By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | October 24, 2019
In this year, we encounter a G.A.R. birthday party, the death of a candy man, a Milton Mills minister departing, another Milton Mills minister arriving, and a Milton Mills postmaster appointed.
Charles J. Berry of Milton Mills celebrated his ninetieth birthday in 1927, and here celebrated his ninety-first birthday in the G.A.R. post at Wollaston, MA, where he was wintering with his daughter and her family.
CAKE AND 91 CANDLES FOR CHARLES BERRY. QUINCY, Feb. 14 – Charles J. Berry, 91, a Grand Army veteran of Milton, N.H., entertained Paul J. Revere Post, G.A.R., at a luncheon this afternoon which combined both the spirit of his birthday anniversary and St. Valentines Day. Mr. Berry spends his Winters with his daughter, Mrs. William M. Burrell of 114 Beach st., Wollaston, and that is how he happened to have the Quincy Grand Army men as guests instead of his comrades of Eli Wentworth Post of Milton, N.H. The luncheon was served in Grand Army Hall by Mrs. Dora Ferguson of Wollaston and one of the features of the table was a birthday cake which held 91 candles. Mayor McGrath and Ex-Mayor Bradford made addresses in which they complimented Mr. Berry on attaining such a ripe old age in such a vigorous physical condition. Mr. Berry was born in Milton Mills, N.H. He served in the Union Army in the 1st New Hampshire Cavalry and was allowed the rare privilege of bringing his horse home with him. Mr. Berry is an ardent radio fan. His favorite diversion along the radio activities is listening to the news broadcasts from the studio of the Boston Globe, He has three children, Mrs. William M. Burrell of Wollaston, Clifford A. Berry of East Weymouth and Arthur L. Berry of Portland, Me. (Boston Globe, February 15, 1928).
Milton Mills native Charles F. Simes died in Philadelphia, PA, August 21, 1928, aged seventy years.
He was born in Milton, April 28, 1858, son of George E. and Ann E. Simes. He left Milton circa 1880-81. He was already a superintendent, presumably for the Forbes-Haywood Company, when he married in Taunton, MA, October 4, 1882, Anna C. Burbank, he of Chelsea, MA, and she of Taunton.
Charles F. Simes became a successful candy manufacturer. The following article from 1921 described his Boston Confectionery Company factory on Main street in Cambridge, MA, as it was from when he became its president in 1900 until he sold out to H.D. Foss & Company in 1921. (He became vice-president of the enlarged new H.D. Foss & Company).
BOSTON CONFECTIONERY COMPANY. Since the purchase of this company the Boston factory of H.D. Foss & Company has been moved to the new location in Cambridge and the several businesses are being carried on in Cambridge at 814 Main Street. A branch office is maintained at 41 Union Square, New York City. The Foss products will be marketed direct to the retailers as in the past, and the brands previously made by the Boston Confectionery Company will be distributed through the jobbing trade, as formerly. The origin of the Boston Confectionery Company dates back to 1892 when the business was first established by H.F. Sparrow on Hampshire Street. It was incorporated as the H.F. Sparrow Company in 1896. C.F. Simes became president of the company in 1900; in 1908, having outgrown the Hampshire Street plant, the company consolidated with the Lydian Confectionery Company, and moved into its present quarters, and became known as the Boston Confectionery Company. The building at that time was about one-third the size of the present factory, which is one of the most modern and up-to-date in equipment that can be devised. The hospital is under the supervision of a graduate nurse, with the latest appliances. On the same floor is a fully equipped cafeteria, 50 by 100 feet, where the help is supplied with good food practically at cost of production. The company’s products, under the brand names “Quality” and “Premier” Chocolate have a national distribution and also considerable foreign output (Cambridge Chronicle, October 8, 1921).
BOSTON CONFECTIONER. CHARLES F. SIMES. DIES. Charles F. Simes, who died in Philadelphia Tuesday after a short illness, was born in Milton Mills, N.H., on April 29, 1858. He came to Boston as a boy and learned his trade with the Forbes-Haywood Company. Since then he had been prominently connected with the candy business in Boston for 47 years. He was past president of the National Confectioners Association, past president of the Confectioners Club of Boston. and member of Soley Lodge, A.F. & A.M., Somerville. He leaves a wife, Anna Burbank Simes; two daughters, Mrs. Robert H. Harding and Mrs. Ralph D. Nickerson, and a brother, Albert Simes. Funeral services will be held at 32 Barnum st., Taunton, tomorrow, at 2:30 p m. (Boston Globe, August 22, 1928).
In the following two articles we witness a changing of the guard at the First Baptist Church of Milton Mills. The Rev. Carl R. Bartle accepted a call to move from Milton Mills to Whitman, MA, while the Rev. Howard M. Starratt accepted a call to move from Pownal, VT to Milton Mills.
PASTOR IN MILTON MILLS ACCEPTS WHITMAN CALL. WHITMAN, Sept. 2 – Rev. Carl R. Bartle of Milton Mills, N.H., today accepted the call recently extended him by the First Baptist Church here and will assume his pastoral duties the last of the month. Rev. Mr. Bartle is a graduate of the Gordon Bible School of the class of 1924 and received the degree of bachelor of theology. He returned the next year for graduate work. He was for a time pastor of the Woodville Chapel of Wakefield and the Hill Memorial Church of Allston. He has been pastor for the past three years at the Milton Mills Free Baptist .Church at Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, September 3, 1928).
Carl R. Bartle married in Farmington, NH, September 25, 1928, Dora E. Austin, he of Milton Mills and she of Farmington. Rev Arthur Jefferies of Milton performed the ceremony. Bartle was a clergyman, aged twenty-six years (b. Preston, NY, son of Chester U. and Julia E. (Fells) Bartle). Austin was at home, aged thirty-two years (b. Somerset, MA, daughter of Ulysses E. and Mary L. (Fogg) Austin).
Carl R. Bartle, a Baptist minister, aged twenty-seven years (b. NY), headed a Whitman, MA, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of one year), Dora E. Bartle, aged thirty-three years (b. MA). They resided in a rented house at 670 Washington street, for which they paid $30 per month. They had a radio set.
Howard M. Starrett married in Coeur d’Alene, ID, December 22, 1923, Mabel A. Bishop, both of Spokane, WA. Mrs. George Marvin and Eliza Thompson witnessed the ceremony, which was performed by Baptist minister Rev. Fred H. Thompson of Coeur d’Alene.
POWNAL. Howard M. Starratt, pastor of the Baptist church for a little more than a year, has left for Boston where he will resume his theological studies at Gordon college [Hamilton, MA] and serve as pastor of the church at Milton Mills, N.H. Mrs. Starratt will remain about ten days at the home of her parents in Clarksburg before going to the new home which is on the border line between New Hampshire and Maine. Last Friday evening the Christian Endeavor Society tendered them a reception at Rightholme and presented a Sterling silver cream ladle. Saturday afternoon the Pownal Center people entertained them at the town hall and presented a gift of money. The Ladies’ Auxiliary of the church in this village gave a check as a parting gift, following the morning worship yesterday, Dr. W.A. Davison of Burlington, Vt., is taking steps toward securing a new pastor for the local church (North Adams Transcript, November 20, 1928).
Howard M. Starratt, a Baptist clergyman, aged thirty years (b. MA), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of seven years), Mabel A. Starratt, aged twenty-seven years (b. MA). They resided in a rented house. They had a radio set.
We have seen before that postmasters were political appointees. Here is reported Republican President Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge’s appointment of John E. Horne as postmaster of Milton Mills. We might infer that John E. Horne was likely a Republican also.
Postmasters Elsewhere Named. The President today sent to the Senate the following nominations for postmaster: Sharon, Mass., Robert A. Clark; Springfield. Mass., James P. Smith; Wenham, Mass., Ethel V. Cook; Milton Mills, N.H., John E. Horne; Plaistow, N.H., Maude B. Duston (Boston Globe, December 10, 1928).
John E. Horne, a retail dry goods merchant, aged fifty-three years (b. ME), headed a Milton (“Milton Mills Village”) at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his [second] wife (of four years), Gertrude C. Horne, aged thirty-three years (b. IA), his child, John E. Horne, Jr., aged thirteen years (b. NH), and his mother-in-law, Amy H. Coombs, aged sixty-nine years (b. Canada (Eng.)). John E. Horne owned their house on Main Street (near its intersection with School Street), which was valued at $2,500. They had a radio set.
Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1927; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1929
References:
Find a Grave. (2013, August 2). John Everard Horne. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114788057
Find a Grave. (2018, April 26). Maj. Charles Jewett Berry. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/189182567
Find a Grave. (2012, January 13). Rev. Carl R. Bartle. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/83377452
Find a Grave. )2015, September 5). Rev. Howard Manuel Starratt. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/151883874
Warner Homestead. (2019). A Sweet Find: Chocolate Tongs from the Warner Site. Retrieved from warnerhomestead.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/SVA_2013_04_Archaeology_SparrowChocolate.36171924.pdf
Wikipedia. (2019, October 16). Calvin Coolidge. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge
Wikipedia. (2019, September 25). Pownal, Vermont. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pownal,_Vermont
Wikipedia. (2019, September 28). Whitman, Massachusetts. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitman,_Massachusetts
Winton, Horace B. (1908). Confectioners’ and Bakers’ Gazette. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=gNdOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA40-IA23
Milton Observer 