USA > Vermont > Franklin County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 27
USA > Vermont > Grand Isle County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 27
USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 27
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Selden C. Greene shared the usual experience of the farm bred
.
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
boy of the period and was educated in the public schools and academy of his native town. At 16 years of age he began to learn the tinman's trade and after serving the usual apprenticeship of four years fol- lowed his trade in St. Albans until 1876, when he engaged in the tin- smith and hardware business in
and plumbing with the various sys- tems of steam, hot air and hot water, has required the services of several skilled employés.
Mr. Greene's store is the recog- nized headquarters for the supply of the multifurious utensils re- quired in the domestic equipment of modern housekeeping.
SELDEN C. GREENE.
company with his older brother Ed- ward, until 1882. Later, a cousin became a partner, but since 1892 Mr. Greene has been sole proprie- tor. He is probably the senior merchant in continuous business in this city. During recent years the sale of furnaces, stoves and ranges
A business man of excellent judgment and proved executive ability, he has devoted his atten- tion closely to the successful con- duct of his business, and rarely ac- cepted public office. He was a vil- lage trustee five years and one year chairman of the board and for two
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years had charge of the city streets and water. Mr. Greene was elected, September 4, 1906, one of the sen- ators of Franklin County, as a Re- publican. In religious preference and support he is a Universalist. HIe is a member of St. Albans Lodge, No. 31, I. O. O. F., and of the Knights of Pythias.
Selden C. Greene married, Sep- tember 4, 1872, Sarah L. Pease. Their two children are Mabel, de- ceased, and Winifred, wife of George M. Wood of Boston.
FRED W. MASON, M. D.
MASON, DOCTOR FRED W., son of Isaac and Helen M. (Green) Mason, was born at Brasher Falls, St. Lawrence County, New York, October 1, 1874. Doctor Mason comes of vigorous American stock. His father is a stalwart shoemaker and he is the youngest of a family of three sons and three daughters, all of whom are living. He grad- uated from the Brasher Falls
Union free school in 1893. He early decided to adopt the medical profession and for several years had been studying in the office of his brother-in-law, Doctor George H. Dowsey.
In the fall of 1894 he entered the Iowa State Medical College and graduated in 1897. In the fall of that year he settled in practice at St. Albans Bay, where he has since remained with a steadily increasing practice. He is the only practis- ing physician in the town of St. Albans, and having a fine physique and pleasing address has secured a good social and professional stand- ing.
Doctor Mason is a member of the Vermont State Medical Society and also of Franklin Lodge, No. 4, F. & A. M., of St. Albans. He mar- ried, in 1899, Miss Cora Brooks Greene of St. Albans, a lady of superior mental and social gifts, and a descendant of the stanch pioneers of the town. She was a daughter of Warren W. and Betsey (Brooks) Greene. Her grandfather, Nathan Greene, represented St. Albans in the Legislature in 1810, and her maternal grandfather, Smith A. Brooks, was a longtime and prominent citizen. The pleas- ant and hospitable home of Doc- tor and Mrs. Fred W. Mason is cheered by the presence of an at- tractive daughter, Bessie.
CLAFLIN, GEORGE H., son of Albert and Lydia A. (Town) Claf- lin, was born in Westville, Frank- lin County, New York, July 25, 1866. His mother was a former Vermonter. George was reared upon the farm, fitted for college at Franklin Academy, Malone, New York, and graduated from the Uni- versity of Vermont in the class of 1890, ranking third in his class.
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
He worked his way largely by tutoring during his college course, won the first prize for proficiency in freshman mathematics and the senior thesis prize in the engineer- ing department. At his alma ma- ter he was a charter member and the first chief officer of the Alpha
superintendent, which he occupied until he was appointed manager in April, 1904. In this capacity Mr. Claflin has achieved unusual suc- cess and has been a potent factor in placing this great institution upon its present basis of remunera- tive usefulness to both patrons and
GEORGE H. CLAFLIN.
Tau Omega Greek letter society. Subsequently he was instructor of mathematics and engineering in the University of North Carolina.
He entered the employ of the Franklin County Creamery Asso- ciation in June, 1891, in the capac- ity of chemist, and one year later was promoted to the position of
stockholders. He possesses an alert, receptive mind, and a reso- lute, tenacious will and withal a pleasing address.
He is well and favorably known in social and fraternal circles, has attained the 32d degree of Scottish Rite Masonry and has been at the head of all of the local subordinate
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bodies up to and including the com- mandery. In politics he is a Re- publican. He was a charter mem- ber and first exalted ruler of St. Albans Lodge, No. 904, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
George H. Claflin married, in December, 1890, Jessie M., daugh- ter of Seymour and Lucy D. Law- rence. Their only son, Lawrence H., is nine years of age.
J. CLARKE PARKER, D. V. S.
PARKER, J. CLARKE, D. V. S., son of John and Eleanor Mary Parker, was born in Plymouth, England, August 24, 1863. He came to Montreal with his father's family at nine years of age and was educated in the public schools of that city. He pursued a three- years' course in the Faculty of Comparative Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, and gradu- ated in 1897 with the degree of D. V. S.
Soon afterwards, he located in St. Albans, where he has since suc- cessfully practised the veterinary profession. Doctor Parker is at present the only graduate veterin- ary practitioner between Morris- ville and Burlington and his prac-
tice covers a wide range. He has tested many thousands of cases for tuberculosis for the cattle commis- sion. He is a careful student and recognized authority on horse breeding, a skillful connoisseur of good horses and an accomplished reinsman, and at the St. Albans Veterinary Hospital on Pearl Street he handles and fits for mar- ket many high-class horses, both single and in pairs, for fancy driv- ers and for speed. At his stable stands the famous Electioneer Wilkes stallion, Traffic Agent, 16715, whose sire, Conductor, sold for $35,000 as a three-year-old, and his grand sire was the great Elec- tioneer, son of Hambletonian, 10. He traces again directly to Ham- bletonian from his dam and grand dam, through George Wilkes and Harold, and as an individual pos- sesses remarkable symmetry, style and speed.
Doctor Parker married in 1888, Rebecca, daughter of John Thorne
TRAFFIC AGENT, 16715.
of Mooers, New York. Their only child is Florence Thorne Parker, 15 years of age.
HOGAN, HON. CHARLES P., son of Charles and Ann (McInulla) Hogan, was born in County Ty- rone, north of Ireland, August 27,
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
1843, and is of Scotch-Irish descent. From an early age he was contin- uously under the tutelage of an old English master until he came to this country with his parents when he was 13 years old. He continued his studies in the common schools in Vermont and was a student in the academy at Morrisville in 1861
of his service he pursued his studies further at the academies in John- son and Morrisville and taught school for six months at the village of Wolcott. He studied law about three years with Powers and Gleed in Morrisville, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. He was grad- uated from the law department of
CHARLES P. HOGAN.
when he enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment Vermont Volun- teers, to serve in the War of the Rebellion for three years. During part of the last year he was en- gaged in procuring and conducting recruits to help fill the decimated ranks of the Seventh and Eighth Vermont regiments. At the close
the University of Michigan. He took a special literary course at the same institution, and in connection therewith a full course in a business college at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mr. Hogan began the practice of his profession at Sheldon in Jan- uary, 1870. In politics he has al- ways been a loyal Republican,
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
being state's attorney in 1878-'80, and a member of the Senate in 1882-'84. In the Senate he served on the judiciary committee, on the committee on banks, and as chair- man of the general committee. He removed to St. Albans in 1889. In 1902 he formed a partnership with
nized reputation throughout the state as a conscientious, thorough and successful lawyer. Though not a candidate, he was prom- inently mentioned in connection with the vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court when Judge Start was first elected, and again
GEORGE M. HOGAN.
Hon. H. Charles Royce, under the firm name of Hogan & Royce, which continued until 1900, when Mr. Royce retired and the firm of Hogan & Hogan, consisting of Charles P and his son, George M. Hogan, was established. The sub- ject of this sketch has a well-recog-
after the death of Judge Start. He was president of the Vermont Bar Association in 1897-'98 and as a result of his annual address on the grand jury system a substan- tial change in the law on that sub- ject has been made. He is a prom- inent member of the G. A. R. and
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
has been commander of the post in St. Albans.
The strength and character of the support he received as a can- didate for commissioner of state taxes is a high testimonial of his excellent standing as a public man. He is a man of fine sensibilities, genial and social in his manner.
In 1870 he married Thirza J., daughter of Charles and Cynthia (Adams) Maynard of Enosburg. Their two children are Minnie L. and George M. Hogan.
HOGAN, GEORGE M., one of the prominent young attorneys of the Franklin County bar, was born in Sheldon, October 1, 1874. He was educated at the St. Albans Acad- emy, from which he was graduated in 1893, and at the University of Vermont, being valedictorian of the class of 1897. He was made a member of the Delta Psi fraternity while in college, and during his senior year he acted as manager of the football team on an extended Southern and New England tour.
Naturally of a studious turn of mind, Mr. Hogan took up the study of the law at the close of his uni- versity course, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1899. May 1, 1900, he formed a partnership with his father, becoming a mem- ber of the law firm of Hogan & Hogan.
He was appointed secretary of civil and military affairs by Gov- ernor Edward C. Smith for the term of 1898-1900. In 1898 he served as principal of the Burling- ton High School, that place having been made vacant by the resigna- tion of Principal S. W. Landon. He has been a member of the board of school commissioners of St. Al- bans and for the year 1902-'03 was elected chairman of that body. In
February, 1905, Mr. Hogan was tendered the office of assistant at- torney-general of the Philippines, with headquarters at Manila, but declined the appointment. He is a young man of courteous bearing and magnetic personality, a close student of the law whose cultivated tastes and scholarly attainments mark him with distinction. Mr. Hogan married Mary Van Norden Fonda of St. Albans on January 1, 1902, and they have two sons, Philip Fonda and Charles Beecher Hogan.
BERKLEY, DOCTOR GEORGE CARLTON, whose portrait appears with this sketch, is today one of the leading physicians of St. Al- bans. He is a descendant of an ancestry who came from the town of Berkley, County of Gloucester, and from Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland County, England. Michael Berkley, great-grand- father of Doctor Berkley, came to this country about 1815, by the way of Quebec, Canada, and set- tled in Milton, Chittenden County, where he successfully followed the trade of wheelwright for many years. He was a musician of con- " siderable repute, an excellent vio- linist, and organized an orchestra that became quite celebrated and had a flourishing existence for many years in that county. He was united in marriage to Eliza Powell, a native of Chittenden County, and the following named children were born to them : George P., James, Thomas, Will- iam, Mary and Jacob Berkley. Mr. Berkley's death occurred in 1868.
George P. Berkley, grandfather of Doctor Berkley, was born in Milton, Chittenden County, where his education was attained in the common schools. He chose the
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profession of music for his life work, became a master violinist and composer under the excellent tutorship of his father, and at a very young age ranked first in the state. He subsequently removed to Burlington, where he spent the greater portion of his life in teach-
Jane Hill, daughter of Roderick and Esther (Bradley) Hill, who were among the first settlers of Milton, and came from Cheshire, Connecticut. Esther Bradley, wife of Roderick Hill, was a daughter of Captain John Bradley, of Revo- lutionary fame, and a great-grand-
GEORGE C. BERKLEY, M. D.
ing music and dancing. He organ- ized and conducted an orchestra in Burlington, known as Berkley's Cotillion Band. This orchestra contained many fine musicians and was for more than twenty-five years the leading orchestra in the state. Mr. Berkley married Mary
daughter of Captain John Bradley of the colonial wars.
The children were: Roderick Hill and John Bradley, born De- cember 25, 1851, who was an archi- tect by profession and was killed in Boston, Massachusetts, August 5, 1872, by a fall from a building
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while engaged at work; Jennie G., born March 22, 1849, and a resi- dent of Malden, Massachusetts.
Roderick Hill Berkley, father of Doctor Berkley, was born in Mil- ton, December 31, 1844. He ac- quired his education in the Milton graded school and at the age of 16 years left school and enlisted in Company D, Thirteenth Regiment Vermont Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War. He participated in many engagements, including the three days' siege at Gettysburg. After the termination of the first term of enlistment he re-enlisted in the Third Vermont Battery of Artillery, under Captain Start, and served until the termination of the war. While with the artil- lery he took part in the long and bloody bombardment of Peters- burg and received special praise for his bravery in this engage- ment, being at one time the only man left at his gun and continued to operate it alone. At another time he volunteered to go to an icehouse on the bank of the river and in view of the rebels, for ice for the sick and wounded, when two men had already attempted it and were picked off by the sharp- shooters from the fort across the river. This he did and brought back his ice.
In 1865, as soon as he was mus- tered out of the service, he mar- ried Hannah O'Donnell of Milton, a descendant of the ancient family of O'Donnells of Donegal Castle, Ireland. To them two children were born, Frederick Hill, August 1, 1866, and George Carlton.
Doctor George Carlton Berkley, the second son of Roderick Hill and Hannah Berkley, was born in Westford, Chittenden County, July 10, 1870. His early educa- tion was obtained in the Milton
graded school and Goddard Sem- inary, Barre, where he finished his preparation for college in 1890 He left Goddard and entered the Mills Training School, Bellevue Hospital, New York City. After finishing a two-years' course there, he returned and entered the medi- cal department of the University of Vermont, and graduated with high standing in 1894. Doctor Berkley was fortunate in receiving the one appointment given his class as house surgeon to Mary Fletcher Hospital, at Burlington, and during the 18 months of ser- vice there gained a wide and va- ried medical and surgical experi- ence. He then was offered a part- nership with Doctor James N. Jenne, of St. Albans, professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the University of Vermont. This he accepted and was associ- ated in practice with Doctor Jenne, for the next three years. These years of association with a man of such high professional attain- ments and business ability as Doc- tor Jenne could but increase his fitness to become a leader among the members of his profession. At the breaking out of the Spanish War, Doctor Jenne, the surgeon- general of the state, was ap- pointed chief surgeon on the staff of General Wade at Chickamauga, Georgia, when the partnership was dissolved and Doctor Berkley re- sumed the practice of his profes- sion, making a specialty of dis- eases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, in the office formerly occu- pied by Doctor Jenne and him- self, where he is located at the present time.
Doctor Berkley has enjoyed a long and varied medical and sur- gical practice and in the perform- ance of numerous difficult opera-
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tions has met with marked suc- cess, one operation of an extraor- dinary nature, such as seldom oc- curs in a physician's practice, was the removal of the temporosphe- noidal lobe of the brain for abscess of that region, in which the patient made a complete recovery. This he reported before the State Medi- cal Society and was asked to re- port it before the Canadian Medi- cal Association at Montreal. In addition to his private practice, he is a member of the surgical staff and opthamologist, otologist and laryngologist in St. Albans Hospi- tal, and for the past four years has been president of the medical and surgical staff, and a member of the faculty of the training school for nurses of the above institution, where he lectures on gynecology.
He holds the position of expert examiner for the United States pension bureau, in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, was pres- ident of the Franklin County Med- ical Society in 1899, secretary of the St. Albans Clinical Society since 1895, and member of the American Medical Association. Doctor Berkley was a member of the St. Albans school board in 1898. He was elected captain of Company B, First Infantry, Ver- mont National Guard, in 1899, and the following year was promoted to major and surgeon of the above regiment, and is still surgeon of the regiment. He is a member of the Association of Military Sur. geons of the United States. He was chief of staff, with the rank of colonel, of the first civic division of the inaugural parade on the oc- casion of the inauguration of President Mckinley and Theodore Roosevelt, Congressman James T. McClary of Minnesota being mar- shal. He was also appointed of-
ficial delegate of Vermont to the Association of Military Surgeons, which convened at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1890. Doctor Berkley has spent a great deal of time in study in New York and the large clinics of this coun- try in perfecting himself in his chosen specialty, and during the last year was tendered a place on the staff of teachers of the New York Post-Graduate School.
On June 23, 1903, he was united in marriage to Ila Augusta Miller, of Kingston, Ontario, a daughter of William H. Miller and a niece of Hon. A. B. Aylesworth, present minister of justice in the Canadian cabinet.
HOLMES, GEORGE C., son of Loren and Mary Jane (Hemphill) Holmes, was born in Highgate, November 11, 1860. His father was a small farmer in that town, where George C. received a fair education in the common schools.
At 16 years of age he left home and engaged in the lumber woods at Eden, and until his majority was largely engaged in working out on farms. At the age of 22 he married Eliza, daughter of Hiram Button, a well-to-do farmer of Swanton.
Mr. Button bought a farm ad- joining Mr. Holmes' paternal farm, where the latter resided five years, until the death of his wife, when he purchased the farm. Later he went to Manchester, New Hampshire, and worked a year or more for the Amoskeag Company. Soon afterwards he acquired an interest in a meat market at High- gate Center, and later engaged in general merchandise, under the firm name of Burdick & Holmes, for seven years, and was postmas- ter four years of that time.
In 1899 he was elected constable
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
and collector, and in 1894 was elected overseer, and held both of- fices until he resigned, January 1, 1905. He has been for half a dozen years, and now is, a deputy sheriff, and was elected in Septem- ber, 1906, sheriff of Franklin County.
He has been, since his majority, a loyal Republican, and has a wide acquaintance with the leading men
GEORGE C. HOLMES.
of the county. Mr. Holmes is a self-made man of good practical judgment and an experienced offi- cer. He was for seven years pur- chasing agent of the Sheldon Poor House Association.
He is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fellows and Woodmen fra- ternities.
He married, in 1890, Grace, daughter of the late Lyman Pel- ton, Esq., of Highgate. They have
one daughter, Kathryne, 11 years of age.
BROOKS, HOMER. The subject of this sketch inherits the sterling qualities of a stanch Revolutionary and pioneer ancestry, and is him- self an interesting and typical character, bearing a marked per- sonal resemblance to our honored president.
Homer, eldest son of Julius H. and Elizabeth (Green) Brooks, was born in the town of St. Albans, March 29, 1844.
Adonijah Brooks, his great- grandfather, was a soldier of the Revolution ; also his three eldest sons, one of whom wintered at Val- ley Forge and fought at Saratoga. Adonijah Brooks was the father of eight sons and four daughters, who lived to maturity. Achsel, the youngest son, was born in barracks during the Revolution and moved to St. Albans with his parents in 1790. He married Polly Todd and they were parents of six sons and three daughters.
Julius H., son of Achsel, was born here in 1813, engaged in farm- ing and lumbering near St. Al- bans Bay, accumulated a handsome competence for the times, was somewhat prominent in town af- fairs and died in his seventy-ninth year. He married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Heman and granddaughter of Nathan Greene, in 1843.
His father, Job Greene, a rela- tive of General Nathaniel Greene, was captured by the Indians at the battle of Bennington and only es- caped scalping by the timely inter- ference of a British officer and re- ceived a frightful gash on his fore- head. That night he escaped from his captors.
Nathan Greene came to St. Al- bans Bay with an axe on his shoul-
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der and one dollar in his pocket in March, 1788, and with an elder brother bought adjoining farms, which they hewed out from the wil- derness. There were then but three or four huts in town and no roads. Soon after, he married
Homer Brooks completed his edu- cation at Fairfax Institute, was his father's assistant in the farming and lumber business and on attain- ing his majority became a partner. In 1865 he settled in Altona, Clin- ton County, New York, and en-
HOMER BROOKS.
Susan Alford and they were pa- rents of 13 children, 12 of whom lived to maturity, Heman being the first white male child born in town. Nathan Greene was for nearly thirty years selectman, more than twenty years constable and deputy sheriff and twice representative.
gaged in the lumber and real estate business. In 1888, in company with his younger brother, Walter Brooks, he engaged in the creamery business, having at one time five creameries and one skimming sta- tion, with an output of 300,000 pounds of butter in a year.
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
Mr. Brooks possesses both inde- pendence and initiative and became a potent factor in the business of his adopted town, at one time own- ing about three thousand, eight hundred acres of farming and tim- ber land, conducting a dairy of 200 cows and an extensive business in general merchandise.
In 1888 Homer Brooks married Emily S., daughter of L. L. and Sarah Dickinson Farwell of Bos- ton. Mrs. Brooks was a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and a teacher of music. Six interesting children have been born to them: Homer Harrington, Leonard Pycott, Gladys, Theodore, Francis A. and Lawrence R.
In 1901 Mr. Brooks closed out his various interests in New York, and desiring better educational fa- cilities located on a fine tract of land, a portion of the original Brooks farm, on St. Albans Point, commanding a fine view of the bay, where he is spending the maturer years of an active and successful career in the care of his fine dairy farm. Mr. Brooks is well and widely informed, a stanch temper- ance man and a prominent Repub- lican.
CHURCH, DAN T. During a period of half a century, three gen- erations of the Church family have given faithful and efficient service to the Central Vermont Railroad. Dan T., son of Jonathan and Maria (Mitchel) Church, was born in Broome, Quebec, February 7, 1845.
Jonathan Church was a farmer, also a carpenter and joiner, and moved with his family to St. Al- bans in 1856 and entered the em- ploy of the Central Vermont Rail- road and remained working at his trade until failing health in 1886 compelled his retirement. He died
in 1891 in the eightieth year of his age.
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