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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published by Biographical Review Publishing Company in 1896.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HON. HENRY A. KIMBALL, Mayor of Northampton, whose portrait is herewith presented, was born in Windham, Windham County, Conn., in what is now the town of Scotland, May 3, 1842. He comes of good old Colonial stock early transplanted from the mother country, being a direct descendant of Richard Kimball, who with his wife Ursula and several children came from Ipswich, England, in the ship "Elizabeth" in 1634, was admitted a freeman at Watertown, Mass., in 1635, removed to Ipswich, Mass., in 1637, and died there in 1675. Many of his posterity are living at this day in Essex County. The Kimballs of Windham County, Connecticut, claim Richard, Jr., born in 1623, second son of the immigrant, as their progenitor, Pelatiah Kimball, one of his lineage, having removed to that locality at an early date, following the footsteps of a brother, a third Richard, of whom he bought a farm which has now been in the family about two hundred years. His son, Pelatiah, Jr., born in 1739, who married Mary Crowell, died March 1, 1823, aged eighty-four years. Seven of his nine children grew to maturity.

James Kimball, son of Pelatiah and Mary, and grandfather of Mayor Kimball, was born in Windham, Conn., on July 15, 1772; he passed his entire life on the ancestral homestead, and died on April 20, 1843. He and his wife, Betsy Bingham Kimball, reared three sons — Anson, Albert, and John — and two daughters. Anson, who became a well-known teacher, a Justice of the Peace, and a farmer, died in 1885. John, the only one of the three now living, is a prosperous farmer in Newark Valley, Tioga County, N.Y. He and his wife are remarkably bright and active at the age of eighty-three years. They have two daughters, and a son who is a surgeon in the United States Army. Albert Kimball was born on December 10, 1808, and died in 1885, having been throughout his active life extensively engaged in farming on the patrimonial acres. He married Melissa Woodward, of Canterbury, Conn., who still resides at the family homestead with her eldest son, James D. Kimball.

Henry A., who is the fourth-born and second son of the six children of Albert and Melissa (Woodward) Kimball, passed his early boyhood upon the farm and acquired a good education in the district schools. He subsequently taught school several terms both in Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1869 he entered the employ of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad as clerk in the freight office at New Haven, and after remaining in that capacity for two years was clerk to the superintendent of the Air Line Railway for one year, and then held for several years the position of general freight and ticket agent, also acting as superintendent. Mr. Kimball was connected with the road until 1879, when he moved to Holyoke, Mass., and engaged in the coal business, having yards there and also in this city. In 1881 he disposed of his interest in Holyoke, and since that time, in company with Frank W. Cary, has been engaged in the same trade in Northampton, conducting a large and profitable business.

Mr. Kimball has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and, being a man abundantly fitted for the discharge of important trusts, has been called to fill various positions of responsibility. He was a member of the Connecticut legislature in 1869, and of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the years 1888, 1889, and 1890, and during the years 1891, 1892, and 1893 held a seat in the State Senate. Although a Democrat in politics, he was chosen from a Republican district, and has been twice elected Mayor of the city of Northampton, giving the people a thoroughly able and progressive administration. He is a Director of the Hampshire County National Bank, of the Hampshire County Savings Bank, also of the Norwood Engineering Company; and for the past five years he has been President of the New England Coal Company of Hartford, Conn. In Masonry he has advanced to the Knight Templar's degree.

He was first married in the month of October, 1863, to Miss Mary T. Williams, who survived but two years; and he wedded for his second wife, on October 21, 1867, Hannah M. Williams, a sister of his first wife, both of them having been pupils at the school where he taught. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball occupy a very pleasant residence at 57 Prospect Street, which he erected in 1883, and are socially very popular.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published in 1896. 

View additional Hampshire County, Massachusetts family biographies here: Hampshire County, Massachusetts Biographies

View a map of 1901 Hampshire County, Massachusetts here: Hampshire County Massachusetts Map

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