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LEVI KILBURN, the present head
of the firm of L. Kilburn & Co., of Orange, was born
in Winchendon, Worcester Co., Mass., Jan. 29, 1816.
His father, John Kilburn, was
born in Sterling, Mass., in 1784, and died in St. Louis,
Mo., in 1867, aged eighty-three. He married
Esther, daughter of Mr. Edmonds, of Winchendon, Nov. 29,
1810, and of this union the fruits wore eight
children,-six sons and two daughters. Levi, the first
born, died when quite young; John, the second son,
resides in Winchendon; Levi, the third son, is the
subject of this sketch ; Cheney and Artemas reside in
Philadelphia; Edwin is dead. Of the
daughters, Esther is dead ; Emily married Greenwood
Partridge, and lives in
Winchendon.
Levi was employed in his
boyhood, and until he readied the age of twenty-one, in
the pursuit of education as it could be gained with the
limited facilities at hand in his native town (school
being taught but eight weeks in the year), and in the
business of assisting his father in farming and in a
sawmill on Miller's River.
The practical lessons of life
he, with his elder brother, John, learned through this
thorough experience, and when, in 1837, he looked upon
his twenty-first year, he was keenly alive to the
requirements of the business which his father had taught
him; and with the savings which his labors had gained,
he, with his brother John, purchased the old homestead
and mill, established the firm of J. & L. Kilburn,
and entered upon the business of sawing lumber and the
manufacture of chair stuff.
The old homestead still
remains in the possession of the Kilburn family, and is
owned by the three sons,-Levi, Cheney, and
Artemus.
He continued a member of the
firm until 1841, when he sold out his interest and
removed to Gardner, Mass., having meanwhile married, in
1840, Isabel R., daughter of Obadiah Walker, of
Winchendon.
At Gardner he entered the
employ of L. Heywood, chair manufacturer, and,
continuing there a year and a half, took charge for that
firm of a chair manufactory in Templeton, Mass., where
he remained until 1849. He resided in Orange in 1850,
and entered upon an engagement with Davis & Kilburn,
chair and furniture manufacturers, for whom he managed
the business until 1852, when the factory was destroyed
by fire.
In that year he began-on the
south side of the river, in a new building erected by
Davis & Kilburn, and now occupied by the Orange
Manufacturing Company-the manufacture of chairs for his
own account, and in 1855 he sold out and joined with
Hamilton Holt, of Worcester, in the lumber business (Mr.
Kilburn continuing at Orange), which they pursued
profitably until 1860.
In 1860, Mr. Kilburn took the
management of a chair factory-on the site of the present
factory of Kilburn & Co.-for the benefit of the
creditors of White, French & Co., and in 1862
organized the firm of L. Kilburn & Co., with Richard
French and George E. Poland as his partners. Mr. Poland
retired in 1808, and in May of that year Mr. L. E.
Holmes was admitted as a partner.
In 1869 the present
manufactory buildings were completed, the main building
being three stories and a half in height, and measuring
80 by 45 feet; the wing being two stories and a half in
height, and 52 feet in length by 24 in breadth. In 1865, L.
Kilburn & Co. added to their business the
manufacture of miscellaneous furniture in a building
purchased of R. E. Carpenter. In this branch J. S.
Dewing was a partner, and, in 1873, he, with others,
purchased the interest of L. Kilburn & Co.
therein.
In 1867, Kilburn & Co.
became interested in the Turbine Water-Wheel
Manufacturing Company, now the Chase Turbine
Manufacturing Company, in which they maintain the
original interest. The firm operates also a sawmill in
New Salem for supplying their factory with raw
material.
They manufacture cane and wood seat chairs, and
employ, besides a force of 25 factory hands, about 250
persons in the village,-men, women, and children,-known
as "seaters," They manufactured 50,000 chairs in 1878,
which number they expect to double in 1879. Mr. Kilburn
was one of the founders of the Orange Savings Bank, and
is one of its trustees; was interested in the
organization of the Orange National Bank, and is now a
director in that institution.
ROGER H.
LEAVITT,
The Leavitt Family have been distinguished for
their literary attainments,-particularly for their
independence of thought; and not the least distinguished
of their members as the subject of this notice,-Roger
Hooker Leavitt. he was born in Heath, Franklin Co.,
Mass., on the 21st of July, 1805. His maternal
grandfather was Col. Hugh Maxwell, of Revolutionary
fame. A native of Ireland, born April 27, 1733, be was
but six weeks old when his parents embarked for this
country. He was a devoted patriot, and rendered his
country valuable service in the French war, as well as
in the Revolution, he married Bridget Monroe, of
Lexington, by whom he had seven children. Mr. Leavitt is a
grandson of Rev. Jonathan Leavitt. of Revolutionary
notoriety, who was born in Suffield, Conn, in 1731,
graduated at Yale College in 1758, and in 1761 located
in Walpole N. H., where he remained four years. At the
expiration of that time he removed to Charlemont, where
he spent the remainder of his life.
He married Sarah Hooker, of
Farmington, Conn, (a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker,
first minister of Hartford), by whom he had eleven sons
and one daughter, and of these Roger, the third son, was
the father of the subject of this sketch. He wan born in
Heath, on the 12th of January, 1771. His educational
advantages were limited, but he possessed a mind of more
than ordinary power, and a retentive memory, and,
although by occupation a farmer, he was active in public
service. Was a member of the Legislature four terms,
served as member of the board of selectmen, and held
other local offices. In 1840 he was the candidate of the
Liberty party for lieutenant governor. In religious
interests as well as civil affairs he took a prominent
part, and for thirty-two years was a member of the
Congregational Church. He died June 1,
1840. His wife was Chloe Maxwell, whom he married on the
21st of June, 1793, and by whom he had six children,
viz., Joshua, Chloe (who died in infancy), Clarissa,
Chloe Maxwell, Roger Hooker, and
Hart.
Joshua, the oldest of this
family, became a minister of considerable prominence,
was for many years editor of the New York Independent,
and a well-known pioneer in the anti-slavery cause.
Roger H., after attending the
common schools of his native town, was also classically
instructed m the Hopkins Academy at Hadley. Reared on his
father's farm, he at an early age assisted in the farm
labor, and when he reached his nineteenth year taught
school during the winter months. This he continued to do
nine years, teaching one term near Auburn, N. Y., and in
the mean time studied and practiced surveying. In 1835
he removed to his present place of residence in
Charlemont, where he has devoted a part of his time to
farming, and has been for many years prominently
identified with the agricultural interests of the
county, he has been forward in getting up local cattle
shows and fairs for Charlemont and neighboring towns.
When the Deerfield Valley Agricultural Society was
chartered he was chosen its first president, and the
following year was re-elected by a unanimous vote. He
was also for three years the delegate of this society to
the State Board of Agriculture. With agricultural
pursuits he has combined active public service, and has
done his full share in advancing the schools, charitable
institutions, and manufacturing and commercial interests
of the town and county. He was one
of the first to engage in the anti-slavery movement, and
throughout the Rebellion made his influence felt in
favor of the Northern cause. The spirit which filled the
hearts of the "fathers" during the days of the
Revolution animated him during our late civil war. In
local offices be has served as selectman, and held
nearly all the other minor town
offices.
In the militia be held the
rank of colonel. He was a director of the Troy and
Greenfield Railroad, and one of the three corporators
mentioned in the charter, the other two being Judge
Grinnell and Sheriff Reed, of Greenfield. In 1866 he
served in the State Senate, and in 1868 represented his
district in the lower house, and was unanimously
re-elected for the next term, in a district composed of
five towns, and in which he is the only man ever
returned for a second term since its organization. .Mr.
Leavitt was early convinced of the practicability of the
Hoosac Tunnel as projected by that great civil engineer,
Loami Baldwin.
In 1847, at a convention at
North Adams, held with reference to building a railroad
from Greenfield to Troy, he predicted the success of the
enterprise, and said: "This will eventually become the
great thoroughfare across the continent, and more, from
Liverpool to Pekin ; and the English mail and English
ambassadors will pass up the Deerfield valley on their
way to China."
He spent much time and money
in the early days of its struggles, and in his "farewell
address" advised that "the ownership and control of the
Hoosac Tunnel should always remain the property of the
commonwealth."
A true history will accord to
R. H. Leavitt and John Porter the credit that belongs to
them, not only as pioneers, but as most faithful workers
in the cause; and we trust their names will take the
precedence of those who have sailed in, since favoring
breezes began to blow.
In the discharge of his
official duties Mr. Leavitt was always fearless and
independent, taking what he deemed the right course,
without consulting public opinion. He has ever felt an
earnest desire to promote the welfare of society, and,
believing that all permanent civilization is based on
morality as taught in the Bible, has through life
supported the institutions and ordinances of the
Christian Church, of which he has been a member fifty
years, and also deacon.
He was married, in 1829, to
Keziah, daughter of William Hunt, of Heath, by whom he
had three children. Mrs. Leavitt died in November, 1838,
and he married her sister, Eliza Hunt, on the 29th of
March, 1839. She died June 1, 1866. He was married to
his present wife, Mrs. Ryland Warriner, of Philadelphia,
Pa., and daughter of Capt. Edmund Longley, of Hawley,
Mass., on the 28th of February,
1877.
But two of Mr. Leavitt's
children are now living (March, 1879). His eldest son,
John Hooker (born Oct. 11, 1831), is a resident of
Waterloo, Iowa, and a member of the banking-house of
Leavitt & Johnson, of that place, and has served one
term in the Iowa State Senate. William Hunt (born Sept.
4, 1834) is a farmer in Cedar Valley, Iowa. Henry
Jenkins, the youngest son (born Aug. 8, 1836), was a
lawyer in Chicago, and served two years in the war of
the Rebellion. He died in
Yazoo, Miss., July 8, 1866.
GEORGE E. MARSHALL was born in
Lunenburg, Worcester Co., Mass., Nov. 16, 1832, the
eldest child of Zachariah and Caroline Marshall. His
ancestors came from England and settled in Newburyport,
Mass. His
grandfather, Samuel Marshall, was born there, and was
the first of the family who settled in Lunenburg. His
father was born in the latter place in 1808.. He moved
with his family to Kansas, and was among the first
settlers of that State. The family
remained thereabout twenty years. At the present time he
makes his home with his son, George E. at Turner's
Falls. His wife's maiden name was Putnam, a daughter of
Samuel and Hannah Putnam, a branch of the Putnam family
of Revolutionary fame. She died at Groton, Mass., in
1852.
George E. Marshall received
his education at the Lawrence Academy, of Groton, to
which place his father removed when he was ten years of
age. Rev. James Means was principal of the academy at
that time. His father being a paper manufacturer, George
E. became early interested in that branch of industry,
and at the age of twenty had acquired a thorough
knowledge of the business as carried on at that day. At
that time, in company with S. E. Crocker, a son of
Emmons Crocker, of Fitchburg, and a brother of the late
Alva Crocker of the same place, he went to Nashville,
Tenn., where for eight months he was employed in the
paper-mill of W. S. Whiteman.
Returning East, he engaged as foreman in a new
paper-mill at Lawrence, Mass., owned by Crocker, Briggs
& Co., where he remained about four years. He was
next employed as manager of the paper-mills of C. P.
Markle & Sons, situated on the Youghiogheny River,
in West Newton, Pa., about thirty miles from Pittsburg.
He was there three years. He then went to
Louisville, Ky., where he superintended the fitting up
of Bremaker, Moore & Co.'s paper-mills of that city.
These mills were the pioneer works in the West for the
manufacture of super-calendar book-papers. Though
manufacturing a superior quality of paper, they were at
first obliged to seek an Eastern market. After the
Western buyers made the discovery that they were
purchasing in New York City goods manufactured near at
home, upon which they were paying two unnecessary
freights, it changed the "order of things", and
thereafter the firm found ready market for their
products in the West.
Mr. Marshall superintended
the construction for the same parties, in the town of
Laurel, Ind., on the Whitewater River, a mill for the
manufacture of chemical wood and straw pulp, which was
also the first of its class built in the West. He
remained with Bremaker, Moore & Co. eight years. In
1871, through the solicitation of Col. Alva Crocker,
founder of Turner's Falls, and president of the Montague
Paper Company in that place, Mr. Marshall was induced to
take charge of the erection and fitting up of their
mill, and has been its manager ever since. He was
elected treasurer of the company January,
1873.
During his long experience as
a paper-manufacturer Mr. Marshall has
added many improvements, and has taken out quite a
number of patents covering processes for producing
chemical and mechanically prepared pulps for paper, and
improvements in paper-machinery. A gentleman who has
known Mr. Marshall for years, and is well posted as to
his ability as a paper-manufacturer, said to the writer,
"Mr. Marshall will make more and better paper out of a
given amount of stock than any man living." It will
surely be not overstating it to say that he enjoys a
reputation in his specialty second to none in the
country. Since he has been a resident of Turner's Falls
he has taken an active interest in all matters which
affected its prosperity and growth, and has contributed
liberally of his means toward the building up and
sustaining its public
institutions.
He was united in marriage,
Oct. 4, 1858, to Lydia Farwell, daughter of John H. and
Catharine Farwell, of Ischua, Cattaraugus Co., N.
Y.
They have no children living.
CHARLES.
B. MERRITT is a native of Conway, Franklin Co., Mass. He
is of English ancestry, and the family to which he
belongs is descended from two brothers who came to this
country at the time of the Restoration, or shortly
before, one of whom settled in Massachusetts, and the
other in New York.
Of the former, Charles B, Merritt is a direct
descendant. He is the great-grandson of Asa Merritt,
grandson of Simeon Merritt, and son of Pliny
Merritt.
Asa Merritt was one of the
earliest settlers in Conway, and removed to that place
from Brimfield, Mass., about the year 1768. he died Oct.
17, 1802, aged seventy-four years.
Simeon Merritt was born in
Brimfield, Mass., in July, 1762, and when six years old
came to Conway with his father. As a man he was noted
for his courage and firmness. He served in the
Revolution, and at the time of Shays rebellion was one
of the six who stood for the government He was married
at Conway, on the 14th day of November, 1792, to Pamela
Baker.
He died Jan. 29, 1829.
Pliny Merritt was born in
Conway, Jan. 19, 1794, and died Oct. 14, 1863. He
married Sophia, daughter of Josiah Boyden, on the 14th
of October, 1819. She was born July l6th, 1794, and died
Feb. 19,
1867. They had one child, Charles B., subject of this
notice.
Charles B. Merritt was born
March 3, 1823. He obtained the rudiments
of his
education
in the district school, and was afterward
instructed in Deacon Clary's Select School. At the age
of eighteen he commenced teaching school, and taught
during the winter for eight years, the remainder of this
time being occupied in working upon his father's farm.
In 1844 he went to Michigan, and while there engaged in
the lumbering business. He remained but a few months,
and then returned to Conway, and united with his father
in managing the farm. At his father's decease he
inherited the property, and by industry and good
management he has since considerably increased the
original estate. He is at present engaged in general
farming. In
politics Mr. Merritt's ancestors have been Democrats
since that party was first organized, and some of them
have been among its staunchest supporters. He is also a
Democrat, but not a partisan, and casts his vote rather
with reference to the principles of the man who is to
fill the office than to the party to which he
belongs.
Mr. Merritt has held the
office of assessor for the past fifteen years, and in
1868 was also a member of the board of selectmen, and is
a member and trustee of the Franklin County Agricultural
Society. He is a man of integrity and honor, and by
these qualities has won the respect of his
townsmen.
He was married, Nov. 26, 1857, to Mary A. Stearns,
daughter of Joel Stearns. She was born in Conway, May
24, 1832. They have one child, Ella E., born Jan. 14,
1859.
ALBERT
MONTAGUE, the Montagues are of French ancestry and are
descended from Richard Montague, who came to this
country about the year 1640 and settled in Wethersfield,
Conn. From
that place some members removed to Hadley, Mass., and
thence to Sunderland. There is a
tradition that the name of Montague, or Monticue
originated with a French general who won a great battle
on the plains of Monticule, and thereafter received the
name in course of time has been changed to its present
form.
Albert, eldest child of Ira
and Tabitha Montague, was born in Sunderland, Franklin
Co., Mass., on the 2d of October, 1822. Daniel Montague,
his grandfather, was also a native of that town, and
died there at the age of eighty-two. His wife lived
to the great age of ninety-three. Ira Montague was
born on the 7th of January, 1787, and died
March 5, 1865 He was a man of sterling qualities, and
took and active part in promoting the best interests of
the town and community. He married on
the 18th of October, 1815, Tabitha, daughter
of Deacon Elijah Hubbard, of Sunderland. She was born on
the 29th of September 1791, and died Oct. 12,
1849. To
them were born three children, of whom the only survivor
is the subject of this sketch.
He received an excellent
common-school and academic education, and, during his
minority, also spent a part of the time working upon his
father's farm.
When he reached his majority he commenced
teaching school' continued it three years,---teaching
during the winter months, while the remainder of the
year was employed in farm labor.
At the age of twenty-four he
took charge of the paternal estate, and received
one-half of the proceeds there from, until the decease
of his father.
He then, after paying off the legacies, took into
possession of the property.
In 1865 he sold the farm and
removed to Philadelphia, Pa., where he entered the
wholesale glassware trade. He remained in
that city two years, and, at the expiration of that
time, disposed of his interest in the business and
returned to Sunderland, where he has since resided,
employed in agricultural pursuits.
He has been identified with
the best interests of the community; has held nearly
every elective town office, and, in 1874, represented
his district in the Legislature. He is now
chairman of the board of selectmen, of which he has been
a member for many years. For a period of
twenty years he has been trial-justice and justice of
the peace; has held the position of special county
commissioner one term, and other offices too numerous to
mention.
Mr. Montague takes an active interest in
agricultural subjects, and is in fact one of the most
enterprising and progressive men of the town. He is also a
member of the Congregational Society, and has always
been a firm supporter of the ordinances of that
church.
He was married on the
8th of April, 1845, to Lucinda, daughter of
Levi Wilder of Wendell, and by this union had one son
and two daughters.
The latter only are living. They are Abbie
T. and Emma L.
Mrs. Montague died on the 1st of
October 1865.
Mr. Montague's second wife is
Sarah P. daughter of Eleazer Warner, of Sunderland, by
whom he had three children, Fannie (deceased), Ida V.,
and Albert I.
Mr. Montague was largely
instrumental in the building of the Sunderland bridge
across the Connecticut River, and for many years
director and trustee of the bridge corporation.
REV. JOHN
F. MOORS was born in Groton, Mass., Dec. 10, 1819. He
was brought up on a form, and was educated at the public
schools and at the academy in that place till 1838, when
he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1842.
He passed at once into the Cambridge Divinity School,
where he graduated in 1845. The following
week he entered on professional service in Deerfield,
where he was ordained over the First Congregational
(Unitarian) Society, Jan. 28, 1846. He was dismissed in
April, 1800, and on the 22d of that month was installed
over the Third Congregational (Unitarian) Society in
Greenfield.
In October, 1862, he was
commissioned chaplain of the 52d Regiment of
Massachusetts Volunteers by Gov. Andrew, and served with
the regiment under Gen. Banks till it was mustered out,
in August, 1863. In 1874 he served in the lower branch
of the State Legislature, and in 1877 in the upper
branch.
Mr. Moors was for many years
a member of the school committee in Deerfield, and
afterward in Greenfield. He was for several years
president of the board of trustees of Deerfield Academy,
and the first president of the new board of the
consolidated corporation of "Deerfield Academy and
Dickinson High School."
LORENZO P. MUNN was born in the
town of Gill, Franklin Co., Mass,, Sept. 2, 1815, the
second child, and only son, of Seth and Gratia Munn. The
family descended in direct line from. 1st, Benjamin
Munn, a soldier to the Pequot war, in 1637 ; lived in
Hartford, Conn., in 1639; removed to Springfield, Mass.,
in 1649; was fined there, in 1653, . "for taking tobacco
on his hay-cock;" in 1665, being then very aged and
weak, he was excused from military service; died in
November, 1675.
2d John Munn, born in 1652;
settled in West field. He lost horse, saddle, and bridle
in the Falls fight; aid was asked of the General Court
in 1683. The statement was made that "he is under a
wasting sickness by reason of a surfeit got at the Falls
fight, and will decline into an incurable consumption ;"
died in 1684.
3d Benjamin Munn, born in
1683; settled in Deerfield; removed late in life to
Northfield, where he died, Feb. 5, 1774. He married
Thankful, daughter of Godfrey Nims, by whom he had
eleven children.
4th John Munn, born in 1712;
soldier at Fort Dummer, 1730 to 1736; removed from
Deerfield to that portion of Northfield which has since
been set off to Gill, in 1740. He married Mary, daughter
of William Holton, by whom ho had children as follows:
John, Mary, Noah, Oliver, Elisha, Abigail, and Seth. Of
these, John, Elisha, and Noah raised large families, and
lived in Gill.
5th Seth Munn, the youngest
of the above, was born in 1754; Revolutionary soldier in
1779; married, Dec. 18, 1782, Salina, daughter of
Ebenezer Janes, by whom he had children as follows;
Otis, Sylvia, Seth, Sophia, Orra, Rhoda, Obadiah, and
Luther.
Otis married Melinda Janes, and settled in the
West. Sylvia married Samuel Chapin, of Gill. Sophia died
in childhood. Orra, wife of Oralana Horsely, moved from
Gill to Canton, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. Rhoda, wife of
Henry Bascom, of Gill. Ohadiah married Orilla Adgate,
and settled in East Rockport, Ohio. Luther married
Lucinda Mayo ; was a successful stonemason.
6th Seth Munn, born August,
1789; married Gratia Wright, daughter of Oliver Wright,
of Northfield, an exemplary Christian woman. Dec. 4.
1811, Their children, in the order of birth, were Sarah
Sophia, Lorenzo P., Lucretia P., Hepzibah S., Gratia M.,
and Abigail A. Sarah Sophia and Hepzibah S. are
deceased. The three Sisters living are married, and have
families. Gratia Munn, the mother, died March 26, 1838,
aged fifty-three years. Mr. Munn was married a second
and third time. His second wife was Melitta. Griswold;
his third. Elvira Phillips, both of whom were active
Christian women, well beloved by all who knew them.
John Munn, the
great-grandfather, settled on lands in the town of Gill
(then Northfield) in 1740, which have been owned and
occupied by the Munn family ever
since.
Seth Munn, the father of
Lorenzo P., secured the laying out of the " Munn Ferry"
road on condition of establishing a ferry at that point
on the Connecticut River. He was ferryman for forty
years, he died June 6, 1876, aged eighty-six years. The
grandfather and the grandmother, also the father and the
mother, are buried in the burial-ground situated on the
road one mile north of Gill Centre.
Lorenzo P. Munn has always
lived on the old Munn homestead, in the town of Gill.
During his minority he assisted in carrying on the farm
and running the ferry. He received his education in the
district school of the neighborhood, and in a select
school taught by Josiah W. Canning, at Gill Centre. He
was first married, Oct. 31, 1838, to Ruth Severance,
daughter of Orin and Chloe Severance, of the town of
Gill. Mrs. Munn was horn April, 1816. By her he had
children as follows : Sarah Sophia, born Dec. 3, 1840 ;
wife of .John Delvy, a farmer and mechanic, living in
Gill. They have four children, viz., Nellie, John,
Eliza, and Isabel. Charles S. born May 26, 1844 ;
married Sarah Ripley ; have three children,-Grace J.,
Frank L., and Mary S; he owns and occupies a portion of
the homestead farm. Chandler S.,
born July 31, 1846; married Ellen A. Moore; have two
children,-Louis Chandler and Lucy Sophia: lives at the
homestead, and, with his father, carries on the farm.
Sarah R., born March 21, 1853 ; living in Florence,
Hampshire Co.
The old residence, built by
the grandfather, was torn down in 1824, and a new one
built by Seth Munn, which Lorenzo B., the son, has since
improved, and which is now occupied by Chaudler S.
Mr. Munn's
first wife died Sept. 12, 1870. He was married, Dec. 10,
1872, to Sarah C, daughter of Luther M. and Orpha
Clatlie. Her father was a native of Petersham, Mass.;
her mother, of Sandgate, Vt. Mrs. Munn was born in
Canada, June 10, 1825. When three years of age the
family moved to Pierrepont, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y.;
from thence to Canton, in the same county, where both
her father and mother died. Mr. Munn built his present
residence, near the homestead, in
1876.
In politics be was a Whig,
but has been identified with the Republican party since
its organization. Though often solicited he has
uniformly declined to accept public positions,
preferring to devote his whole attention to his chosen
pursuit of farming. For about seventeen years he has
been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Gill
Centre, and has been one of its principal
supporters.
A kind husband, and father, an obliging neighbor,
he well deserves the esteem in which he is held by the
entire neighborhood in which he lives.
JABEZ C.
NEWHALL was born in Conway, Franklin Co., Mass., on the
12th of August, 1825. Col. Jabez
Newhall his father, was born in the same town, on the
29th of February, 1776. He was a farmer
and hotel-keeper, and was in the last named business
forty-five years.
He was colonel in the State militia, and well
known and highly respected in the community in which he
lived. He
died on the 2nd of April, 1858. Eunice L.
Tilton, his wife, was born in Conway, Dec. 25, 1786.
Jabez C. Newhall, subject of
this notice, was one of a family of six children, all of
whom lived to reach manhood and womanhood. He received his
education in the common school, and his time was mostly
employed in working upon his father's farm. After his
father's decease he took charge of the farm, and has
since been engaged in dairying and stock-raising, in
which he has been generally successful. In politics he
is Republican, and has been assessor of Conway for two
years.
Mr. Newhall was married in
1854, to Adeline Parsons, daughter of Capt. Charles
Parsons, of Conway. She was born
Dec. 29, 1827.
They have a family of four children, Eunice L.,
born March 20, 1857; Ruth I., born Oct. 23, 1862; Anna
B., born June 12, 1865, and Harry T., born Jan 6,
1869. Mr.
and Mrs. Newhall are members of the Congregational
Church of Conway.
EBENEZER
NIMS is of English ancestry. He is the son of Joel Nims,
and the grandson of Reuben, who was the son of John,
Jr., son of John, who was the son of Godfrey, who
emigrated from England at an early date, and is supposed
to have settled at Deerfield, Mass., between 1665 and
1667.
Reuben Nims was born on the
14th of June, 1740, and settled in Shelburne on a large
farm, and in connection with the business of farming
kept a hotel. His house was quite an important point in
those days, and was well known in the surrounding
country as Nims Tavern. He
married for his first wife (on the 1st of July, 1762)
Sarah Burt, by whom he had five children, viz.,
Jonathan, Reuben, Joel, Abigail, and Sarah. His wife
died on the 2d of April, 1774, and he married
Deliverance Gould on the 25th of January, 1777. By this
union he had four children,-Elizabeth, Samuel, Joel, and
Mary.
Joel, the youngest son of the
second wife, was the father of the subject of this
notice. He was born in Shelburne, Franklin Co., Mass.,
on the 29th of December, 1782. He was a farmer, and also
kept the hotel after his father's decease. As a man he
was highly respected, and was for many years a member of
the Congregational Church of that town. He was married,
on the 29th of November, 1800, to Betsey Nims, by whom
he had three children, viz., Abner, Direxa, and
Mary.
His first wife died on the 7th of December, 1812,
and he married for his second wife Lovena, daughter of
Reuben Bardwell. By this union he had five children, all
sons. They are Joel B., born Aug. 25, 1815; Reuben, born
Aug. 15, 1817; Charles, born July 31, 1820; Ebenezer,
born on the 30th of September, 1822; and David W., born
May 6, 1824.
Ebenezer, as before related,
was born in Shelburne, and attended the common schools
of that town until ten years of age. He then
went to Rowe to live with a cousin, and remained in that
town twenty-nine years. At the expiration of that time
he purchased a farm in the town of Charlemont, where he
resided five years, when he sold his property and
removed to Shelburne, and purchased the place where he
now resides.
He has been engaged in general farming, and has
by his own unaided efforts acquired a competency. As a
man he is highly esteemed in the community in which he
lives. He is a Republican in politics, and has served in
the capacity of selectman twenty-seven years. Mr. Nims
and his family are members of the Baptist Church of
Shelburne Falls.
His wife was Sarah G. Brown,
daughter of Alfred Brown, of Rowe, to whom he was
married on the 28th of November, 1844. They have six
children, viz., Sarah L., wife of A. K. Sears, of
Hawley, Francis E., Mary E., Henry D., Alfred J., Arthur
B.
They have also three
grandchildren, viz., Frank H., son of Mr. and Mrs.
Sears, born Nov. 9, 1867; and Francis W., born March 19,
1873, and Bessie, born Sept. 10,1878, children of Dr.
Francis E. Nims.
RICHARD NICKERSON OAKMAN. The subject of
the following sketch was born in Wendell, Mass., Jan.
20, 1818. His great-grandfather who was probably the
progenitor of the comparatively few Oakman families in
this country, came from Norfolk, Eng., about a .d. 1750; was a
shoemaker by trade, and settled in Lynn, .Mass., where
he left two sons-Joseph and Eben-trained in his trade or
occupation. Joseph eventually migrated from Lynn,
married into the Wheeler family, of Phillipston, Mass.,
and subsequently lived in Wallingford, Vt., where he
died, leaving one son only, Joseph Lathe, who married
Mary Nickerson. from Povincetown, Mass., a.d. 1810, and
settled in Wendell, subsequently living in Wallingford
and Phillipston, and finally returning to Wendell, where
he died, Feb. 21, 1842, leaving four sons, of whom three
are now living, who, together with their four sons,
constitute all the male descendants of Joseph Oakman,
formerly of Lynn, now bearing his name. Mary, widow of
Joseph L., married Charles Holway, of Provincetown, and
is now living, at an advanced age.
Richard, eldest son of Joseph
L, and Mary Oakman, received his early education in the
public schools of Wendell, then in a flourishing
condition,-so much so, that before he was seventeen
years of age he was approbated by the constituted
authorities as competent to teach in the common schools
of Massachusetts, and taught his first school in Erving,
in the winter of 1834-35. His
common-school advantages were supplemented by two or
three years in the aggregate at the Franklin Academy at
Shelburne Falls, when he went to Provincetown and
engaged as principal of the Union Academy at that place,
where he was employed for six years.
Aug. 10, 1841, Mr. Oakman
married Julia P. Hawkes, of Hawley, Mass., who has been
a faithful helpmeet and affectionate and devoted wife
and mother. In the spring of 1846 they removed to
Montague, purchased a farm, and engaged in the arduous
labors of their new calling. An inventory of their
resources at the time of their purchase might be written
as follows, viz.: good health, great expectations, some
energy, and seven hundred dollars in cash ; and it is
said that they are among the class of those who have
acquired a reasonable competence by legitimate farming.
Mr. Oakman at this period possessed unusual power of
physical endurance, and, in addition to the labors of
his farm, continued for several years to teach in the
district schools for the winter season, until he was
able to number twenty-three years, during a part or the
whole of which he had been engaged in teaching in the
schools of Massachusetts.
In 1850, Mr. Oakman was first
elected to the several town offices of selectman,
assessor, overseer of the poor, and school committee,
which offices he continued to hold for many years, to
the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens, as will appear
by the following resolution, passed unanimously at the
annual March meeting, 1870:
"Whereas, R. N, Oakman,
having been elected to the office of selectmen of the
town of Montague for the twenty-seventh time, and having
declined longer to serve the town in that capacity, "Be
it resolved. That, as citizens of the town, we regret to
lose the services of R N. Oakman as chairman of our
Board of Selectmen, in which position he has so long, so
ably, and so successfully served the town, both as its
counselor and financier,-in a word, for the town as for
himself; and that this expression of our appreciation of
his services be entered on the records of the town."
In 1857, the pauper expenses
of the town of Montague having become a grievous burden
to the tax-payers, the town determined to try the
experiment of an almshouse establishment, and for that
purpose purchased a farm with outfits. Mr, Oakman and
wife were induced to dispose of their own homestead and
take the superintendence of this establishment for the
town,-himself as manager of the farm, and Mrs. Oak-man
as housekeeper and matron. Hon. F. B. Sanborn, secretary
of the Board of State Charities, in his first report to
the Legislature, speaks of their success as follows : "
Mr. Oakman, for six years the able superintendent of the
town farm in Montague, has secured a financial success,
which makes the experience of that town valuable to the
whole State. It appears by the printed reports annually
made to the town of Montague that during the six years
that Mr. Oakman and wife have had charge of the
almshouse the cost of supporting the inmates gradually
diminished, until, in 1862-63, it became less than
nothing. That is to say, the products of the farm paid
all the expenses, including interest on the purchase
money, salaries, and support of all the paupers, and
there remained a small balance of profit. The
explanation of it is found in the peculiar ability of
the gentleman and lady referred to, and in application
of principles which ought every where to prevail. In
September, 1864 I visited
Montague for the purpose of seeing the place of this
happy experiment, and the persons who carried it on. I
found Mr. Oakman still chairman of the selectmen, as he
has been for fourteen years past, but that he had ceased
to manage the almshouse farm for the town. That had
been sold to Mr. Oakman for ten thousand dollars, being
in better condition than when he had taken it in hand,
and the town had bought a cheaper farm not far
off. I have dwelt at such length on the interesting
history of the Montague almshouse because it shows what
may be, and what has been, done to lighten the burdens
of pauperism in our towns, and introduce method and good
order into this branch of town business by the selection
of a good farm and a good farmer. Mr. Oakman is still
the owner of this farm, which, however, for the past two
years, has been under the management of his youngest
son, while he has purchased for himself and wife a fine
homestead about a mile away, at Montague
City.
Mr. Oakman has represented
his town in the Legislature, served in his county one
term as commissioner and one term as special
commissioner, held other positions of responsibility and
trust, and is now president of the Crocker National
Bank, and one of the directors of the Turner's Falls
Company, each with a capital of three hundred thousand
dollars, and both located at Turner's Falls, a
manufacturing village in Montague.
Mr. and Mrs. Oakman are
greatly blessed in their family,-two sons and two
daughters,-Richard N., Jr., Julia Kate, Nellie Pauline,
and Frank Hawkes, who have been well educated, and each
and all faithful, obedient, and affectionate children,
ever bringing joy and sunshine to their parents' hearts
and home.
Mr. Oakman is a man of
somewhat positive opinions of his own, with a sufficient
command of the blunt old Saxon tongue to make himself
understood in defending them, and, consequently, has
usually been blessed with a few active and industrious
opponents and enemies. he has always been counted on the
side of radical reform ; an anti-slavery man of the old
school ; by practice and precept an advocate of total
abstinence from all intoxicating liquors ; and always
interested in the intellectual, moral, and religious
education and welfare of the young.
R. N.
OAKMAN, Jr., is the eldest son of Richard N. and Julia
P. (Hawkes) Oak-man, and was born in the town of Hawley,
Franklin Co., Mass., Sept. 23, 1843. A biographical
notice of his father, Richard N. Oakman, appears also in
this work. The family moved from Provincetown, Mass.,
and settled on a farm in the town of Montague, near Lake
Pleasant, where they remained till the year 1857, at
which time they settled upon what is known as the
Bardwell farm, in the same town. Until the age of
fifteen, young Oakman worked upon the farm, and attended
the district schools at Miller's Falls and at Montague
Centre. In 1858 he entered Powers' Institute, at
Bernardston, where he remained for three years, fitting
for college. In 1801, in a competitive examination at
Boston, he won the State scholarship-at-large. The same
year he entered Williams College, where he remained
about two years, taking the highest position in his
class. During the period of his preparation for college
he taught three terms of district schools,-a term each
at Cambridgeport, Vt., Montague, and Belchertown,
Mass.
For a portion of the year
1804 he was overseer of the State Reform School at
Westboro. In December of the same year he went to
Kenosha, Wis., and occupied the position of teller,
temporarily (in the absence of the regular officer), in
the First National Bank of that place, remaining there
till April, 1805.
For one month he was overseer of Dr. Allport's
fruit farm in Michigan; wages, $25 per month. In May,
1865, he was book-keeper for the Kenosha Coal Company,
in La Salle, ILL.
About July of the same year he again filled the
position of teller in the bank at Kenosha, remaining
there till September, He then went to New York City, and
was connected for two years with the house of Clement,
Hawkes & Maynard, cutlery manufacturers, the first
year as book-keeper and cashier, the last year as
traveling salesman. In October, 1807, he went to Selma,
Ala., and filled the position of treasurer of the
Cahawba Coal Company. In August, 1809, he received the
appointment of deputy collector of customs at
Charleston, S. C. In September, 1872, he came to
Turner's Falls, and assisted in the organization of the
Crocker National Bank, and was cashier and treasurer of
the Crocker Savings Institution, in that place, up to
Nov. 1, 1874. For one year of the same time he was
treasurer of the Montague Paper
Company.
Since that time he has
occupied the position of treasurer and general manager
of the John Russell Cutlery Company, making his
headquarters during the years 1875 and 1876 in New York
City. Since then, and at the present time, at Turner
Falls.
Mr. Oakman was married, March
17. 1808, to Sarah E. Clark, daughter
of William H. and Sarah (Hilton) Clark, of Exeter, N. H.
They have one child, Anna C, born in Selma, Ala., Jan.
4, 1869. Mrs. Oakman was born in Exeter, N. H., March
28, 1840.
She was educated in the schools of Exeter.
HIRAM
ORCUTT was born in Warwick, Franklin Co., Mass., Nov.
14, 1809.
He is the second of a family of twelve children.
His father, Jonathan Orcutt, was a native of Warwick,
and was born Oct. 13, 1790. His mother, Sallie Martin
Orcutt, was born in New Salem, Franklin Co., Mass.,
April 18, 1787.
In his earlier years his
advantages for education were limited to an attendance
at the district schools during four, or at most six,
mouths in the year. When Hiram was ten years of age his
father removed to Irvingsville, now West Orange. During
his father's residence in that place he attended the New
Salem Academy a number of terms. When he reached his
majority he entered a store in Warwick as clerk, where
he remained about six years. Afterward he went to New
Salem and established a mercantile business, which he
carried on very successfully for sixteen years. He then
removed to West Orange, where he now resides, and
engaged in the same business, in which he remained
eleven years. Although very successful in all his
attempts, he abandoned trade at the expiration of over
twenty-seven years of active business, and engaged in
farming, In 1872, '73, '75, and '76 he was selectman,
and was also a member of the committee appointed in 1877
to build the new school-house in Orange. In politics
Mr. Orcutt
was formerly a Whig, but is now a Democrat. As a man he
is highly respected in all the walks of life.
He was married, Oct. 25,
1836, to Mary King. By this union they had one child,-a
son,-who resides in New Salem. He married, for his
second wife, Oct. 24, 1861, Mary F. Bullard. They have
no children.
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