USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. III > Part 63
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Robert Proctor, in association with Richard Hildreth and twenty-seven others, petitioned the General Court, in 1653, for a grant of land six miles square "to begin at Merrimack River at a neck of land next to Concord River, and so run up Concord River south and west into the country to make up the circumference or quantity of land as above expressed." The petition was granted. In 1654 Robert Proctor removed to the new plantation which was organized November 22 1654, as a town under the name of Chelmsford. The first four or five of his children were born in Concord, the others in Chelms- ford. His descendants res ded in many of the neighbor towns, and at an early date some of them pioneered into the wilderness, north and northwest, and settled in New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, and have since
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scattered through the West. Letters of administration were granted to Jane Proctor, executrix, July 13, 1697. Some of the children settled in what after- wards became the West Precinct, and later the town of Westford.
Robert Proctor married, December 31, 1645, Jane Hildreth, eldest daugh- ter of Richard Hildreth, of Concord and Chelmsford, who is the ancestor of the Hildreths of America, and who died at Chelmsford in 1688. To Robert and Jane (Hildreth) Proctor were born twelve children, one of them Samuel, of whom further.
(II) Samuel Proctor, tenth child of Robert and Jane (Hildreth) Proctor, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, September 15, 1665, died at Town- send, Massachusetts, April 12, 1740. He was one of the petitioners for a grant of land which became known as Townsend. His wife was Sarah, whose maiden surname remains unknown, and she died January 17, 1757, and to them were born, all in Chelmsford, eleven children, one of them Thomas, of whom further.
(III) Thomas Proctor, third child of Samuel and Sarah Proctor, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, December 12, 1698, and died in Proctorsville, Vermont, June 3, 1750. He married, in 1722, Hannah Barron, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Barron, who was born October 14, 1703, and died September 3, 1774. They had four children, one of them Leonard, of whom further.
(IV) Captain Leonard Proctor, second son and third child of Thomas and Hannah (Barron) Proctor, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Jan- uary 16, 1734, and died in Proctorsville, Vermont, June 3, 1827. He was a member of the Westford Board of Selectmen in 1770, 1778 and 1779. He was an officer in the Revolutionary War and participated in many important battles, including Lexington, Trenton and Monmouth. He was second lieu- tenant in Captain Minot's company, which marched from Westford on the Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775. He was one of the committee of cor- respondence for 1780, and was chosen in that year as one of a committee of thirteen "to take under consideration the new form of government." In 1781 he was a "captain" and was the "head" of one of the five "classes" into which the town was divided for the purpose of procuring soldiers for service in the Continental Army. Following the close of the Revolutionary War, Captain Proctor removed to Cavendish, Vermont, where, in the virgin forest, he founded the village of Proctorsville.
Captain Leonard Proctor married (first) in 1760, Lydia Nutting, of West- ford, who died November 16, 1767. He married (second), December 25, 1769, Mary Keep, daughter of Captain James Keep, and she died September 3, 1827. He was the father of twelve children, of whom two, Philip and Abel, served in the Revolutionary War. Of his tenth child, Jabez, see further.
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(V) Jabez Proctor, son of Captain Leonard and Mary (Keep) Proctor, was born in Westford, Massachusetts, April 22, 1780, and died in Proctorsville, Vermont, November 22, 1839. He was three years old when brought by his parents on their removal to Vermont. He married, November 26, 1817, Betsey Parker, born in Cavendish, Vermont, August 5, 1792, died in Rut- land, Vermont, February 5, 1881, daughter of Isaac Parker, of Westford, Massachusetts. They had five children: 1. Harriet, born in Proctorsville, in January, 1819, married Stoddard B. Colby, late Register of the United States Treasury, and died in the burning of the steamship "Henry Clay" in the Hud- son River, July 28, 1852. 2. Arabella. 3. Lucien, died in California. 4. Ara- bella G. 5. Redfield, of whom further.
(VI) Colonel Redfield Proctor, second son of Jabez and Betsey (Parker) Proctor, was born in Proctorsville, Vermont, June 1, 1831, and died in Wash- ington, District of Columbia, March 4, 1908. He attended the public schools and Derry Academy, where he prepared for college. Having graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1851, he received from his alma mater later the degree of Master of Arts. He selected the law for his profession and entered the Albany (New York) Law School, from which he was graduated in 1859. In that year he was admitted to the bar at Albany and also at Woodstock, Vermont. He took advantage of a fine opening in the office of his cousin, Judge Isaac F. Redfield, a leading railroad lawyer of Boston, and was engaged in practice in that association for some time.
The patriotic strain so pronounced in his forebears was strong within him, and when the Civil War broke upon the country, he abandoned his profession, returned to Vermont, and enlisted, in June, 1861, in the 3d Vermont Volun- teers. He at once was commissioned as lieutenant and quartermaster of his regiment. These "Green Mountain Boys" of '61 were sent at once into the theater of war, but Lieutenant Proctor was soon ordered to join the staff of General "Baldy" Smith, and about one month later he was promoted to major and assigned to the newly-organized 5th Vermont Regiment. His service in the Peninsular campaign was featured with distinction for bravery and efficiency. Severe hardships and exposure impaired his health to such an extent that he resigned his commission and returned home. Early the fol- lowing year, having recovered his health, he was eager to return to the front. On the organization of the 15th Vermont Regiment, he was made its colonel. "Adding military experience and aptitude to his energy, industry, power of organization and command, and strong sense, he made one of the best colonels in the service." (Colonel G. G. Benedict.)
In July, 1863, Colonel Proctor returned to his home in Proctorsville and engaged in farming pursuits. In his manners and in all his dealings with his fellows, he was exceedingly democratic. During the period that he gave his
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attention chiefly to agriculture, he was to be often seen wearing a blue and white striped frock reaching below his boot tops, trousers tucked in his boot- legs, whip in hand, trudging beside a pair of red and white oxen to his farm- land in another section of the vil age.
Subsequently, Colonel Proctor resumed the practice of law in Rutland, having as his partner, Colonel Wheelock G. Veazey. During the business depressions that in after years afflicted the country, Colonel Proctor managed with extreme difficulty to weather the storms. Natural ability and the severe discipline and training which he received on the field of battle rendered him proof against shipwreck, and he eventually emerged as victor and accumulated vast wealth.
In 1880 Colonel Proctor organized the Vermont Marble Company, and in 1886 Proctor became a separate town from Rutland and is today the marble center of the world.
Colonel Proctor early was called into the public service. His first office of a political nature was that of selectman of the town of Rutland. In 1867 he represented the town in the State Legislature, and served as chairman of the committee on elections in the Lower House. In 1874, he was elected to the State Senate, and was president pro tempore of that body. In 1876, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont. In 1878, he was nominated by the Republicans and elected Governor. In 1888, he was recommended unani- mously by the Vermont Legislature for a cabinet position, and in March, 1889, President Harrison appointed him Secretary of War. As the holder of that portfolio he attained a reputation that was nation-wide, and his adminis- tration of the War Department was esteemed to have been one of the ablest in its history.
On the retirement of Senator George F. Edmunds trom the United States Senate, in 1891 Governor Page appointed Secretary Proctor to fill the unexpired term, and on October 18, 1892, he was elected by the Vermont Legislature to fill both the unexpired term and the full term, the latter ending March 4, 1899. During the period of his incumbency as Senator, he went to Cuba to make a study of the situation there relative to the government of the island under Spanish rule. On his return he compiled an exhaustive report of his findings, which was read before the Senate and that resulted in war against Spain being declared. He was after that returned twice to the United States Senate, and was regarded as one of the strongest and most influential members of that august body.
Colonel Redfield Proctor married, May 26, 1858, Emily J. Dutton, daughter of Hon. Salmon F. and Sarah (Barlow) Dutton. Children : I. Arabella, born in Proctorsville, June 26, 1859, married Fred G. Holden ; died March 30, 1905. 2. Fletcher Dutton, of whom further. 3. Fanny G., born May 2, 1863,
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died September 26, 1883. 4. Emily D., born in Rutland, November 21, 1869. 5. Redfield (2), born in Proctor, April 13, 1879; Governor of the State of Vermont ; married, on October 24, 1906, Mary Sherwood.
(VII) Fletcher Dutton Proctor, elder son of Colonel Redfield and Emily J. (Dutton) Proctor, was born in Proctorsville, November 7, 1860, and died in Proctor, September 27, 1911. He received his education at the Rutland Military Institute, Middlebury High School and Amherst College. It was during Fletcher D.'s earlier years that his father, Colonel Proctor, was assidu- ously engaged in the organization and establishment on a sound basis of the several corporations which formed the Vermont Marble Company, which under his able guidance has become the largest individual producer of marble in the world. The son had pointed out to him and wisely embraced the opportunity of becoming an associate of his father, first entering, after leav- ing college, not the office of the company, but its shops, where he worked as a machinist. He mastered every detail of the processes attending the quarrying, manufacture and marketing of the marble which lies in such rich abundance of superb quality in the company's holdings. In 1885, he was made superin- tendent of the company. In 1889, on his father's retirement from the office of president, he succeeded to the executive position, which he filled with distinction for a period of twenty-one years, or until the time of his death. His management of the vast industry, with the assistance of efficient aids, chosen by him for their individual capacities, gave the company an uninter- rupted period of growth and prosperity. Before his passing the Vermont Marble Company attained the status of the largest industry of any kind in the State, and the largest of its kind in the world, having branches in many cities of the United States. With it, the communities where its activities thrive have enjoyed marked growth and prosperity also.
A latent power in Fletcher Dutton Proctor for service to his home commu- nity and the public was encouraged and developed as he was made the recipient of official gifts at the hands of his people. His first office, like that of his honored father, was that of selectman of Rutland. For a long period, from 1883 until his death, he served on the school board of his town. These and other positions were but stepping-stones to a larger service to which he was to be called. In the sessions of 1890, 1900 and 1904, of the State Legisla- ture, he was the representative of the town of Proctor, and his stature as a legislator grew meanwhile. In the session of 1892 he sat in the Upper House as Senator from Rutland County. In the session of 1900 he presided as Speaker of the House of Representatives, where his service was notable both for its general efficiency in the dispatch of business and for his modesty of bearing also.
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In 1902 he was an unsuccessful candidate before the Republican State Convention for the nomination for Governor. He entered the canvass but was urged to withdraw and.did so in the interest of Hon. John G. Mccullough, who was elected. In 1906 he was his party's regular candidate for Governor, but was opposed for the nomination by an independent fusion movement. A contemporary said of him in this connection : " .
. it was in this cam- paign that the people of Vermont really discovered Fletcher D. Proctor. Though untrained as a public speaker, Mr. Proctor in his many addresses made a most favorable impression, and was elected to the Governorship by a majority over all of 15,171, after a campaign which at the outset to many Republicans looked very discouraging."
Governor Proctor at once took steps toward the institution of the reforms he had outlined in his inaugural address, and his administration was of a most progressive and beneficial nature. During the years prior to elevation as Governor, he found time to devote to duties of a most varied character. He served three years in Company A, Vermont National Guard, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant by appointment of Governor Ebenezer J. Ormsbee. In 1886-88, he was secretary of Civil and Military Affairs. In 1883, he was elected colonel of the Vermont Division, Sons of Veterans. He was pres- ident of the Vermont Forestry Association, a director of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, the National Life Insurance Company, and the Rutland Railroad Company ; a trustee of Norwich University and of Middlebury College, from which institution he held the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, as he did also from the University of Vermont. He was a trustee of T. N. Vail's Agricultural School at Lyndon.
Governor Fletcher Dutton Proctor married, May 26, 1886, Minnie E. Robinson, daughter of Hon. Asher C. and Erminie Robinson, of Westford, Vermont. Children : I. Emily, born May 24, 1887. 2. Mortimer Robinson, of whom further. 3. Minnie, born January 18, 1895.
(VIII) Mortimer Robinson Proctor, son of Governor Fletcher Dutton and Minnie E. (Robinson) Proctor, was born in Proctor, May 30, 1889. He prepared for college at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in 1908, and graduated from Yale in 1912. He was village trustee of Proctor, Vermont, from 1927 to 1929; village president in 1930; a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1933 to 1939, and Speaker from 1937 to 1939; and in 1939 was elected to the State Senate of Vermont, becoming president pro tem. He has been vice-president of the Proctor Trust Company since 1935. In the World War he was with Regiment No. 302, Field Artillery and was lieutenant of Battalion D, Regiment 71 C. A. C., France. From 1928 to 1929 he was president of the Vermont Chapter, Sons of the American Revolu- tion ; and in 1939 was elected commander of the Vermont Chapter, Loyal
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Legion. Mortimer R. Proctor is affiliated with the Union Church, Proctor, Vermont. He married, at Proctor, May 30, 1915, Margaret C. Chisholm, and they are the parents of a son, Mortimer R., Jr., born November 1I, 1916.
PETER DeLACY KIERNAN has a summer residence at Green Island, Bolton Landing, Lake George, and a permanent residence at No. 5 Englewood Place, Albany, New York. His business interests are as president, Rose & Kiernan, Inc., Hall Realty Company, Buckingham Investing Company, and director of the Albany Insurance Company, Halifax Power & Pulp Com- pany, City & County Savings Bank, and the Albany Garage.
His civic interests include the following : president, Albany Hospital for Incurables ; vice-president, Albany Institute of History and Art, and vice- president, New York State Roosevelt Memorial Commission; and trustee, Schuyler Mansion of Albany. His clubs are the Albany, Fort Orange, Schuyler Meadows, Albany Country Club, Lake George Club, and the Saga- more Club at Bolton Landing.
Mr. Kiernan married Carroll Guerin, of Montreal, Canada, October 4, 1917. Mrs. Kiernan died April 6, 1930. They had four children, the Misses Carroll and Jane DeLacy, Peter D., Jr., and James G. Kiernan.
ROBERT WILLIAM McCUEN-The distinctive accomplishments of Robert William McCuen as a journalist, public official, business leader and lawyer have gone to establish him among the most outstanding and influential leaders of his generation in the State of Vermont, where he has been actively and prominently identified with social and civic affairs since the turn of the century.
Mr. McCuen was born at Vergennes, Vermont, May 30, 1880, the son of Nicholas James and Katherine H. (Allen) McCuen. His father, who was assistant sergeant-at-arms in the United States Senate for a number of years, was a merchant in Vergennes for three and a half decades, headed the city as mayor and was chosen to represent it in the Vermont Legislature. Colonel McCuen completed a general education at the Vergennes High School, later matriculated at Middlebury College and then secured his legal training at Boston University Law School. He began his career as editor and publisher of the Addison County Newspaper Publications, which he was associated with from 1901 to 1910, and during this period served in a number of public offices in the city of Vergennes, including that of alderman, school commissioner and representative to the Vermont Legislature where he served in the General Assembly of 1906 and 1910. By this time he had become one of the dominant figures in the State Republican organization which he represented as delegate at the Republican National Convention of 1908. His activity in public affairs
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led to his election to the Vermont State Senate in 1912, where he was named chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, and became a member of the Judiciary and Education committees. As a Senator he intro- duced the resolution which provided for the Champlain Tercentenary celebra- tion and was appointed a member of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Com- mission by the Governor. He also served as a member and secretary of the McDonough Commission and was identified with the Deep Water Way Com- mission of Atlantic States. From 1921 to 1932 he was Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Vermont, and from 1935 to 1939 he was a member of the House of Representatives, where he sponsored the Old Age Assistance and Unemployment Compensation laws, and served as a member of the State Finance Commission, the Old Age Assistance Commission and the Emergency Appropriation Board.
After receiving his degree from the Boston University Law School he established himself in practice, specializing in insurance, real estate and bank- ing law. His career was to be interrupted with the entrance of the United States into the World War. At the outbreak of the conflict he was appointed a member of the Public Safety Committee and continued in that capacity until he enlisted for service in the army. He went to Plattsburg, where he received a commission and later was stationed at Camp Greene, North Carolina, where he won distinction for the work he accomplished in entraining and detraining soldiers. In May, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of captain and went overseas as an officer of the 4th Artillery Brigade of the 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces. He took part in a number of major engagements, including the Aisne-Marne at Chateau Thierry, the St. Mihiel drive and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He won a citation for his accomplishments, was promoted to the rank of major and eventually was assigned to duty at the headquarters of the 4th Division where he was assistant to G-I, Chief of Staff. After the Armistice he served with the Army of Occupation in Ger- many until his honorable discharge in April, 1918. Since that time he has maintained his interest in military affairs as a member of the Organized Reserve Corps of the United States Army, in which he was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel and for years he held the rank of colonel in the United States Army Reserve Corps. In 1927 he was honored with the position of president of the Reserve Officers Association ; in 1926 he was commander of the American Legion, Department of Vermont.
Resuming civilian life he renewed his practice of law at Vergennes, and for a time, from 1922 to 1926, was publisher and treasurer of the Register Com- pany, a newspaper corporation in Middlebury, Vermont, Since 1925 he has supervised large farming interests and since 1933 he has practiced law and conducted a real estate and insurance business. Aside from this he has served
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as a director and attorney of the Addison County Trust Company of Middle- bury for the past twenty years.
Colonel McCuen is a prominent member of the Masonic Order and was Potentate of Cairo Temple of the Mystic Shrine in 1929. He is also a member of the Elks Club, the Rotary Club, the Fish and Game Club and the Automo- bile Club. In 1929 he was president of the Champlain Valley Council. At college he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. In his reli- gious convictions he worships at the Protestant Episcopal Church in which he has been a member of the vestry for many years.
On July 4, 1901, at Vergennes, Colonel McCuen married Nancy M. Smith, daughter of Phelps B. and Mary E. (Wetherbee) Smith.
R. EDWARD CORLEY, M. D .- To his work as a specialist in pediatrics, Dr. R. Edward Corley, of Burlington, Vermont, brought an excep- tionally fine training, both of the medical school and hospital experience. He is a native of Burlington, born August 29, 1898, son of Edward B. and Jessie M. (Collison) Corley, both of whom were also born in this Vermont city, and both now deceased. Edward B. Corley was over a long period a merchant, and for eighteen years was city clerk of Burlington.
Dr. Corley attended the public and parochial schools of his birthplace, and was graduated from Holy Cross College, in 1921, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He matriculated at the Medical School, University of Vermont, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, with the class of 1925. After an interneship in the Fanny Allen Hospital, he went to the Boston City Hospital and also pursued postgraduate studies in the Children's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. Not until 1927 did Dr. Corley begin the practice of medicine and surgery in Burlington, with offices located at No. 65 Pine Street. As indicated, he is an expert pediatrician, whose reputation in the field of hygienic care of children has spread beyond the boundaries of the city.
Along professional lines, Dr. Corley is a member of the American Med- ical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics Society, the Vermont State Medical Association, the Burlington Chittenden Clinical Society, and the New England Pediatrics Society. He serves on the staff of the Mary Fletcher Hospital and is its consulting pediatrician ; is attending pediatrician at the Fanny Allen and Bishop De Goesbriand hospitals, and attending physi- cian at St. Joseph's Orphanage. Since 1937 he has been an instructor in clinical pediatrics. During the World War, Dr. Corley was in service with the Army Training Corps. His professional fraternity is Nu Sigma Nu, and he is affiliated with the Burlington Council of the Knights of Columbus, and is a member of the American Legion. He is of the Catholic faith.
In 1913, R. Edward Corley, M. D., married Mary Shannon, a native of Underhill, Vermont, and they are the parents of a daughter, Mary Jessica.
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FRED K. LOVELL-A leading custom house broker and insurance man of Rouses Point, Fred K. Lovell, who is one of the active members of the organization of the Democratic party in Northern New York State, is an outstanding officer of the American Legion and other veterans' organizations as well as being well known in fraternal groups.
Fred K. Lovell was born at New York City, July 14, 1883, son of John W. and Carrie F. (Crook) Lovell. John W. Lovell, who was a native of Montreal, Canada, established himself at Rouses Point in 1876 and devoted himself to his business of publishing, a field in which he was active until the time of his death. Carrie F. (Crook) Lovell, his wife, also deceased, was a native of Rouses Point.
After attending the Friends' Seminary in New York City, Fred K. Lovell passed through the public schools of the city and, upon graduation from high school, found employment with the New York Central Railroad. After six years with the railroad, Mr. Lovell spent two years in the foreign department of the American Express Company and then began a nine-year association with the Bowling Green Storage and Van Company of New York City. When the United States entered the World War, Mr. Lovell's business career came to an abrupt halt. He had been a member of the New York National Guard since 1905, serving with the 7Ist Regiment of Infantry, first as an enlisted man and then as a second lieutenant and as a first lieutenant, this rank being reached in September of 1913, shortly before he went with his regiment for service on the Mexican Border. After being inducted into the Regular Army in 1917, he was given command of Company E of the 7Ist Regiment and ordered to France with the 105th Infantry, 27th Division, of the American Expeditionary Forces, thus beginning a period of eighteen months of active service. His pervious experience together with his training as an honor pupil at the New York State Militia School in 1914, brought him early recognition in France and after attending the American Expeditionary Force School of the Line at St. Colombe in France in June, 1918, from which institution he gradu- ated with honors, he was attached to the staff of Major General Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the Army in France. This position Captain Lovell retained until September of 1919. During his service overseas, the captain also served at Regulatory Station "A" at Ile Sur Tilde and at Base Section No. 9, at Antwerp, France, where he was detailed to supervision of transportation. Just before going overseas, the captain was stationed for a time at Spartan- burg, South Carolina, as an instructor in automatic arms. Captain Lovell retired from active service in 1922, although he returned to civil life in 1920 and worked for two years with the Industrial Finance Corporation of New York City. About 1922, Fred K. Lovell left New York City and established himself at Rouses Point as a partner in the F. R. Swinburne Company, custom
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