Page:One of a thousand.djvu/370

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>56 KENT. KIMBALL. (Freeman) Crosby, at Orleans, July 30, 1843. Their children are : Sophia, Emma, Clara, Rebecca, Eva, Alice T., and John Kenrick, Jr. Joshua Crosby, the father of Mrs. Kenrick, was on the " Constitution " in the action with the " Guerriere," and with Perry in his victory on Lake Erie. The residence of Mr. Kenrick is in the southern portion of Orleans, on the pater- nal farm which came to him by direct descent, acquired by his ancestors prior to 1670, of which he has in his possession the title deeds from the Indians. KENT, DANIEL, son of D. Waldo and Harriet N. (Grosvenor) Kent, was born in Leicester, Worcester county, January 2, 1853, where he now resides, the old homestead being a part of the tract bought by Ebenezer Kent, of Hingham, in 1743- Passing through the public schools, Mr. Kent entered Leicester Academy, where he fitted for Amherst College, enter- ing in 187 1, and graduating in 1875. He then studied law in the Boston Uni- versity law school and the office of Charles W. Turner. He was admitted to practice in 1S80. His study of law had been for the acquisition of legal knowledge rather than for its practice as a profession, and after spending a year in Philadelphia, he returned to Leicester in 1882, and associ- ated himself with his brother in the woolen business, manufacturing satinets. Having only a small capital, they began in a very modest way, utilizing for their factory-building an old saw-mill built by their father. In 1883 they determined to build a suitable building, and the push and energy displayed are best evidenced by the fact that from the shutting down of the machinery in the old mill to the start- ing up of the same in the new building, built upon the site of the old, but sixteen days had intervened. This building was a wooden structure, three stories high, forty feet by eighty. It was not until the fall of 1884 that they increased their machinery. In December, 1886, they pur- chased the large brick factory at James- ville, three miles from Worcester on the Boston & Albany R. R. The factory in Leicester is run under the name of the Lakeside Manufacturing Company, the one at Jamesville under the firm name of P. G. Kent & Company. At Lakeside they have built up a pretty factory village. From one of the smallest concerns manufacturing satinets in the United States, they have risen to be the largest. Mr. Kent has always been too closely confined to business to mingle much in politics. He has been a member of the school board three years, selectman, chair- man of the Republican town committee. In 18S7 he established an annual prize of one hundred dollars at Amherst for the best senior essay on English or American literature. KIMBALL, JOHN FRANCIS, son of John and Hannah (King) Kimball, was born in Tewksbury, Middlesex county, September 23, 1824. He received his early education in the common schools of Lowell, Lowell high school, and the academies of New Ipswich, N. H., and Centralville, Lowell. Soon after the death of his father, which occurred in August, 1838, he found employ- ment as book-keeper in a grocery store in Lowell, where he remained but a few months, j His next place was with a dealer in mill supplies, who soon went out of busi- ness, having first secured for his young clerk a position with Baxter & Bennett, then the leading merchant tailors of Lowell. He remained with them about four years, when he was appointed clerk in the Lowell post-office. Here he remained nine years. He rose to chief clerk, and resigned upon his election as city treasurer. He was then twenty-seven years old, and held the office by annual re-elections for five years. No- vember 1, 1855, he assumed the duties of cashier of the Appleton National Bank, which position he held until elected its president, in 1876. Mr. Kimball was married in Wilton, N. H., August 27, 1846, to Clara, daughter of Isaac and Betsey (Foster) Blanchard. They have no children. He was treasurer and collector of Lowell for five years (1851 to '55 inclusive), three years member of the common council — president of the council two years — treas- urer of the associated charities of Lowell since 1881, director and vice-president of the People's Club the past ten years, three years superintendent of the Unitarian Sunday-school, several years member and chairman of the standing committee of the Unitarian church, and two years presi- dent of the North Middlesex Conference of Unitarian and other liberal Christian churches ; also for two years member of the board of directors of the American Unitarian Association. He has served as a trustee of the Lowell Five Cents Savings Bank since its organization. He was also trustee of the City Institution for Savings until the law was passed precluding a per-