Untitled - citizen hylbom blog

736 SOUTHEASTEEN MASSACHUSETTS
Pod], Esq., wlio was a prominent man of his
town, as was his father before him, and a
descendant of Edward Pool, of Weymouth,
through Joseph and Samuel Pool, the latter,
his father, being for six years selectman from
South Abington and a representative to the
General Court, while he himself was also select-
Eosanda, the daughters dying in early life.
(VI) David Gurney, son of Asa, born in
1782, married Anna Ellis. Mr. Gurney possessed
a rugged constitution and was a most
active and industrious man. He was of a
mechanical turn of mind, and though occupied
in farming also engaged in making tacks,
when they were manufactured by hand. He
and one Charles Dyer put in order and set in
work of which he was always greatly interested
and to which he contributed liberally both time
and money. He acquired considerable means.
His death occurred in 1862.
The children of David and Anna (Ellis)
Gurney were : Euth, who married Orange
Wilkes ; Mehitable, who became the wife of
iSamuel D. Wilkes; Davis, who married Eliza
Blanchard ; David B., of whom more further
on; Mary, who married James Corthell; and
Eosanda, who married Thomas Drake.
(VII) David Brain'ard Gukkey, son of
David and Anna (Ellis) Gurney, was born
Sept. 10, 1815, in the town of South Abington,
now Whitman, Mass. He acquired a common
school education in his native towTi. His
father being a man of mechanical skill, and a
farmer as well as manufacturer of tacks, it
was but natural for David B. Gurney to fall
into line, imbibing as he grew up a taste for
the vocations of his father. Of a naturally
robust constitution, his early work upon the
farm only strengthened him physically for the
great application he later gave to an indoor
business life. When in his middle teens he
was apprenticed to his father in the manufacture
of tacks, and learned the business from
one end of the factory to the other, and from
man and representative. Noah Gurney's children
were : Asa, Joseph Pool, Noah, Jeremiah,
James, John and Olive.
(V) Asa Gurney, son of Noah, married
Mary, daughter of Joseph Hersey, and their
children were: David, born in 1782; Mary and
that time on through an unusually long, active,
busy life he continued the business of
tack manufacturing and soon won and- ever
afterward held a large place in the life of his
community and in the hearts of his fellow
townsmen. On the retirement from active
business of his father in the middle fifties
David B. Gurney assumed the management of
the business. About this time an impetus was
given to the business, which marked the beginning
of considerably increased facilities for
its enlargement, though it had aheady out-
operation one of the first machines used for
making tacks in this country : and perhaps for
a dozen years horses were used as means of
power in its operation. Subsequently he erected
a building on a stream in the town of Abington,
where waterpower was used for the purpose.
This was the beginning of the afterward
extensive manufacturing plant of Mr.
Gurney, which later passed into the hands of
his son and namesake, David B. Gurney, respectively
at grown
Abington Centre, South Abington
and Whitman. David Gurney was one of the
most upright, honorable and useful citizens of
his town. He was a man of strong religious
convictions, wa.s for many years a member of
the Baptist Church of his community, in the
its accommodations, and it was not long
until the tack factory of David B. Gurney comprised
an extensive building, which was not
only used as a factory, but for various other
purposes. It was situated in Centre Abington,
on a stream where there was formerly a
sawmill and a gristmill, near the residence
of the late Capt. Noah Ford. The main portion
of the factory was erected in 1854, which,
witli additions made to it later, was 110 feet
in length, averaging over 30 feet in width,
two stories high, with a capacious basement,
and an attic tlie whole length ; this building
was divided into various apartments, the main
one being for the tack business, in which up
to the close of the Civil war were placed twenty
tack machines, two vibrating machines for making
shoe nails, and one for heel plates. In
another room there was a board and shingle
mill, and a planing machine. There was also
an apartment for making boxes, etc., and other
places for the storage of stock and prepared
goods, with various outbuildings, the whole being
operated by steam and water together, or
by either alone, and employment was given to
from seventy-five to one hundred persons, turn-
ing out a product to the value of approximately
.$75,000 per year.
In the middle seventies the business of Mr.
Gurney was removed from Abington Centre to
what is now Whitman, where he erected commodious
buildings in keeping with the most
modern improvements, resulting in a factory
equipped in a manner to make it regarded as
one of the best in the country.
At the time of his death Mr. Gurney was
the oldest business man of Whitman, and he
was considered one of the pioneers of the build-