My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES E. HERRICK, a machinist and manufacturer in Northampton, was born here, January 17, 1843, son of Webster and Melissa (Strong) Herrick.

His father, Webster Herrick, was born November 7, 1811, in Sangerfield, Oneida County, N.Y., but was reared in Worthington, Mass. From there, when a lad of fifteen years, he came to Northampton to learn the cabinet-maker’s trade. He was one of four children born to Joseph and Jerusha (Parsons) Herrick, of Worthington. His father died in early life; and his mother subsequently married a Mr. Stowell, by whom she reared another family of children. She died in Peru, Berkshire County, at the venerable age of ninety-six years. Webster Herrick became very expert, almost an artist, in his cabinet work. Some of his handiwork is seen in the pulpit, communion table, and the chairs of the Edwards Church, which was dedicated in 1833. He travelled for some time, working at his trade when the opportunity offered. He was in Charleston, S. C., in 1834, and in South America in 1835 and 1836. Returning North he opened a machine shop on the site of the Lamb Wire Works, Northampton, in 1840. He remained there fourteen years, after which he built the large brick shop where his son, the subject, Charles E., carries on his business. He did a general line of mechanical and machine work, putting up one of the very first circular saw-mills in Massachusetts. He erected saw-mills in many different States of the Union, building about seven hundred in all, one year making as many as twenty-five to go South, in the interest of the American Machine Works of Springfield, Mass. He was married in 1840 to Melissa Strong, who died January 25, 1876, on the night of the Northampton Bank robbery, leaving but one child, Charles E., the subject of this sketch. Her husband survived her many years, dying August 2, 1892. He was a man of high moral principles and a strong advocate of the temperance cause. He was very patriotic and was prevented from taking an active part in the Civil War only by his lameness, from which he suffered from his boyhood. Both he and his wife were esteemed members of the First Church.

Charles E. Herrick had excellent educational advantages; but he did not choose to avail himself of them, preferring to enter his father’s workshop, where he might exercise his mechanical talent and ingenuity. Succeeding to his father’s shop and trade, he has continued the business, doing general jobbing and making a specialty of paper-folding machines and other devices.

The union of Mr. Herrick with Emma W., daughter of Roswell and Roxana (Hunt) Hubbard, of this city, was celebrated in October, 1864. They had two children: Edward W. and Annie. Edward W., who was graduated from the Boston School of Technology in 1888, is a mechanical engineer in New York City. Annie married L. B. Cipeland, of Omaha, Neb.; and they have one daughter. The mother of Mrs. Herrick was a daughter of Luther and Eunice (Alvord) Hunt. She was a finely educated woman, being a graduate of the Ipswich Academy, and afterward a teacher in the Bridge Street School and later in schools of Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Ala. Of her union with Mr. Hubbard three daughters were born, namely: Anna, who died at the age of ten years; Helen, who died when fourteen years old; and Emma W., wife of Mr. Herrick. She was for many years a singer in the choir of the Congregational church, having a very sweet and flexible voice. Mr. Hubbard was prominent in local affairs, and served as a member of the legislature. His wife outlived him many years, dying in 1892, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. Herrick occupy the house at 20 Greene Street, in which her mother lived for upward of thirty years. Mrs. Herrick, who is an accomplished and cultivated lady, was educated at the Maplewood Institute in Pittsfield, and has inherited the musical talent of her mother, being a fine pianist and, before she lost her health, a beautiful soprano singer.