY W. HUDSON.
tailor in the invention and intro- duction of the well-known Hudson system of cutting garments. In 1893 he closed out his business at Providence and gave his entire time to teaching his system to the trade, traveling extensively in the West, with headquarters for four years at San Francisco. He returned east in 1898, and after spending a year in Boston, located at St. Johnsbury in March, 1899.
He occupies a fine suite of rooms in Avenue House block, employs seven assistants, and gives his con- stant and careful personal attention to the details of the business. He devotes his exclusive attention to high class tailoring, in which line he has a high and well-merited rep-
utation as an expert, and is doing the leading business in town.
Mr. Hudson married in 1867 Ilannah A., daughter of Jonathan and Roxana (Ladd) Adams of Waterford, Vermont. Three chil- dren have been born to them, Charles E., a successful musie teacher in South Framingham, Massachusetts, Gertrude (deceased), and Nina Pearl, who is a teacher in the Commercial college of New Britain, Conneetieut.
Mr. Hudson is a member of the Masonie fraternity, and a Knight Templar of Palestine commandery.
WEEKS, JAMES S., son of Charles F. and Anna C. (Somers)
CHARLES F. WEEKS.
Weeks, was born at Danville, Ver- mont, May 12, 1863.
Charles F. Weeks is one of that noted and numerous family of Cale-
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donia county, the descendants of the three brothers, John, Nehemiah, and Jonathan. He was born in Danville in 1827, son of John and Rossama (Brown) Weeks.
Charles F. Weeks was engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes
residence in Summerville, and has been in trade here ever since, until recently succeeded by his son. Mr. Weeks has been a member of the Masonic fraternity more than forty years. Endowed with the family traits of industry and perseverance,
JAMES S. WEEKS.
many years at Danville, and mean- while was deputy sheriff eleven years. He was elected sheriff of Caledonia county in 1820, moved to St. Johns- bury, and for four years had charge of the county jail. At the expira- tion of his term he built a store and
he has prospered in business, and is an active and well preserved man at the age of seventy-six.
Mrs. Weeks died March 2, 1899, leaving a son, James S., and a daughter, Rossie B.
James S. Weeks was educated in
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the public schools of St. Johnsbury, where he was graduated at the acad- emy in 1883. After being grad- nated from Eastman's Business col- lege, he entered into partnership with his father in the general mer- chandise business at St. Johnsbury, which is located on Portland street, and which includes an extensive trade in farmers' produce. J. S. Weeks was a charter member of Mystic Star chapter, O. E. S., which he served for two years as secretary, and two years as worthy patron.
He has been district deputy grand marshal, and in 1900 was elected Grand Patron of the Grand Chap- ter of Vermont. He is past Grand Commander of the United Order of the Golden Cross of Ver- mont, also a member of Passump- sic lodge, Haswell chapter, and Pal- estine commandery, and an active business man. Mr. Weeks married. in 1902, Miss Ella P. Williamson of St. Johnsbury.
ROSS, CHARLES, son of Abraham and Hannah (Carpenter) Ross, was born in Waterford in September, 1838. His grandfather, Jonathan Ross, was an early settler in the town. In 1835 Abraham Ross bought the fine 200 acre farm, a half mile below Lower Waterford village, and it has since been the family home until Charles Ross moved to St. Johnsbury in 1899. The old red house which was re- placed by the present residence, was formerly used for town-meetings and other assemblies, and the place commands a fine view of the White Mountains. Charles Ross completed his education at St. Johnsbury acad- emy, and soon after made a tour of observation in the West, and then returned to the paternal farm.
Meanwhile he taught several terms of school.
He enlisted in August, 1862, in Company A, Eleventh regiment, was chosen corporal, and acted as quar- termaster's sergeant. With his regi- ment he joined the Vermont brigade at Spotsylvania, in May, 1864, and shared the fortunes of the regiment until he was captured with fifty- seven of his company at the Weldon Railroad. They were stripped of their valuables, sent from Richmond to Lynchburg by rail, and thence to Danville on foot, seventy-five miles in four days, and arrived at Ander- sonville July 11, where they re- mained until November 15, when the fifteen who had survived were paroled at Savannah and sent home. Sergeant Ross rejoined his regiment in May, 1865, was soon after promoted second lieutenant, and dis- charged in June, 1865. Returning to Waterford, he has received repeated elections to almost every office in the gift of his townsmen, including twelve years town superintendent of schools, fourteen years town clerk and treasurer, and justice of peace, and representative in 1878. He is now a justice of peace in St. Johns- bury. He has been engaged in the settlement of many estates.
Mr. Ross married, in 1866, Miss Arabella HI. Cutler of Glover, and five children were born to them, four of whom are now living: Mrs. R. D. Sherry of Groton, Vermont; Carl A. Ross, a lawyer of Chicago; Mrs. Charles F. Wright of Albany, Vermont, and Mabel E., who resides with her parents. Mrs. Ross died in 1884, and in 1889 he married Mrs. Addie J. (Pierce) Marden. Her daughter by a first marriage is Mrs. A. J. Higgins of St. Johnsbury.
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Mr. Ross is a member of Passump- sic lodge, F. & A. M., and of Cham- berlain post, G. A. R., of which he is now adjutant, and was formerly commander.
WALKER, FRANCIS, son of Abel and Sophronia (Livingstone) Walker,
long and useful career. He came to St. Johnsbury in 1845, and entered the foundry at the Fairbanks Scale works, to learn the moulder's trade, at the price of $100 per year for two years, afterwards receiving from 75 cents to $1.25 per day. The work-
FRANCIS WALKER.
was born in Peacham, Vermont, in 1825. He was educated at Peacham academy. Employed by William Mattocks, son of Governor John Mattocks, as general chore boy on the farm, he early formed those habits of industry and faithful effi- ciency which have characterized his
ing force at the foundry at that time consisted of six men, who were en- gaged in making stoves, ploughs, hoes, forks, and scales. Some time during the fifties the work was en- tirely devoted to the manufacture of scales. At the present time the iron and brass foundries employ one
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hundred and sixty men. Mr. Walker was appointed foreman of the foundry fifty-four years ago, and has continued to hold that responsi- ble position until the present time. During his fifty-eight years of ser- vice for the Fairbanks company, he has helped to establish many im- portant changes and improvements and followed to the grave two gen- erations of his honored employers. He was elected to the legislature from St. Johnsbury in 1890.
Francis Walker married Louise H. Powers of Lyndon in 1857, who died in 1890, leaving one son, Arthur F. Walker. He married Miss Clara E. Davis of St. Johns- bury. He was an esteemed citizen, conducted the drug business four- teen years, and died in January, 1901. Colonel Walker resides with his daughter-in-law on Summer street. He is the senior employè of the Fairbanks company, a connect- ing link of the past and the present generations, and highly esteemed and respected by his associates and the public. Mr. Walker is a Repub- lican and in religious preference a Congregationalist.
DROUIN, JOSEPH OCTAVE, son of Jerome and Julia Gilbert Drouin, was born at St. Mary, Province of Quebec, in August, 1847. Being an orphan when seven years of age, he was placed under the care of an uncle, who owned an extensive shoe manufactory. At fourteen years of age, he began to learn the shoe- maker's trade, serving an appren- ticeship of four years at one dollar per month and board. In the spring of 1866, he came to St. Johnsbury without a word of Eng- lish on his tongue and with only
$1.75 in his pocket. He went to work at his trade for H. A. Mooney. Mr. Drouin decided to learn the English language at once, and to accomplish this result more speedily engaged board at the old Passump- sic House, then kept by Mr. Rem- ick, and remained seven years, until in 1871, he married Marie Richard of Stanfold. P. Q.
In 1824, Mr. Drouin rose from the shoemaker's bench to become a partner in the firm of Thompson & Drouin. After several business changes, in 1877. he bought the dry goods and grocery business of Fred Boucher in the adjoining store of the same block, added boots and shoes, ran this combination until 1881, when he sold the grocery stock, and bought the block for $5,250. Having fitted up the build- ing in good style, he conducted a large business in the boot and shoe line until 1887, when he sold out the stock to O. S. Abbott, and went into the lumber business, in Victory. He carried on this business about six years, handling from a million and a half to three million feet of lumber annually, employing from twenty-five to fifty men, was his own superintendent and made the business a decided financial success.
In 1892 his block was burned, in- volving a loss of many thousand dollars, a severe disaster, but he did not despair, and soon began the erection of his present four-story brick block, fronting seventy-seven feet on Railroad street and with a depth of one hundred feet. Com- plications arose that involved ex- pensive litigation and repairs, and he was strongly advised to make a compromise with his creditors, but with characteristic honesty and
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courage, he determined to "win out," and he has labored steadily and successfully to that end.
Mr. Drouin carries an extensive stock of groceries and boots and shoes in a part of his block, and with the assistance of his sons ca- ters to a large trade. Mr. Drouin owns a large lumber dressing mill in Paddock Village; also two large tenement houses on Concord avenue and Railroad street; also extensive
JOSEPH O. DROUIN.
property on Lake View avenue, Lowell, Massachusetts.
Mr. Drouin is a highly respected citizen, has served as a village trus- tee and is the honorary president of the St. Jean Baptiste D'Amerique society. The children of Joseph O. and Marie (Richard) Drouin are Joseph Edward, who is his father's assistant in business, Mrs. Georgiana Painchaud of Lebanon, New Hamp-
shire, Mrs. Mary Jane Lemerise of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Dr. John A. Drouin of Burlington, Ar- thur, pharmaceutical student, Lucy, and AAlphonse Drouin.
FLETCHER, TRUMAN CHITTEN- DEN, son of Colonel Frederick and Beulah (Chittenden) Fletcher, was born in Underhill, Vermont, Octo- ber 27, 1845. The subject of this sketch was named for his maternal grandfather, Truman Chittenden, worthy son of that most distin- guished man. Thomas Chittenden, aptly styled the George Washington of Vermont, who for so many years piloted the destinies of the little commonwealth and was its first governor. Hon. Thomas Chittenden was for many years a noted citizen of Vermont and the family name is illustrious in the later annals of state and nation.
Colonel Frederick Fletcher was a man of executive and financial genius, a gentleman of the old school, and at the time of his death, January 12. 1898, at the age of nine- ty-three, was the oldest, with one exception, and probably the wealth- iest and most prominent citizen of St. Johnsbury. He was born No- vember 21, 1804. at Woodstock, Vermont, the youngest of a family of ten children. llis life covered nearly all of the nineteenth century, the most remarkable period in the world's history.
He saw the militia marching to the defense of Plattsburg in the War of 1812, and heard President Monroe deliver an address in Wood- stock in 1812. With a common school education he entered the mercantile business at Underhill, Vermont, in company with his elder
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brother, Thaddeus, whose daughter was the donor of the Mary Fletcher hospital and Fletcher library at
fortune. Here he was successfully engaged in the real estate business, and in banking, being for twenty
TRUMAN C. FLETCHER.
Burlington. Their business became very extensive, and in 1842 the firm was dissolved, and Colonel Fletcher retired to Burlington with an ample
years president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank of that city. Re- moving to St. Johnsbury in 1869, he organized the Merchants' Na-
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tional bank, of which he was presi- dent twelve years. Colonel Fletcher entered the Vermont militia in 1826 as chaplain, and passed through the various grades up to the colonelcy of the Eighth regiment, from which he retired in 1850. He was a prom- inent figure in the state militia, and the first man in Vermont to add the now familiar brass band to the gala occasion of the regimental muster or parade. Colonel Fletcher cast his first presidential vote for John Quincy Adams in 1828, and voted in every subsequent presidential election, joining the Republican party in 1856. He represented Un- derhill in the legislature in 1843, '44, and '45, and Shelburne in 1861-'62. He owned for many years a fine landed estate at Shelburne, adjacent to the estate of Colonel W. Seward Webb, now owned by Colonel Trn- man C. Fletcher. Three children were born to Frederick Fletcher, of whom Colonel Truman C. Fletcher is the only survivor.
Truman C. was educated in the Williston, Vermont, and St. Law- rence (Pottsdam, New York) acade- mies. He was engaged in mercantile business many years in the Fair- banks store on Main street, St. Johnsbury, until he retired in 1886, and has since devoted his attention to the care of his numerous invest- ments and the discharge of the many public functions which he has been called to perform. He has been director in the Merchants' Na- tional bank and vice president of the Passumpsie Savings bank, and is president of the St. Johnsbury Electric company.
Colonel Fletcher has served as village trustee, and held various town offices. Ile represented St.
Johnsbury in the legislature in 1886, and served as chairman of the committee on claims. He was an aide-de-camp on the staff of Gov- ernor John W. Stewart. He was a delegate to the national Republican convention in Chicago in 1884, serving as secretary of the delega- tion and as one of the secretaries of the convention, and was a presiden- tial elector from Vermont in 1900. He was four years a member of the state board of railroad commission- ers. He has taken unusual interest in the cause of education, and for twenty-one years has been a school director of St. Johnsbury and for several years chairman.
Colonel Fletcher is a Knight Templar, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and also of the Society of Colonial Wars, and other social organizations.
He possesses the genial affability of manner and easy dignity of bear- ing so characteristic of his father, and the ability and character which is his birthright from a distin- guished ancestry.
Colonel Fletcher married, in 1868, Katherine, daughter of E. F. Brown of St. Johnsbury, who died in 1890, leaving three sons, Carl Fletcher, editor of the Swanton Courier; Hugh P., who died in 1897, and Philip A., who is bookkeeper for the St. Johnsbury Electric company. He married in 1901 Belle F. Small, then principal of the Union schools of St. Johnsbury, and a lady of fine social and intellectual gifts and moral worth.
HORTON, WILLIAM HUGHES, was born in Wolverhampton, Eng- land, in 1819. He came to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1847, where he remained one year, pursuing the
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
business of merchant tailor; then followed the north-bound engine of the new Passumpsic railroad to Bel- lows Falls, where he remained two years, and in 1850 came to St. Johnsbury with the advent of the railroad and located on Railroad street, as the first merchant tailor of the town, and conducted this bus- iness until near the time of his death in 1895. When he came in there were only three or four build-
WILLIAM H. HORTON.
ings on this great business thorough- fare.
Mr. Ilorton was a progressive citi- zen, a man of taste and refinement, an artist in his line, and the first in town to put in a show case. He served the village repeatedly as trus- tee, chairman of the school board, and justice of peace. He married Elizabeth Tinling of Penn, Eng- land, and three sons were born to them.
William T. Horton was born in 1845 and married Annie Tinling. He was fifteen years clerk in the general office of the railroad and during the past seventeen years lias been in the employ of E. & T. Fair- banks & Co.
James S. was born in 1847, and for many years has been connected with the leading mercantile house of John Murphy & Co. of Montreal, Province of Quebec. He married Lillie McLeod, a sister of A. H. Mc- Leod of St. Johnsbury.
Charles H. Horton was born in 1856, and at the age of eighteen was employed by E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., in the dry goods department, where he remained ten years; was then engaged in bookkeeping two years, and in 1886 was appointed to the very responsible position of pur- chasing agent of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., a position which he still suc- cessfully occupies. The sons of W. HI. Horton inherit many of his es- timable characteristics, his active temperament, politeness, and pub- lic spirit. They are enthusiastic Masons, W. T. and Charles H. be- ing esteemed members of Palestine commandery.
BROOKS, FRANK H., son of Dr. Samuel T. and Lucy Clark (Mills) Brooks, was born at St. Johnsbury, November 24, 1868. Doctor Brooks was a prominent physician and highly esteemed citizen of St. Johnsbury, where he died in 1895, after a successful practice of forty years. Frank H. attended the pub- lie schools, and in 1886 was em- ployed in the dry goods department of the old Fairbanks store. He started at the foot of the ladder, but his promptness and efficiency soon won deserved promotion. In 1888 he
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CALEDONIA COUNTY.
entered the office first as assistant bookkeeper, and later as bookkeeper at the store. Meanwhile he pursued his studies at the St. Johnsbury academy, at the same time attend- ing to his duties in the Fairbanks office, and graduated in the class of
January 29, 1896, Ellen H., daugh- ter of Colonel Franklin Fairbanks, and soon after with Mrs. Brooks made the tour of England and the continent, visiting the great mu- seums and centers of art and his- toric interest as far as Naples,
FRANK H. BROOKS,
1889. In 1890 he was transferred to the scale office, became assistant paymaster, and a year later he was advanced to the position of paymas- ter and general collector, and con- tinued to fill the duties of this most exacting and responsible position until his marriage. He married,
Italy. Again in 1901 Mr. and Mrs. Brooks took a foreign trip, visiting C'airo, and going up the Nile to the second cataract and Abou Simbel.
After Mr. Brooks' return to St. Johnsbury, in 1896, the Brooks- Tyler Dry Goods Company was organized, with F. H. Brooks as
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
president and treasurer, W. C. Tyler, vice-president, and J. H. Brooks, clerk. This corporation purchased the dry goods depart- ment of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., established on Main street near the Atheneum, the most extensive department store in northeastern Vermont. This business was suc- cessfully conducted until the stock was sold to the Berry-Ball Dry Goods Company, September 1, 1903.
He is a member of the North Congregational church. Possessing apt musical tastes and a fine bass voice, Mr. Brooks is a member of that popular combination, the Ma- hogany Quartette of St. Johnsbury. Mrs. Ellen (Fairbanks) Brooks is deeply interested in that great work of public taste and utility, the Mu- seum of Natural History, the gift of her distinguished father, Colonel
"UNDERCLYFFE."
In May, 1897, Mr. Brooks was elected a director in the Fairbanks Scale company, a position made va- cant by the lamented death of Col- onel Franklin Fairbanks. In Jan- uary, 1903, he was elected a director of the First National bank, succeed- ing the late General William W. Grout. Mr. Brooks possesses a genial personality, excellent execu- tive ability, genuine sincerity, and moral worth.
Franklin Fairbanks. Mrs. Brooks and her sister, Mrs. Joseph T. IIer- rick of Springfield, Massachusetts, are serving as trustees of that insti- tution. Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Brooks have one daughter, Margaret Fair- banks Brooks. Their beautiful home, "Underclyffe," erected by Colonel Fairbanks in 1872, is an ideal nook of nature, adorned by the treasures of floriculture, architec- ture, and art.
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