Untitled - citizen hylbom blog

1066 SOUTHEASTEEN MASSACHUSETTS
it and after a few months' trial returned to
the Troy Mill. Here he soon became overseer
of the spinning, dressing and weaving, re-
the most skilled manufacturers
-of the village and city of Fall River. At the
time he entered this company as superintendent,
in 1833, it was operating from one thousand
to two thousand spindles in what was
known as their Bridge mill, which mill was
destroyed by iire in 1843, and he lived to see
Mills Nos. 1, 2 and 3 erected and the company
operate approximately sixty thousand
spindles, fifteen hundred looms, with a capital
of upward of a million dollars. In his later
life Mr. Davol loved to refer to the rapid improvements
and ingenious applications which
resulted in making a cotton mill of the period
in which we speak one of the wonders of the
nineteenth century. His own skill and long
experience as a cotton manufacturer made his
opinions in such matters of weight, and they
were often sought when changes in methods of
manufacturing were contemplated.
Even after his retirement from active business
Mr. Davol was induced to remain as a
director in many corporations doing business
along his line, that they might have the benefit
of his experience and judgment, these number-
ing no less than a half dozen. He was president
of the Mechanics' Mills and a director of
same and of the Pocasset, Troy, Wampanoag
and Barnard Manufacturing Companies, and
pany, serving the last named company for upward
of a third of a century. He died at his
home in Fall River, Mass., March 7, 1888.
On May 18, 1840, Mr. Davol was married
to Sarah F. Chase, of Portsmouth, R. I., born
there Feb. 17, 1820, daughter of Clark and
Anne (Borden) Chase; she died Dec. 22, 1901.
'i'heir children were: (1) Bradford Durfee,
born March 30, 1841, is mentioned farther
on. (2) Sarah L., born June 11, 1842, mar-
maining until the year 1833. He rose rapidly
through all the grades of the business until
in 1842, when he was called to the superintendency
of the Pocasset Mill, and continued
in that position until the death of Mr. M. H.
Ruggles, the treasurer, in 1857, when he succeeded
him, sustaining such relation to the
company until 1877; and during the years
from 1843 to 1860 he was also treasurer of
the Troy Cotton & Woolen Mill.
Mr. Davol drew all the plans for buildings
and alterations in the mills of the Pocasset
Company, and was generally acknowledged as
& leader among
ried at Fall River, Mass., Sept. 21, 1864,
Joseph L. Buffington, of Fall River. (3)
Mary A., born Sept. 29, 1844, married Sept.
27, 1865, Alexander Dorrance Easton, of Fall
River, who was born April 30, 1837, son of
Xorman and Ann H. (White) Easton, and
died Jan. 2, 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Easton had
three children: Harriet B., born May 1, 1868,
who died May 24, 1898; Norman S., born
Sept. 23, 1871, now principal of the Davis
school, in Fall River, who married Lillian M.
Phillips, daughter of Mark Phillips, of Fall
River, and has two children, Doris Sherman,
born April 10, 1900, and Marion Phillips, born
Dec. 18, 1903 ; and Alice Freeborn, born Sept.
16, 1875, who died March 19, 1899. (4)
James Clark Chase, born Feb. 27, 1846, is
mentioned farther on. (5) George S., born
Sept. 15, 1848, married Sept. 3, 1873, Mary
Louise Dean, of Fall River, daughter of
Charles H. Dean and granddaughter of King
Dean, of Berkley, Mass. Mrs. Davol died in
March, 1911. They had three children:
Stephen Bradford (a resident of Brookline,
Mass., member of the firm of Houghton,
Mifflin & Co.), who married Amy Putnam, of
Roxbury, Mass., and has three children,
Florence, Stephen and George ; Louise Dean,
who married Fernald L. Hanson (of Somer-
set, but a lawyer of Fall River)
; and Charles
Dean, who married Sylvia Buffinton, of Fall
River. (6) Harriet Remington, born Sept.
23, 1850, married Feb. 18, 1874, Stephen B.
Ashley, of Fall River, and died April 25, 1901.
(7) Abner P. was born Dec. 1, 1852, married
Harriet J. Marvel and resides in Fall River.
(8) Charles M. R., born Nov. 20, 1853. died
Sept. 29, 1883. (9) Clara F., born Nov. 30,
1856. died Aug. 13, 1881.
(VIII) Bradfoed Durfee Davol, son of
Stephen and Sarah F. (Chase) Davol, was
born March , 30,- 1841, at his grandfather's
house in Portsmouth, R. I., while his father
was erecting a residence in Fall River, and the
of the Spool & Bobbin Company, as well as
a director of the Blackstone and Merchants'
Fire Insurance Companies, of Providence, R.
I., a director and president of the Fall River
Manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company,
director of the Metacomet Bank, of Fall
River, and of the Watuppa Reservoir Com-
latter city has since been his home and field
of operation. He was educated in the public
and high schools of Fall River, then entered
the employ of the Pocasset Manufacturing
Company, beginning as clerk in the office of
the concern, and as clerk, bookkeeper and
treasurer was there occupied for a third of a
century, from 1858 to 1891. As noted in this
article, Colonel Davol belongs to a family of
manufacturers, and especially one of long con-