Family:Whitney, Mary (1773-1862)

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Mary7 Whitney (William6, William5, William4, Nathaniel3, John2, John1), daughter of William6 and Mary (Mansfield) Whitney, was born 11 Apr 1773, Lincoln, MA,[1] was baptized 18 Apr 1773, Lincoln, MA,[2] and died 1 Oct 1862, Gardner, MA, aged 89 years 5 months 14 days, of dysentery.[3]

Marriage intentions were published 21 Sep 1799, Winchenon, MA, for her "Polley" and Benjamin Heywood "of Gardner.[4] Marriage intentions were published 7 Oct 1799, Gardner, MA, for her "Polley" "of Winchendon and Benjamin Heywood.[5] She married Benjamin Heywood, son of .... He was born 10 Jul 1788, and died 14 Feb 1849, Gardner, MA.

Pierce says the following:

". . . farmer; resided Gardner. Benjamin inherited his father's farm. He was for many years the town treasurer and was highly respected and influential in town affairs. His children were Levi, Benjamin F., Walter, William, Seth and Charles. He d. in 1849, in his 77th years. Of his children, Charles d. at the age of six years; Benjamin F. d. in 1844, having been engaged successfully since his majority as a trader, and part of the time, as a manufacturer of chairs; William d. 1873, Boston, where he had resided since 1830, and had been engaged in business there and in Charlestown, with success till 1855, in which year he retired from business.
Ch.: Levi, b. 10 Dec 1800; m. Martha W. Wright; and d. 21 Jul 1882. Levi Heywood was born in Gardner, 10 Dec 1800. His early advantages for education were only those usually enjoyed by the children and youth at that time in rural towns, with the addition of two terms at the academy in New Salem, MA. The diligent improvement of these opportunities fitted him for the vocation of a school teacher, in which he was engaged in his native town and in the adjoining town of Winchendon during the winters 1820-21-22. In the spring of the latter year he went to Rochester, NY, and was employed there about a year in stone work by contract. Returning in 1823 to Gardner, he entered into partnership with his brother Benjamin, in the very miscellaneous business of a country store. This relation he continued till the year 1829. In 1826 he commenced in Gardner, the manufacture of wood-seated chairs. In 1831 he went to Boston and opened a store for the sale of chairs, in which business he continued till 1836. He also, in connection with William R. Carnes and his brother William, under the firm style of Heywood & Carnes, started a mill for sawing veneers from mahogany, etc., in Charlestown. This mill was burned in 1835. He then returned to Gardner and entered into partnership with his brother Walter, who, with others, had been for some years engaged in the manufacture of chairs, on part of the premises now occupied by Heywood Bros. & County. The veneer mill in Charlestown was rebuilt and Mr. Levi Heywood retained his interest in it until 1849. The business of the new firm in Gardner was conducted with success, the manufacture being mainly by hand, the only machinery being the ordinary turning lathe and circular saws, which were operated by water power obtained from the pond now known as Crystal Lake. In 1841 it occurred to Levi Heywood that machinery specially adapted to the various processes of manufacture might be introduced to advantage. His brother, of a more conservative disposition, hesitated to leave the well worn paths in which they were achieving reasonable success. This difference of opinion led to a dissolution of partnership, Levi purchasing his brother's interest. He at once gave his thoughts and labor to the devising and construction of special machinery, as well as to the introduction of different kinds of wood-working machinery, which were already in use for other purposes, and were also adapted to his purpose. In the successful carrying out of this idea, he inaugurated a new era in the chair manufacture, and herein manifested much enterprise, together with the fertility of resource, mechanical skill and inventiveness, and the purpose to introduce constantly new and valuable features, both in methods of manufacture and in style of product, which have always characterized him and have been large elements of his success. As an instance of his originality in the matter of mechanical devices, it may be said that as early as 1835 he conceived the idea of the new band saw, now universally adopted as one of the most valuable tools in wood-work. The idea was original with him, though not really novel, for as early as 1808, William Newberry, of London, England, had conceived the same idea and made a crude model of a band sawing machine but did nothing more with it. So thoroughly were its advantages anticipated by Mr. Heywood that he consulted with B. D. Whitney, of Winchendon, and with Charles Griffiths, of Welch & Griffiths, of Boston, as to the feasibility of constructing a machine of the kind. Both of these gentlemen, experts in such matters, agreed that with the quality of saw blades then made, or any known methods of uniting them so as to make an endless band, the idea could not be successfully carried out. As is well known, M. Purin, of Paris, France, has since that time accomplished what Mr. Heywood so many years before conceived to be both desirable and feasible. In 1844, on the first day of July, he received into partnership Gen. Moses Wood, then of Providence, and afterward president of the Rollstone Bank of Fitchburg, and his brother Seth, the style of the firm being Heywood & Wood. This partnership continued till 1 Jul 1849. At that date Gen. Wood retired from the firm and Messrs. Calvin Heywood and Henry C. Hill were admitted, the style of the firm being changed to L. Heywood & Company. Mr. Heywood, in addition to his business relations as the head of the firm of Heywood Bros. & County has since 1847 been a partner with Hon. W. B. Washburn, of Greenfield, Mass, in the manufacture of chairs and wooden ware at Erving, MA, the style of the firm being Washburn & Heywood. They are also largely engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber, owning about 3,000 acres of woodland in Erving, Northfield and New Salem. At this point it is proper to refer to the inventions of Mr. Heywood, which have been mostly to meet the demands of his own business and have largely contributed to its success. Among them may be named one for a wood chair seat, one for tilting-chair, three for machines for splitting, shaving and otherwise manipulating rattan, and four for machinery for bending wood. He has also invented a very valuable process (not immediately connected with his own business, but of value to it, as utilizing in a new direction the pith of the rattan after stripping the enamel from it) for injecting rattan with india rubber or other suitable material, thus making an excellent substitute for whalebone. Of the merits of his wood-bending process, it may be proper to introduce the testimony of M. Fr. Thonet, of Vienna, Austria, the head of the largest chair manufacturing firm in the world, employing some 5,000 operative. After visiting the factories of Messrs. Heywood he wrote: "I must tell you candidly that you have got the best machinery for bending wood that I ever saw, and I will say that I have seen and experimented a great deal in the bending of wood." The Heywood patents have been combined with those of John C. Morris, of Cincinnati, on which the patents of Blanchard have, after protracted litigation, been decided to be infringements. The combined patents, owned by Morris & Heywood Wood-bending County, it is believed, cover the really effective methods for bending wood. Mr. Heywood, in addition to his large personal business, he having retained to his present time, though now in his 78th year, the supervision in all its details of the mechanical department of the business, including the adaptation and construction of new machinery and devices for greater economy and perfection of manufacture, has been very active in public enterprises. He represented the town in the convention for revising the constitution of the state in the year 1853, and in the lower branch of the Legislature in 1871. He has been a director in the Gardner National Bank and a trustee of the Gardner Savings Bank from the organization of those institutions. Mr. Heywood is not personally identified, by membership, with any church. A regular attendant, however, of the Congregational Church in Gardner, he is a liberal contributor to its current expenses, and responds cheerfully and liberally to the calls of benevolence. He is also largely interested in educational matters, and personally in the schools and has made liberal donations of land and otherwise, to the town in this direction. Respected in the highest degree for personal integrity and excellence of his character in all the relations of his life, his example is for good to the large number of his employees and to the community by which he has been long looked up to as its wealthiest and most influential citizen: Benjamin F., b. 10 Jan 1802; m. Sarah Comee, and d. 2 Apr 1843; Walter, b. 13 Feb 1804; m. Nancy Foster, and d. 1 Aug 1880. Walter Heywood, founder of the Walter Heywood Chair Company, of Fitchburg, and its president from the first, d. 1 Aug 1880, Fitchburg. Mr. Heywood was b. 13 Feb 1804, Gardner. He was a lineal descendant of one of the Pilgrim families who came over in the Mayflower. His grandfather, Seth Heywood, went from Sterling to Gardner about 1773, and was one of the first settlers of the town. During the Revolutionary war he was an officer in the continental army at Cambridge for nine months. He was a man of superior mind, his range of reading was very wide, and his memory was remarkably retentive. Mr. Heywood was the son of Benjamin and Mary (Whitney) Heywood, and was the third of a family of six sons. He attended the schools of his native town, and worked on his father's farm till nearly 20 years of age. In 1824 he began work as an apprentice in James M. Comee's chair shop in Fitchburg, but the same year he began business for himself, driving to Boston as often as he had a horse load finished, and selling them. The Fitchburg Sentinel says of Mr. Heywood, and the growth of the chair business in Fitchburg: In 1827 his brother, William commenced working with him and they employed from 15 to 20 hands. In 1830 he formed a partnership with three others, his brother, Benjamin F., who had been a merchant in Gardner, Moses Wood, afterward president of the Rollstone Bank, and James W. Gates. The firm carried on the chair business, and opened a store in Gardner for the sale of groceries and dry goods. They also established a store in Boston for for the sale of chairs. The business was successfully conducted in its various branches till about 1835, when the partnership was dissolved, Messrs. Wood and Gates retiring from the firm, and Mr. Heywood severed his relation with the store at Boston. A new company was formed, consisting of Levi, Benjamin F., Walter and William Heywood and W. R. Carnes. A large shop was erected on land now occupied by the factories of Heywood Brothers & Company, and the company entered into the manufacture of chairs on an extensive scale. In 1841 Walter Heywood sold his interest in the business and removed to Fitchburg, in company with Leander P. Comee he, in 1842, built the block on Main street more recently known as Sprague & Comee's block, and in 1842 the firm opened a store for the sale of dry goods, groceries, hardware and other merchandise at the salesrooms now occupied by L. Sprague & Company. In the fall of 1844 the firm hired a part of the "Old Red Mill" on West street, since used as a cotton factory by H. W. Pitts & Son, and commenced to manufacture chairs, employing about ten hands. In 1846 the chair business was removed to the upper story of a new building which Alvah Crocker had erected on Water street, on the spot now occupied by the Fitchburg Steam Engine Company's shop. This shop was burned 7 Dec 1849, and the firm lost heavily by the fire. The partnership was then dissolved, and Mr. Heywood directed his whole attention to the manufacture of chairs. Mr. Crocker erected a new building, 130 x 40 feet and three stories high, on the site of the burned shop, and Mr. Heywood hired the whole of the new building. In 1852 he received as partners Alton Blodgett who had entered his employ in 1833, and who continued a member of the company until his death, 19 Sep 1878; Lovell Williams, still a member of the company, and George E. Towne, who continued with the company until 1874, when he disposed of his interest to H. A. Blood. G. H. Spencer, the present superintendnet of the works, was admitted to the firm in 1864. Soon after the new company was formed they erected two large buildings in the rear of the shop, on land leased of Mr. Crocker, and with increased facilities they greatly enlarged their business. In 1856 the firm opened a foreign trade, which eventually extended to England and the continent of Europe, the West Indies, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, China and Japan. The Walter Heywood Chair Company was organized as a stock company under a special act of the legislature, 31 May 1869, with a capital of $240,000. On the night of 21 Jul 1870, the most destructive conflagration that ever visited Fitchburg laid the entire establishment in ruins. Fortunately the loss on the chair company's property was fully covered by insurance, and preparations were made shortly after the fire to rebuild the works on a scale unprecedented in this branch of manufactures. The location of this important industry excited much interest. A lot of nine acres on River street was at length purchased, and the present commodious buildings were erected. At present the company employs 300 hands besides seaters, and a capital to the amount of between $600,000 and $700,000 is required. The company has mills for preparing stock at Barton, Vermont, and has stores at New York and Boston for the sale of their products. As the result of close application to business Mr. Heywood accumulated a handsome property. He made large investments in the manufacturing interests of the city, and his counsel was sought in the management of concerns in which he was interested. He was formerly one of the largest stockholders in the Putnam Machine Company, and has been a director since 1867. In 1866 he purchased an interest in the Fitchburg Iron Foundry, and at his death was senior member of the firm Heywood, Wilson & County. He has been a director of the Fitchburg Machine Company since 1870, and was a partner in the Fitchburg Machine Works since the company was organized in 1877. He was a director of the Burleigh Rock Drill Company since its organization in 1867, a director of the Fitchburg State or National Bank for 37 years, a trustee of the Fitchburg Savings Bank from its organization, 12 May 1846, till June 21, 1877. He was also town treasurer of Gardner from 1834 till his removal to Fitchburg in 1841. He retained his vigor to a remarkable degree, and his mind was clear and active till a few days previous to his death. His success in business was the growth of patient years of toil rather than any series of brilliant exploits. He was no adventurer in doubtful projects, but his energies and his counsels were always in the line of discretion and prudence. If ever his judgment was waived in business matters, it was generally observed in the end that his views were sound and reliable, and would have yielded the largest measure of success. He was plain and unostentatious, solving his problems by a careful process of reasoning, rather than by jumping at conclusions. He was conservative, persevering, yet energetic, and thorough in everything he undertook. From the one-horse load of chairs which he made in 1824 his business grew until he was president of the largest chair manufacturing establishment in the world. He established a reputation for integrity which was world wide and commanded the confidence of the leading houses in his line of business in all quarters of the globe. The Heywood chairs are as familiarly known in Africa, Australia and South America as in Boston, New York or San Francisco. Mr. Heywood was fortunate in calling around him a class of men who rendered great assistance in the management of the extensive business. His associates, with few exceptions, grew up with the business under his training. He leaves a widow, also two daughters, Mrs. William O. Brown and Mrs. D. A. Corey. His first wife, whom he m. 1828, d. 1 Aug 1861, just 19 years previous to his decease. William, b. 9 Nov 1808; m. Frances Shuttleworth; d. 10 Jan 1874; Seth, b. 12 Nov 1812; m. 11 Feb 1836, Emily Wright; resided Gardner; Charles, b. 10 Mar 1818; d. 10 Sep 1824.

Children of Benjamin and Mary7 (Whitney) Heywood:

i. Levi Heywood, b. 10 Dec 1800, Gardner, MA; d. 21 Jul 1882; m. Martha W. Wright. His early advantages for education were only those usually enjoyed by the children and youth at that time in rural towns, with the addition of two terms at the academy in New Salem, MA. The diligent improvement of these opportunities fitted him for the vocation of a school teacher, in which he was engaged in his native town and in the adjoining town of Winchendon during the winters 1820-21-22. In the spring of the latter year he went to Rochester, NY, and was employed there about a year in stone work by contract. Returning in 1823 to Gardner, he entered into partnership with his brother Benjamin, in the very miscellaneous business of a country store. This relation he continued till the year 1829. In 1826 he commenced in Gardner, the manufacture of wood-seated chairs. In 1831 he went to Boston and opened a store for the sale of chairs, in which business he continued till 1836. He also, in connection with William R. Carnes and his brother William, under the firm style of Heywood & Carnes, started a mill for sawing veneers from mahogany, etc., in Charlestown. This mill was burned in 1835. He then returned to Gardner and entered into partnership with his brother Walter, who, with others, had been for some years engaged in the manufacture of chairs, on part of the premises now occupied by Heywood Bros. & County. The veneer mill in Charlestown was rebuilt and Mr. Levi Heywood retained his interest in it until 1849. The business of the new firm in Gardner was conducted with success, the manufacture being mainly by hand, the only machinery being the ordinary turning lathe and circular saws, which were operated by water power obtained from the pond now known as Crystal Lake. In 1841 it occurred to Levi Heywood that machinery specially adapted to the various processes of manufacture might be introduced to advantage. His brother, of a more conservative disposition, hesitated to leave the well worn paths in which they were achieving reasonable success. This difference of opinion led to a dissolution of partnership, Levi purchasing his brother's interest. He at once gave his thoughts and labor to the devising and construction of special machinery, as well as to the introduction of different kinds of wood-working machinery, which were already in use for other purposes, and were also adapted to his purpose. In the successful carrying out of this idea, he inaugurated a new era in the chair manufacture, and herein manifested much enterprise, together with the fertility of resource, mechanical skill and inventiveness, and the purpose to introduce constantly new and valuable features, both in methods of manufacture and in style of product, which have always characterized him and have been large elements of his success. As an instance of his originality in the matter of mechanical devices, it may be said that as early as 1835 he conceived the idea of the new band saw, now universally adopted as one of the most valuable tools in wood-work. The idea was original with him, though not really novel, for as early as 1808, William Newberry, of London, England, had conceived the same idea and made a crude model of a band sawing machine but did nothing more with it. So thoroughly were its advantages anticipated by Mr. Heywood that he consulted with B. D. Whitney, of Winchendon, and with Charles Griffiths, of Welch & Griffiths, of Boston, as to the feasibility of constructing a machine of the kind. Both of these gentlemen, experts in such matters, agreed that with the quality of saw blades then made, or any known methods of uniting them so as to make an endless band, the idea could not be successfully carried out. As is well known, M. Purin, of Paris, France, has since that time accomplished what Mr. Heywood so many years before conceived to be both desirable and feasible. In 1844, on the first day of July, he received into partnership Gen. Moses Wood, then of Providence, and afterward president of the Rollstone Bank of Fitchburg, and his brother Seth, the style of the firm being Heywood & Wood. This partnership continued till 1 Jul 1849. At that date Gen. Wood retired from the firm and Messrs. Calvin Heywood and Henry C. Hill were admitted, the style of the firm being changed to L. Heywood & Company. Mr. Heywood, in addition to his business relations as the head of the firm of Heywood Bros. & County has since 1847 been a partner with Hon. W. B. Washburn, of Greenfield, Mass, in the manufacture of chairs and wooden ware at Erving, MA, the style of the firm being Washburn & Heywood. They are also largely engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber, owning about 3,000 acres of woodland in Erving, Northfield and New Salem. At this point it is proper to refer to the inventions of Mr. Heywood, which have been mostly to meet the demands of his own business and have largely contributed to its success. Among them may be named one for a wood chair seat, one for tilting-chair, three for machines for splitting, shaving and otherwise manipulating rattan, and four for machinery for bending wood. He has also invented a very valuable process (not immediately connected with his own business, but of value to it, as utilizing in a new direction the pith of the rattan after stripping the enamel from it) for injecting rattan with india rubber or other suitable material, thus making an excellent substitute for whalebone. Of the merits of his wood-bending process, it may be proper to introduce the testimony of M. Fr. Thonet, of Vienna, Austria, the head of the largest chair manufacturing firm in the world, employing some 5,000 operative. After visiting the factories of Messrs. Heywood he wrote: "I must tell you candidly that you have got the best machinery for bending wood that I ever saw, and I will say that I have seen and experimented a great deal in the bending of wood." The Heywood patents have been combined with those of John C. Morris, of Cincinnati, on which the patents of Blanchard have, after protracted litigation, been decided to be infringements. The combined patents, owned by Morris & Heywood Wood-bending County, it is believed, cover the really effective methods for bending wood. Mr. Heywood, in addition to his large personal business, he having retained to his present time, though now in his 78th year, the supervision in all its details of the mechanical department of the business, including the adaptation and construction of new machinery and devices for greater economy and perfection of manufacture, has been very active in public enterprises. He represented the town in the convention for revising the constitution of the state in the year 1853, and in the lower branch of the Legislature in 1871. He has been a director in the Gardner National Bank and a trustee of the Gardner Savings Bank from the organization of those institutions. Mr. Heywood is not personally identified, by membership, with any church. A regular attendant, however, of the Congregational Church in Gardner, he is a liberal contributor to its current expenses, and responds cheerfully and liberally to the calls of benevolence. He is also largely interested in educational matters, and personally in the schools and has made liberal donations of land and otherwise, to the town in this direction. Respected in the highest degree for personal integrity and excellence of his character in all the relations of his life, his example is for good to the large number of his employees and to the community by which he has been long looked up to as its wealthiest and most influential citizen.
ii. Benjamin F. Heywood, b. 10 Jan 1802, Gardner, MA; d. 2 Apr 1843; m. Sarah Comee; engaged successfully since his majority as a trader, and part of the time, as a manufacturer of chairs.
iii. Walter Heywood, b. 13 Feb 1804, Gardner, MA; d. 1 Aug 1880, Fitchburg, MA; m.(1) 1828, Nancy Foster; d. 1 Aug 1861; m.(2) ----- -----, who survived him. Founder of the Walter Heywood Chair Company, of Fitchburg, and its president from the first, d. 1 Aug 1880, Fitchburg. Mr. Heywood was b. 13 Feb 1804, Gardner. He was a lineal descendant of one of the Pilgrim families who came over in the Mayflower. His grandfather, Seth Heywood, went from Sterling to Gardner about 1773, and was one of the first settlers of the town. During the Revolutionary war he was an officer in the continental army at Cambridge for nine months. He was a man of superior mind, his range of reading was very wide, and his memory was remarkably retentive. Mr. Heywood was the son of Benjamin and Mary (Whitney) Heywood, and was the third of a family of six sons. He attended the schools of his native town, and worked on his father's farm till nearly 20 years of age. In 1824 he began work as an apprentice in James M. Comee's chair shop in Fitchburg, but the same year he began business for himself, driving to Boston as often as he had a horse load finished, and selling them. The Fitchburg Sentinel says of Mr. Heywood, and the growth of the chair business in Fitchburg: In 1827 his brother, William commenced working with him and they employed from 15 to 20 hands. In 1830 he formed a partnership with three others, his brother, Benjamin F., who had been a merchant in Gardner, Moses Wood, afterward president of the Rollstone Bank, and James W. Gates. The firm carried on the chair business, and opened a store in Gardner for the sale of groceries and dry goods. They also established a store in Boston for for the sale of chairs. The business was successfully conducted in its various branches till about 1835, when the partnership was dissolved, Messrs. Wood and Gates retiring from the firm, and Mr. Heywood severed his relation with the store at Boston. A new company was formed, consisting of Levi, Benjamin F., Walter and William Heywood and W. R. Carnes. A large shop was erected on land now occupied by the factories of Heywood Brothers & Company, and the company entered into the manufacture of chairs on an extensive scale. In 1841 Walter Heywood sold his interest in the business and removed to Fitchburg, in company with Leander P. Comee he, in 1842, built the block on Main street more recently known as Sprague & Comee's block, and in 1842 the firm opened a store for the sale of dry goods, groceries, hardware and other merchandise at the salesrooms now occupied by L. Sprague & Company. In the fall of 1844 the firm hired a part of the "Old Red Mill" on West street, since used as a cotton factory by H. W. Pitts & Son, and commenced to manufacture chairs, employing about ten hands. In 1846 the chair business was removed to the upper story of a new building which Alvah Crocker had erected on Water street, on the spot now occupied by the Fitchburg Steam Engine Company's shop. This shop was burned 7 Dec 1849, and the firm lost heavily by the fire. The partnership was then dissolved, and Mr. Heywood directed his whole attention to the manufacture of chairs. Mr. Crocker erected a new building, 130 x 40 feet and three stories high, on the site of the burned shop, and Mr. Heywood hired the whole of the new building. In 1852 he received as partners Alton Blodgett who had entered his employ in 1833, and who continued a member of the company until his death, 19 Sep 1878; Lovell Williams, still a member of the company, and George E. Towne, who continued with the company until 1874, when he disposed of his interest to H. A. Blood. G. H. Spencer, the present superintendnet of the works, was admitted to the firm in 1864. Soon after the new company was formed they erected two large buildings in the rear of the shop, on land leased of Mr. Crocker, and with increased facilities they greatly enlarged their business. In 1856 the firm opened a foreign trade, which eventually extended to England and the continent of Europe, the West Indies, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, China and Japan. The Walter Heywood Chair Company was organized as a stock company under a special act of the legislature, 31 May 1869, with a capital of $240,000. On the night of 21 Jul 1870, the most destructive conflagration that ever visited Fitchburg laid the entire establishment in ruins. Fortunately the loss on the chair company's property was fully covered by insurance, and preparations were made shortly after the fire to rebuild the works on a scale unprecedented in this branch of manufactures. The location of this important industry excited much interest. A lot of nine acres on River street was at length purchased, and the present commodious buildings were erected. At present the company employs 300 hands besides seaters, and a capital to the amount of between $600,000 and $700,000 is required. The company has mills for preparing stock at Barton, Vermont, and has stores at New York and Boston for the sale of their products. As the result of close application to business Mr. Heywood accumulated a handsome property. He made large investments in the manufacturing interests of the city, and his counsel was sought in the management of concerns in which he was interested. He was formerly one of the largest stockholders in the Putnam Machine Company, and has been a director since 1867. In 1866 he purchased an interest in the Fitchburg Iron Foundry, and at his death was senior member of the firm Heywood, Wilson & County. He has been a director of the Fitchburg Machine Company since 1870, and was a partner in the Fitchburg Machine Works since the company was organized in 1877. He was a director of the Burleigh Rock Drill Company since its organization in 1867, a director of the Fitchburg State or National Bank for 37 years, a trustee of the Fitchburg Savings Bank from its organization, 12 May 1846, till June 21, 1877. He was also town treasurer of Gardner from 1834 till his removal to Fitchburg in 1841. He retained his vigor to a remarkable degree, and his mind was clear and active till a few days previous to his death. His success in business was the growth of patient years of toil rather than any series of brilliant exploits. He was no adventurer in doubtful projects, but his energies and his counsels were always in the line of discretion and prudence. If ever his judgment was waived in business matters, it was generally observed in the end that his views were sound and reliable, and would have yielded the largest measure of success. He was plain and unostentatious, solving his problems by a careful process of reasoning, rather than by jumping at conclusions. He was conservative, persevering, yet energetic, and thorough in everything he undertook. From the one-horse load of chairs which he made in 1824 his business grew until he was president of the largest chair manufacturing establishment in the world. He established a reputation for integrity which was world wide and commanded the confidence of the leading houses in his line of business in all quarters of the globe. The Heywood chairs are as familiarly known in Africa, Australia and South America as in Boston, New York or San Francisco. Mr. Heywood was fortunate in calling around him a class of men who rendered great assistance in the management of the extensive business. His associates, with few exceptions, grew up with the business under his training. He leaves a widow, also two daughters, Mrs. William O. Brown and Mrs. D. A. Corey. His first wife, whom he m. 1828, d. 1 Aug 1861, just 19 years previous to his decease.
iv. William Heywood, b. 9 Nov 1808; d. 10 Jan 1874, Boston, MA; m. Frances Shuttleworth; he had resided in Boston, MA, since 1830, and had been engaged in business there and in Charlestown, with success till 1855, in which year he retired from business.
v. Seth Heywood, b. 12 Nov 1812; m. 11 Feb 1836, Emily Wright; resided Gardner, MA.
vi. Charles Heywood, b. 10 Mar 1818; d. 10 Sep 1824.

Census

  • 1800, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA: Benjn. Haywood, 1 male 26-44 and 1 female 26-44.
  • 1810, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA: Haywood, Benja., 1 male over 45, 1 male 26-44, 4 males 0-9, 1 female over 45, 2 females 26-44, and 1 female 0-9.
  • 1820, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA: Benj. Haywood, 2 males over 45, 2 males 18-25, 1 male 16-17, 1 male 10-15, 2 males 0-9, and 1 female over 45; 1 engaged in agriculture.
  • 1830, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA: Benj. Heywood, 1 male 60-69, 1 male 20-29, 1 male 15-19, and 1 female 50-59.
  • 1840, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA: Benjamin Haywood, 1 male 60-69, 1 male 20-29, 1 female 60-69, and 1 female 30-39; 2 engaged in agriculture.
  • 1850: not found.
  • 1860, Gardner, Worcester Co., MA:

-- 154 J. M. Bryan 48 M - Chair Manuf. $1400 Massachusetts Sarah " 46 F - " Hellen " 17 F - " Attended school Mary Hayward 87 F - "

References

1.^  "Mary [Whitney], d. William and Mary, born at Lincoln, Apr. 11, 1773," according to Franklin P. Rice, ed., Vital Records of Winchendon, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1909).

2.^  "Mary [Whitney], d. W[illia]m and w., bp. Apr. 18, 1773. C.R.1," according to Vital Records of Lincoln, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1908).

3.^  "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 158, page 221.

4.^  "Polley [Whitney] and Benjamin Haywood of Gardner, int. Sept. 21, 1799," according to Winchendon Vital Records.

5.^  "Polley [Whitney] of Winchendon and Benjamin Heywood, int. Oct. 7, 1799," according to Franklin P. Rice, ed., Vital Records of Gardner, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1907).

Copyright © 2008, 2009, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group

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